valoise

I wanted to start off the Review-A-Thon with one of my favorite books of the year!

Our protagonist, Skye, is recuperating from her latest trip (she owns a travel business and is away most of the year) as usual at her friend's bed and breakfast in Philadelphia, her hometown. She's then found by her childhood friend's daughter, Vicky-- Skye donated her egg to said childhood friend twelve years ago, the friend recently died, Vicky found out about the egg donation and wanted to meet her biological mom. But Skye is a disaster adult, perpetually alone, and seemingly totally unequipped to deal with a grieving child. OR IS SHE? Laughs and love ensue!

I absolutely adored this book. What stands out the most to me was that it was really funny. I laughed aloud at several parts, and when I subsequently let my girlfriend read the passage I was just on, she would laugh too, despite having no or little context. I think the author fits in a bunch of humorous scenarios that are also executed well with effective prose. (Many other would-be-funny books either only have funny turns of phrase, rather than funny scenarios, or funny scenarios that don't come off very funny due to how they're written.) I don't often have a good laugh when I read these days, so being so amused almost the whole time I read this was a very pleasant surprise.

Second most noteworthy element of the book to me was how real the world and characters felt. Even characters that only had a few lines were rendered in such a way that I could totally imagine seeing them in real life. I think it's unusual to have an author so effective in sketching such vivid character portraits with just a few words. This makes her similarly effective in conveying highly nuanced relationships and situations without needing to spell them out, since you can quickly grasp what each character is thinking and why they'd feel that way.

Third most noteworthy would be the sense of place. The entire book takes place near the protagonist's (and the author's) hometown of Philadelphia, and the love of Philadelphia really floods the pages, in a good way. And it ties in really well with the book's concept and message.

And lastly I have to say that it was a huge plus that the story majorly centers black queer women and their relationships which was such a breath of fresh air. Even though most books I read have non-white characters now, it often feels tokenistic; white American cultural expectations are typically still assumed as the default. Ditto for queer representation; in other books, it often feels like the author is just going down the list checking off boxes of identities to include. Not so for Skye Falling! It feels like a picture of actual life for a gay person who just naturally has a lot of queer people in their circle.

Overall, it felt that every part of this book was doing something: either it was being funny, or it gave you an important cue about the characters, or it conveyed some important element of the overarching themes. As a result I found it very engaging and an incredibly quick read.

There were a lot of elements to this book that often go over poorly for me, but I thought were executed perfectly in Skye Falling:

• Skye is very unlikable in a lot of ways. I tend to find it hard to read books with protagonists like her, but because of her strong narrative voice, you can't help but root for Skye in spite of all her frustrating qualities. The author also makes it easy to get in her head and understand why she acts the way she does.
• The narrative style is very modern, with Skye thinking in the first person in a very casual way. I often like this in books, but just as often it feels kind forced and annoying to read. I'm sure some people still wouldn't like it in Skye Falling, but I felt it was done in a very natural and easy to read way, and I actually really loved it.
• There's a sorta-side romance between Skye and another character; I often find romances in non-romance books to be distracting and shoehorned in, but it fit so naturally in Skye Falling and made it such a stronger book. There's layers!!
• There's pretty direct political discourse as voiced by the protagonist. I find that books that try to do this are often clumsy about it, and it either comes off painfully simplistic, unnatural, or uninterestingly written. In Skye Falling, there's a perfect resonance between Skye's personal issues and the story's political backdrop, so you can extrapolate ideas from the relationships-based plotline into real-life politics, or read into Skye's character and relationships using the political issues alluded to in the story.
• Related to the above, politically loaded books that are written well can be hard to read on an emotional level. Although the political and social issues touched on in the story are serious (police brutality, homophobia, transphobia, child abuse, parental death, gentrification), I would characterize it as primarily cathartic and uplifting.

My only real complaint about the book is that I thought the title and cover were terrible choices for the story. I don't think they fit the vibe at all. Maybe there'll be editions with a different cover at least in the future!

In conclusion: Skye Falling was a tightly written work with a simple but effective story that managed to include a surprising amount of nuance between the lines. Highlights are the humor, characters, and sense of place. Representation is a huge plus. Check it out!