I'm trying to stay away from hyped books because they keep breaking my heart (looking at you Divergent and ACOTAR), but Sky in the Deep WOULD NOT STOP popping up on my Instagram feed. That and my dragon friend was 1000% obsessed with it and already started doing cosplay photos for the book (it doesn't come out until the end of April). The publishing company loved her enthusiasm for the book so much that they sent her an ARC, and dragon friend rules state I get to read it too.
Let's just be honest here: The book gets all the stars. I seriously don't know how I'm going to be able to function later this year as I'm already freaking out about the gloriously amazing books I've read in ONE MONTH. How does this happen? I feel like I've already read my Top Pick for the year.
Anyway on to Eelyn because she needs an award.
Adrienne Young, the author of this book, needs an enormous amount of cookies and prizes for this book. She deserves it. For a semi-fantasy world (basically just a Viking story that isn't called "Viking."), this book felt so accurate to how Vikings behave. The slaughter, the bizarre "My god hates your god, so I'ma kill you" mentality of feuds, and the treatment of each other. Eelyn is badass, there is no mistaking that, but she's not the odd one in this story. Vikings were super odd in their time because they allowed women to fight (which has, for whatever reason, been a huge no-no), so Eelyn fighting and being good at it is no surprise to this culture. I loved watching her character grow from being so hardheaded and "YOU ARE MY ENEMY" to actually sitting back and thinking "Why?" Because literally no one else does, and all of these people keep fighting and dying for literally no reason, and the vikings were SO good at that. (I love my heritage, don't get me wrong. Vikings did have stupid moments, though.)
The plot twists in this book. Oh, the plot twists. You get thrown into the mess VERY early on, with so much changing constantly because spoilers. I'm actually really shocked with how they did the synopsis of this book because they managed to tell you what happened with no spoilers, and it doesn't even really give you an idea of what might happen to shock you, so I liked that. Going into this, I had a rough idea that Eelyn and her brother would meet up and he was killing her kin or something, and then she had to go on some epic journey with that dude named Fiske and....that's all I've got. This book was SO much more than that.
Fiske grew on my so much. I hated him. H A T E D him. I wanted him dead, and then I didn't and I looked back and scratched my head because I was so confused why that change had happened. Iri, her brother, meh? I'm still not a huge fan of him, but I get why/what he did, so I won't say anything else. Inge was amazing and even though I have a great mom, can I have Inge too? And Fiske's little brother whose name just fled from my mind was the sweetest squishy. I know he's supposed to be a viking, but he's a Hufflepuff all the way and needs to be protected at all costs.
The family dynamics in this book made me jump around in joy. YA is notorious for there being dead/broken families, and no one rectifies or forgives, and the whole thing is kinda unbelievable because you have to forgive to heal and just yeah. Sky in the Deep showed families who loved one another completely, without fault. It was exactly what a family should be and we need more rep for great families because it's good for people to see that not every family is awful or broken or gone. Inge, Fiske, Iri, and the lil Hufflepuff are goals. Even Eelyn and her dad and Iri are so beautiful to see because despite what's going on or what happened in the past, they love one another unconditionally, and would readily die for the other or kill to protect them. Even Myra, who Eelyn's dad adopts as a second daughter, has that same connection with Eelyn and her dad. This has always been something about Vikings that has made me happy because even if you're some distant relative, they welcomed one another with open arms. No one does this anymore (at least here in America that I've seen).
The world in this was so spot on, I just can't even. I'm in love with the TV show Vikings, and as I'm reading Sky in the Deep, I feel like I'm watching a lil Lagertha climb her way up to adulthood. The world is filled with sweeping mountains covered in snow and trees, and fjords with fish and rushing, freezing water. I can see it all so well because it sounds like Scandinavia and those regions of the world.
I also really loved the fact that this is a stand-alone, or maybe it'll have a sequel later on, but this works so well as a single novel that I love it. Almost no fantasy/action books are novels nowadays. All are series, and almost all are trilogies, so you have a story dragged out over multiple books when sometimes they only need one big book or two medium-ish books to complete the series.
Anyway, everyone must read this because it is perfect.
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Popular Highlights in this book
“If you go back to Hylli, I want to come with you.” I twisted the corner of the blanket in my hands. “What about your family?” “I’ll go where you go.” This time, the words were unyielding.Highlighted by 592 Kindle readers- “This kind of bond is formed when a soul is broken. It’s formed through pain, loss, and heartbreak. They’re bound by something deeper than we can see. And that made Iri family.”Highlighted by 563 Kindle readers
- He smiled at the corner of his mouth. “Because you have fire in your blood.”Highlighted by 464 Kindle readers
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A forever favorite
I adore this book so much that I’m not sure I could accurately express my love for it.I’ve now read it multiple times and I’ve loved it more each time. It is my favorite enemies to lovers read but oddly I think that’s because it is so much more than just an enemies to lovers story. So many relationships are challenged and evolve throughout this book (siblings, friends, parents and children) and it is absolutely beautiful.Young explores how the things we’re raised and conditioned to believe impact us. How they effect our choices and our interactions with other people. How those things become so deeply rooted in us and how difficult it can be to face and examine them when they’re challenged. She does a wonderful job of showing how this can be much harder for some people than others and I love all of it. LOVE it. ♥️I can’t leave this without saying that I am blown away by Adrienne’s writing every time I pick up one of her books. She pulls at my heart in all the right ways and develops the characters and settings perfectly every time. They are not long and not wordy but somehow I know exactly what every single space in each book looks like and I’m in love with both the main and side characters always. I don’t know how she does it.content: romance - one closed door scene.
Top reviews from other countries
Anallely
A really good book
Reviewed in Mexico on March 5, 2020
Anallely
Reviewed in Mexico on March 5, 2020
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