Meet the Sky - Review

Meet the Sky

By: McCall Hoyle

Publication: September 4th 2018 by Blink

256 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--From award-winning author McCall Hoyle comes a new young adult novel, Meet the Sky, a story of love, letting go, and the unstoppable power of nature.

It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophie’s dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophie’s older sister, Meredith, barely able to walk at all.

With nothing but pain in her past, all Sophie wants is to plan for the future—keep the family business running, get accepted to veterinary school, and protect her mom and sister from another disaster. But when a hurricane forms off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and heads right toward their island, Sophie realizes nature is one thing she can’t control.

After she gets separated from her family during the evacuation, Sophie finds herself trapped on the island with the last person she’d have chosen—the reckless and wild Finn Sanders, who broke her heart freshman year. As they struggle to find safety, Sophie learns that Finn has suffered his own heartbreak; but instead of playing it safe, Finn’s become the kind of guy who goes surfing in the eye of the hurricane. He may be the perfect person to remind Sophie how to embrace life again, but only if their newfound friendship can survive the storm.

Praise for McCall Hoyle’s debut novel, The Thing with Feathers:

“Beautiful, touching, and bursting with hope.”

Pintip Dunn, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author

“Heartfelt and affecting. Hoyle tells a familiar story, but does so in a voice that is rarely heard, and that makes all the difference.”

Leah Thomas, William C. Morris Award finalist and author of Because You’ll Never Meet Me and Nowhere Near You

“The inspiring story of one girl’s struggle not to be defined by her illness, The Thing with Feathers soars as it explores what it means to live—and love—without fear.”

Kathryn Holmes, author of How It Feels to Fly

“A refreshing, quality debut—meaningfully woven and beautifully engaging, from the first page to the last.”

YA Books Central (5 stars)

The description of Meet the Sky is accurate, but the vibe it gave me was a good bit different than the book turned out to be. Sophie has really stepped up since the accident. Her dad's guilt caused him to turn to alcohol and eventually leave. Sophie's had to take on so much extra responsibility in order to keep the business and family together. Because of that she's really stopped taking any additional risks. And sometimes even dreaming of the future is a risk.

Finn has suffered his own traumatic events in life. But he's taken on a different perspective than Sophie. He wants to live each moment to the fullest...even if that means living a little dangerously. Finn's attitude frustrates Sophie even more because he can come off as careless and considering he stood her up for their freshman school dance, he's the last person she'd want to be stuck with in a hurricane.

I've been a little tired of hurricane stories after Katrina. Despite hurricanes occurring yearly and other areas being devastated by them, for some reason Hurricane Katrina stories dominated the market there for a while. I'm thankful we're likely past these stories. However, the hurricane stories that I've read haven't usually focused on a character riding out the storm so much as dealing with the aftermath. Living in Central Alabama, we've ridden out several hurricanes in my life. From Opal, Ivan, Katrina, Irma, and others. As far inland as we are, we don't usually get the brunt of the devastation even though it isn't unusual for these storms to still be quite large by the time they reach us. Regardless, I both liked and disliked this aspect. I liked it for it's uniqueness, but at the same time it felt unrealistic--even though many people are affected by these types of storms.

Favorite quotes:

-I never would have wished for this hurricane. I never would have wished for a flat tire or a horse to be caught in a fence and injured. But I can learn from these experiences.

-One minute the wind blows, knocking down buildings. The next minute it's drying puddles after the storm. One minute it's blowing families apart. The next it's blowing a handful of random people together, teaching them to work together and opening their eyes to new ways of thinking.

I read Meet the Sky quickly which is always a good thing in my book. I was invested in the characters, the lessons they learn, the struggles they had, and their relationships with one another. I initially thought to give Meet the Sky 4 Stars, but after a few day's reflection, I'm not sure that this will be a book that sticks with me and I remember much about after a few months. Ultimately, Meet the Sky gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read Meet the Sky? What did you think? Let me know!