Today I’m going to be talking about a super hyped YA novel just released in May of this year, in addition to a fun YA slasher (that’s right, I used fun and slasher together) by Stephanie Perkins, author of the popular Anna and the French Kiss series. That’s right, today is a good old-fashioned two-for-one.
No point keeping you waiting, so to quote Philip DeFranco, let’s just jump into it, shall we?
Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
So if you travel in the blogosphere or world of bookstagram to any extent, you’ve definitely heard of this book. Sky in the Deep was a very, very, very highly hyped debut novel from author Adrienne Young about a young Viking warrior named Eelyn. One day on the battlefield while fighting a rival clan, Eelyn comes face to face with her own brother, who she thought had died in battle years ago. When she attempts to reach him to talk to him during their next battle, Eelyn ends up getting kidnapped by the rival clan and taken back to their village, where a complex relationship evolves between her, her brother, and the family who took him in—including Fiske, his adoptive brother. When their village is raided by a ruthless group called the Herje and Eelyn gets word that the same clan attacked her home village as well, she, Fiske, and her brother embark on a treacherous mission to unite the two groups and fight back.
*sigh* Guys. This is another one of those cases where the book is so highly hyped and everyone is talking about it constantly and I get really excited about it and then I feel like I just…read a different book than everyone else, or totally missed something. I’m not saying it’s a bad book by any means. It is at times very well written. I am just not sure if I totally get the level of hype that was happening here. Did I hate it? No. Am I totally blasting through the roof screaming about how good it was? Also no.
I really liked the Viking aspect of the book, definitely. I love Vikings and Viking lore, and while the clans and locations don’t appear to be factual, you can tell the author definitely knows her stuff and did a great amount of research. Seeing the emphasis on the Viking culture was very cool, and it was especially refreshing to see a Viking YA book, which seems like something pretty different that hasn’t been done a ton of times before. I think that definitely contributed to the hype surrounding this book, because it’s always great to see something different that hasn’t been done to death bursting onto the scene.
Another thing I liked was that there were strong female characters in the book. Of course, in Viking culture, women were just as likely to train to be warriors as men were, so it was cool to see Eelyn and her best friend and fighting partner, Myra, as shield maidens. Even the healers in the village of their rival clan were pretty strong females. Though they weren’t warriors, they were clearly very confident in their role within the community and knew their worth and importance. It’s always good to see women represented in this way in fiction.
But, there were quite a few things I didn’t like, as well. I was a little let down that the main character, who I expected to be this total badass Viking warrior, literally got kidnapped within the first few chapters and then ended up kind of being at the mercy of the strong male characters in the book. I’m not saying every female characters needs to be a take charge badass—I realize not every character (or human being) has that type of personality and that’s OKAY. Really, it is. But when it’s a letdown is when you go into a book expecting the main character to be that type of person, and having seen all this hype that she’s that kind of person, and then she’s kind of… meh. It would have been cool if we got to see more of her actually being a warrior. She doesn’t seem to really lose her warrior spirit despite her circumstances, and actually almost stabs a guy for being inappropriate with her, but for a good majority of the book she seems to play second fiddle to the guys.
I was also a little annoyed by some of the logic in the book, even breeding totally unnecessary girl on girl hate at times. For example, when Eelyn discovers her brother is in this other clan now, after thinking that he had died in battle the last time their two clans fought each other, instead of thinking that he was adopted into this clan because he was left for dead and they obviously—for some reason—nursed him back to health, she sees him holding hands with a girl and tells herself that’s the reason he abandoned his family, and then Eelyn kind of dislikes the girl as a result.
Keeping in mind of course, that her brother was twelve when they thought he died. So. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I understand she’s upset and confused, but I just couldn’t follow the logic.
Speaking of logic, I’m also not sure I totally understand the draw for Eelyn to Fiske. It felt a little Stockholm Syndrome-y. It felt a lot Stockholm Syndrome-y, actually. In a generation where we all grew up obsessed with Beauty and the Beast (hi, guilty), maybe we overlook that in fiction, but I just didn’t really understand it. They barely seemed to have a connection at all. Are her only criteria must be a dude and must not be my brother?
I was also disappointed that the book just wasn’t more interesting. For a lot of it, it seemed like day to day life and kind of the same conversations going back and forth, back and forth, never really making any progress. Yes, it’s a quiet book, it’s understated writing. But again, I didn’t go into it expecting that after all the hype of RAWR BADASS FEMALE WARRIOR FIGHTING. I definitely expected there to be a lot more fighting and action in this book, especially from the way it was marketed and promoted and hyped.
I swear to you, I do not set out trying to dislike super popular books. I really don’t. I love Harry Potter, remember? And The Raven Boys and The Mortal Instruments and a ton of other popular books. But this one was pretty middle of the road. And I wish I could have loved it as much as everyone else did, but I guess it wasn’t in the cards for me. I also definitely think this was a pretty big case of the book falling victim to its own hype. Sometimes a book is just hyped so much that I go into it expecting something huge and exciting and when it turns out to be just kind of average, I’m sad it didn’t live up to all that hype.
To be fair, I’m sure it’s a lot of pressure for the book, too.
I’d give this one 2 ½ out of 5 stars, because that’s exactly half, and I half-liked it. Definitely not a new favorite, but if you want a kind of understated family drama that also includes some Viking culture references, it’s a good fit for that.
On to the next one, right?
There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
There’s Someone Inside Your House seems to be a departure from Perkins’s usual work. While I’ve never been particularly compelled to read her young adult contemporary romance novel, Anna and the French Kiss, or any of its follow ups, the plot (and, okay, that hot pink and black neon sign effect cover) of There’s Someone Inside Your House got my attention. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a slasher, let alone a YA slasher, and this one fits the bill.
This novel centers on Makani, a young woman who moved from Hawaii to Nebraska to live with her grandmother in order to escape a shady past that we only get hints at for about two-thirds of the book. But while living in Nebraska, Makani’s classmates begin getting picked off by a killer, who breaks into their homes (or catches them alone) and gruesomely murders them one by one—but not before messing with their heads first by moving their stuff around, making strange sounds, and generally making them feel like they’re going a little crazy. As more and more students are killed off, Makani and her friends begin trying to figure out the killer’s pattern and wonder who’s next—and if it might be them.
I was actually surprised by this in a different way from Sky in the Deep—I was surprised by how much I liked it. I had heard some negative things, but this book was actually a lot of fun. I’m a huge fan of classic slashers like Scream and Friday the 13th, so I’m kind of the perfect audience for this book.
The plot wasn’t anything super over the top or anything that hasn’t been done before, and it’s definitely not super scary, but there are some tense moments, a few little twists, and the killer actually didn’t end up being who I predicted it was going to be. It’s full of classic slasher moments that, despite being trope-y, I find to be a really fun send up for fans of horror, especially those of you who, like me, have a soft spot for the 80s and 90s teen slasher classics (which are essentially just a big basket of tropes drenched in fake blood, and that’s what makes them so awesome).
The big reveal of what had happened in Makani’s past was…kind of disappointing, because it wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be and I felt we had some red herrings leading us to believe something totally different than how it ended up, and some of the relationships between characters (such as Makani and her mom) were superficial at best, so I didn’t love everything about it. These are some of the same drawbacks we see in a lot of gorey horror or slashers, though, as much of the emphasis seems to be on the horrific murders and unwinding the mystery of why and how they’re happening. But these dislikes definitely didn’t ruin the book for me.
Is this, in my opinion, a groundbreaking literary masterpiece full of plot twists you’ve never seen before in your life that will absolutely blow your mind? Nah, not at all. But it’s still a really fun, fast read that I think is great for fans of slasher flicks or YA horror without a supernatural twist (which is admittedly sometimes hard to find). I also have to give it props for having a diverse cast (Makani herself is mixed race and one of her BFFs is trans) and for portraying some realistic representations of young adult relationships.
I give this one four out of five stars. It wasn’t perfect, but I liked it a lot and really enjoyed reading it! If you’re looking for something that will have you look over your shoulder maybe once or twice and give you flashbacks to the golden days of Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich (you know, before he was Jughead’s dad), this one might be a good choice for you.
What is everyone else reading? Are you enjoying it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! You know I’d love to talk. <3