The Sky Inside

Things that are flawless about this book: the cover. And I don't mean that as a jab, the cover is just very awesome. <br /><br />The story? eh. It had some neat ideas - actually, it had too many neat ideas jammed all together so that none of them were very successfully explored, at least to the lengths I would have liked. It was a jumble of partially developed plotlines, so much so that I kept expecting at least some of them to come up again. The book even opens with a foreshadowy-seeming game show scene that I spent essentially the whole time expecting to come back in a much larger way than it did, with a simple comment of explanation. <br /><br />This should have been a) 300 pages longer, b) a series where not all of this elements were brought up right away, or c) edited effectively.

I can't believe I read this whole book. Okay, so I started skimming in the middle. But still.<br /><br />This book sounded so promising: a boy grows up in these domes that have been built by the government to shield its population from the terribleness in the outside world. His younger sister is one of the Wonder Babies (no one has children the old fashioned way, they all order them and they are delivered by a machine called a stork) that are too smart for their own good and ask too many questions about the world. Well, the government can't have these kids thinking and asking the wrong questions, so they decide to round up and "recall" the Wonder Babies, and the boy decides he needs to venture outside the dome to discover the truth about where they've been taken and the world as a whole.<br /><br />Sounds interesting, right? The problem is, the author did not carry off the plot well at all. So many supposedly pivotal moments, I couldn't even understand what was going on, she was so vague in the description. I even read certain passages multiple times, hoping to understand! The pacing was another problem - it starts off slow and nothing truly exciting ever really happens. Minor characters all sound the same, and I never really got emotionally invested in the plot.<br /><br />For all this, however, there are some interesting things. For example, the boy gets a "dog" from his parents as a present (all animals are really robots) and the "dog" turns out to be a modified robot that can do all sorts of illegal things... but it's never explained how the dog happened to be modified or why it was given to him. I felt like the author thought, "This would be interesting; who cares how it happened?" <br /><br />I kept reading because despite the problems, I liked the premise of the book and wanted to know how it ended (though I was really left hanging on a lot of it... like the dog question...). Unfortunately, the ending was just as much of a let down. Instead of having the boy "earn" the answers of what is going on, he's basically just told by someone else how it works. And by that point, I didn't care. <br /><br />Definitely not a book I'd recommend to anyone; it was incredibly disappointing. I won't be picking up anything else by this author!

Martin lives in HM1, a seemingly perfect world. But when a stranger comes to town to take away the latest shipment of children, the new Wonder Babies, Martin wonders why no one is asking any questions and why no one call tell him where they've taken his little sister, Cassie, a Wonder Baby. So he sets out to find the answers for himself.<br /><br />When I first read the inside cover of this book I was really intrigued and couldn't wait to start it. The first 40 pages were really good, they reminded me of The City of Ember (Jeane DuPrau) and The Giver (Lois Lowry), two of my favorite books. As the plot progressed though, I found my attention wavering and slowly it lost a little bit of its likeness to the aforementioned books. I liked the concept of the story and found myself interested and wanting to know what would happen next. I thought this was a pretty cool science fiction story for juvenile readers. I was tingling with excitement as I read the first couple of pages, but some of the luster fell off when I got to the middle and neared the end. Still, it was a good book and I am looking forward to reading the sequel when it comes out.<br /><br />*Taken from my book reviews blog: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2008/04/book-review-49-sky-inside-by-clare-b.html">http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2008...</a>

The Sky Inside reminded me a little bit of the Giver, but with more technology and not as much finesse. The majority of the story takes place in a city built under a large metal dome and all the mysteries that come with such a location.<br /><br />I felt that there was a bit too much time spent on half hearted attempts at world-building (that didn't quite do it for me) and not enough time spent actually answering the questions about the world. There is a big spiel at the end explaining the world, but I would have liked to see more of that worked into the plot somehow. It ended up feeling like a recap for the kid main character who wasn't exactly getting it.<br /><br />I also wonder why this is considered young adult. I guess because of the age of the main character, who is a teen, but it just felt like it should have been geared toward a younger audience. Anything this teenager did in the book could have, in context, been pulled off by a ten year old. To me, it just seemed like something I might have read around that age.<br /><br />The reason I say this is because there was no romantic storyline, which is extremely prominent in most young adult, and there wasn't really violence, gore, or other intense scenes that are usually aimed at the teen market. There was no suspense to speak of either.<br /><br />Overall, I'd give an A for concept. But a D for the execution of it. Great premise, just not very exciting or enthralling.

I was actually impressed with this one book , at the begginning it felt more of likea juvenile book but as I kept listening to it the themes changed and it became more complex. I liked the world that the author created and the compexity behind it . At some points it gelt more like it was a cautonary tale about technology but it turned out to be a good book towards the end. looking forward to reading the sequel .

i'm only giving this two stars because it has some interesting plot points. really, it was more like a one-star book. this book takes on way more than it can handle in the number of pages it contains. it's supposedly a futuristic "what-if" sort of tale, but it goes in so many different directions that i just found it irritating. so these people live in a big (literal) bubble and apparently, most of them do not work and are paid to stay home and buy things, thereby contributing to the economy by consuming. (interesting point... could be a book by itself!) no one gives birth anymore, children are created/designed/engineered and sent to you after you fill out a ton of paperwork (also interesting). there are no living pets in the dome, except for one boy who has captured a rat that somehow infiltrated the bubble--the rest of the pets are computers that can change their appearance to be whatever you want them to be. (interesting) there are all sorts of interesting questions--what exists outside the bubble? what happened to the rest of humanity? who is this "president" dude that comes on the television each morning and presents the whole population with a topic to vote (instantly with remote controls) on and do they actually count the votes? but because all of these interesting points are crammed into this short book, along with a pied-piper storyline (which i found very disconcerting--fairytales in futuristic novel?!) and flat dialogue (the characters say "duh!" a lot)....i thought the book had a lot of unfulfilled potential.

I'm clearly in the vast minority here, but wow, this was actually painful for me to read. I thought the dialogue was terrible, the characters flat and uninteresting, and all the actions and interactions felt forced and unrealistic. I couldn't connect to any of it. It's been compared to <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/3032314.The_Other_Side_of_the_Island" title="The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman" rel="noopener">The Other Side of the Island</a>, and yes, I felt the exact same way about that one--it's another of those stories for kids and young adults where the language feels really oversimplified and dumbed down, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. I couldn't finish it.

Wow, okay. <br />I didn’t like The Hunger Games, and couldn’t get into Divergent. I am not a fan of all the popular dystopias, but dystopia is my favorite genre. I was desperately looking for a truly good dystopia when I stumbled upon The Sky Inside. And wow, did it fulfill my expectations! <br /><br />What did I like about it? I loved Martin’s dystopian world, and all the details associated with it. While the characters were somewhat one-dimensional, they were developed to a point where you did care about what happened to Cassie and the other characters. For me, it is the details that make a dystopia, and this book was rich in descriptions and details for every last thing. I really enjoyed the way this novel portrayed kids hating having to watch television, and there were several laugh-out-loud moments for me. The bots and “toys” were a picture of dystopia and written well. The mystery behind it all had me turning page after page, wondering what exactly would happen next. I won’t spill any more details for all of you who plan to read it, but let me say I found it amazing.<br /><br />On the downside, I found the plot somewhat hard to keep track of. The author’s ideas were very complex, and she seemed to have trouble describing and putting to paper (or so it seemed), and I found myself, on few occasions, rereading page after page to find out what exactly Martin is doing, and why. It did not affect the whole scheme of things, but it was annoying to having to keep rereading things. The plot proved to be somewhat predictable as well.<br /><br />As for Martin as a character, I felt he did not truly feel enough; <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="2258d12b-6554-4011-ab60-11df5bea54cd" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="2258d12b-6554-4011-ab60-11df5bea54cd"> such as when he steps out into the open and sees the skies for the first time, or when he finally finds Cassie. </label> Also, the ending was not at all what I was wanting, or expecting. It was waaaaaaay too simple and easy. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="c1f6b8d9-fe6f-43b9-a193-c646371905e2" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="c1f6b8d9-fe6f-43b9-a193-c646371905e2"> Martin is convinced—along with us readers— that Motley, the guy who took his sister away to a “school”, has not taken her to a school, but to a place to die. So Martin embarks on this epic journey until he reaches the so-called school, and who knew? It actually was just a school, just like Motley had said. </label><br />Yet, the explanations were well-written and easy to understand.<br /><br />On the other hand, I did like the ending in the sense that it was open for a sequel without being a cliffhanger or leaving too many things unanswered. While enough is resolved so we are content, enough is left open to be resolved in the sequel, so even though the ending is abrupt, we are satisifed. (Well, despite that sudden need to read the sequel.) <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="6a57ba83-99cb-4278-8002-0eba9259b105" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="6a57ba83-99cb-4278-8002-0eba9259b105"> What about the game shows? The bots? Government agents and such? Etc, etc? What about all that?</label><br /><br />I will note there were several, maybe-too-close similarities to the Giver—escaping into the true world + climate in particular. However, that was really the only thing that stuck out to me as “Giver!”, and it was easy to overlook; overall, I enjoyed it.
<br />To summarize, even though there were things I disliked, the good things outweighed the bad things by far. Very intriguing, suspenseful, and just overall an amazing book. If you are a dystopian-loving person like me, but you won’t take just any old dystopia (example, you don’t like Hunger Games), then this is for you. Clean, good topic, and no physical violence, I’d recommend this for all ages. FIVE STARS!!!!<br /><br />P.S. I’ve seen other people compare it to The Other Side of the Island (Allegra Goodman) and I will say, after reading the reviews, the similiarities are DEFINITELY there. However, I completely overlooked it during the read and it didn’t even enter my mind. I am a HUGE fan of Island, and this didn’t even strike me as copying. Just reassuring all you Island fans out there :)<br /><br /><br />Like my reviews? Follow my blog:<br /><a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://jcbuchanan.com">http://jcbuchanan.com</a>

Didn't particularly care for the narrator and for a short YA book this seemed to take forever for me to finish. I've read The Giver which has similar themes but a literary, fairytale quality to it, and The Feed which takes the futuristic bubble suburb idea to the extreme. This story falls somewhere between the two in terms of the dystopic nature of the future society but wasn't as well written or clever as either of those. Lots of good ideas but I just felt it failed to deliver really - too many plot holes or convenient but unexplained answers (like the fact the main character only manages to do what he does because of his robot dog - a modified super clever dog that is technically illegal for him to have in the first place - but how it came to be modified or into his possession is just left as a huge blank). IDK, might be Ok for a "young" YA reader I guess.

This book reminds me of why I enjoy Star Trek. (I know, Scott, I've just sunk lower in your eyes.) As someone who likes to ponder the future, I appreciate the central message of Star Trek, which is that mankind is essentially good -- and the best is yet to come. Sadly, you don't get that kind of optimism in most sci fi. This book is another one of those futuristic distopia nightmare stories. I only finished it because I felt compelled to find out what happens to the characters, but then the ending was so dissatisfying I was upset I bothered. If you're going to write a book in this tired genre, you better include some insightful social commentary or at least give us something that feels even slightly fresh. This book does neither.