Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Skye Falling

Thanks to Random House for the free copy of this book.

- Let's have some queer screaming about SKYE FALLING! This book is real queer and messy in the best way! Lesbian, bisexual, and trans rep among the main characters, and everyone is out and feels at home with their identities! Love it!
- This book can be pretty heavy, especially when Skye is looking back at her childhood. But it's also super funny, keeping it from becoming a plodding recitation of traumas, as books about messy adults often are.
- It's wonderful to see a book full of queer adults. So often in books - especially non-genre fiction adult novels - you get a queer person surrounded by straight people, or maybe one or two other queer minor characters. But Skye's life is deeply queer, and her community (as small as it is at the start) feels real.

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was so unimpressed with June's BOTM picks. I was like ugh I don't want to get any of these blah woe is me. I finally decided to go with this one since it features LGBTQIA+ themes and is by a Black author. AND IM SO GLAD I DID. This book is laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly heart-warming, and has amazing character development, all while tackling some truly real family dynamics, trauma, AND police brutality. I absolutely adored it.

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suzyreadsbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thx @randomhouse for the free e-copy 💖

This is a funny, fast-paced, heartfelt book that centers Black queer women & reads like a love letter to West Philly. Skye, a Black lesbian in her late 30s, is hesitantly forging a relationship with a 12 y old girl who was conceived w her donor egg. As she tentatively settles back into her hometown for the first time in years, she’s forced to confront all that she’s been avoiding.

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Things I loved:

-The engaging first person POV: lots of sarcastic quips, occasionally breaking the fourth wall, and quickly oscillating between cheesy humor & candid realizations. Similar to Sam Irby’s style.

-This book handled a lot of subjects in a nuanced and sensitive way. I loved the way two medical situations were discussed throughout:

➡️The impact of Faye and Cynthia’s family history of cancer: grieving the loss of loved ones, fearing their own diagnoses, making life decisions based on that risk. As a cancer genetic counselor, I’d consider sharing this w patients. I think it would be really validating, esp since media representations of familial cancer often stop at white celebrities.

➡️Skye’s challenging relationship with her newly disabled mother: far from a straightfwd disability narrative, this highlighted the messy nuances of having somebody in your life who really hurt you, but is now in need of your help. A situation where you’ll never get an apology for the irreparable harm they did to you, & and you have to decide if you can still move forward together.

-There’s a sweet sapphic subplot, & I loved the inclusion of sex scenes that aren’t just magically perfect from beginning to end.

-casual lesbian, bi, & trans rep! untranslated Spanish dialogue!

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I did find the commentary on gentrification to be somewhat lacking—while it spoke a lot about the changing demographics of Philly, there were a few lines that implied that new businesses being Black-owned made up for gentrification. Gentrification is an issue of race and class, and I personally wanted more exploration about class and the issues with Black capitalism. But also 1 contemporary fiction book can’t do it all lol.

Content warnings: police brutality, parental abuse, sexual assault, gentrification, grief, cancer, death of a parent, traumatic brain injury, memory loss, transphobia

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