livnewman's review
3.0
All Our Shimmering Skies follows a child called Molly who, following the death of both her parents and the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese during WWII, embarks on an adventure into the Australian bush. It's a vivid, magical fairytale which leans slightly more towards the brothers Grimm than Disney. Moments are truly beautiful and meaningful, and the outback setting is awash with colour and life. However I did feel that significant portions were overwritten and would have benefited from tighter prose. I do usually love expressive, poetic description, but in this case I could see the author's hand too obviously. I hear Boy Swallows Universe is great, so I definitely won't be giving up on Trent Dalton!
byrne_kyra_byrne's review
3.0
I found this book really hard to get into at first I found myself almost giving up reading it. But at about 100 pages in the story picked up and captivated me so I’m glad I didn’t give up. It is a beautiful written book, and the way it describes scenes in the Australian outback and how it describes certain events such as the bombing from a child’s point of view was absolutely amazing. I also loved the sense of adventure the book provided as the characters journeyed deeper into the Australian outback and I loved the theme of found family between Molly, Greta and Yukio (as well as the baby). I did however find myself getting lost in what was going on within the story and sometimes found it tricky to know what was happening in the present vs the past (or a story being told). This is probably due to the abstract way the story was written, and although it did sometimes make it hard to follow once I got use to it I grew to like it. There were some bits of the story that kinda bored me sometimes forcing myself to get through the pages (especially at the start) but other parts of the book really captivated me.
Also the cover of this book is soooo beautiful and is the main reason I brought this book
Also the cover of this book is soooo beautiful and is the main reason I brought this book
sharondblk's review
4.0
I don't even know what this book is, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. Is it a parable? A literal story? A fable? Does it matter? it brings me back to that old thing (I don't even know if it's true) -There are only two stories, in one a stranger comes to town, and in the other the protagonist goes on a journey. This is mainly the story of a long walk in the northern Territory Outback, and the internal and external journey that the characters experience.
One small thing that bugged me is that the outback seemed very busy. I get it, it's a parable, or magic realism, or this had to happen to make the story work, and they were walking down a sort of road, but they still seemed to bump into people frequently!
it took me two tries to successfully get into this book. This first time it all seemed a bit hard. and it's certainly not an easy or happy book, but it is definitly worth taking the journey.
One small thing that bugged me is that the outback seemed very busy. I get it, it's a parable, or magic realism, or this had to happen to make the story work, and they were walking down a sort of road, but they still seemed to bump into people frequently!
it took me two tries to successfully get into this book. This first time it all seemed a bit hard. and it's certainly not an easy or happy book, but it is definitly worth taking the journey.
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