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A review by bie
Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen
1.0
update: 1 star and thats because im generous
my friend was reading this and we got to discuss it, which made me remember even more things i dislike about the book. the writing is mediocre at best and, you'd think there's character development, but in reality, the author keeps changing their personalities to fit a certain narrative.
also adding a tigger warning for attempted hate crime because i wasn't sure at first if i should call it that or if i was exaggerating in my mind, but i got confirmation that's what it is.
—
initial review
i wont give it a rating for now because im very conflicted. this review contains spoilers but im not going to mark them because. because.
on one hand, i love some of these characters. i love hannah and joanie and luke and wally so much it almost hurts sometimes. but at the same time i hate clay and baker just as much. but not always, not at the beginning and not at the end. just during the everything in between, but that applies to this entire book.
the beginning was so cute that, even if i read some negative reviews, i still thought i will love the book. the ending was so sweet, it put a big smile on my face. but the middle was horrible. the author said she wanted to write a happy ending because all the wlw books she read had sad ending, and i get that. as someone who read far from you before starting this, i get it. but was the middle worth it?
throughout the book hannah keeps wondering if all the pain - and it's a lot of it - is worth it. i kept wondering that too. she suffered so much because of someone who was supposed to make her feel better, to make her feel safe. i understand baker's fear better than i would like, but that is literally no excuse, and she admits it too. the things she put hannah through, the pain... i might not read many books, but i've never seen a love interest that is so selfish... so so selfish. at first she reminded me of mina from far from you, but god. mina was a good person outside of whatever she was doing with sophie. then she reminded me of sebastian from autoboyography cause they deal with kind of the same thing, but again. sebastian never hurt tanner like that.
i'm not going to pretend hannah is perfect even though she is the love of my life, but i cannot for the sake of me wrap my head around the fact that she is the one who apologized the most in this book. she is the one who was hurt the most and still the one who tried to fix everything, with everyone. she deserves so much better than baker. maybe my opinion would be different if the book was from baker's pov. but guess what? it's not. so while i do understand her struggles and i'm not trying to imply she didn't get hurt, i also can't fully empathize with her, either.
so to answer my own question from before, no. the middle wasn't worth it. i know it most definitely wasn't the point of this book, but at times it even made me feel ashamed of myself and who i like. now, imagine how hannah must've felt. i don't usually cry while reading, but if i do it's either because of sadness or happiness. this time it was out of frustration. this time i cried for hannah, knowing how her story will end and how much more she deserves.
i'll end this - before i get mad again - by saying that it's on me, at the end of the day. i should've listened to my gut when it told me i won't like this, at the beginning. i should've listened to my own joke when i thought "a ship called bakerhannah is destined to suck". because i was right.
also clay sucks and a 5 minute heart to heart won't change my opinion, sorry.
trigger warnings: homophobia (especially internalized), religion (catholicism), vomiting, underage drinking, forced outing (kind of), divorce mention, attempted hate crime.
my friend was reading this and we got to discuss it, which made me remember even more things i dislike about the book. the writing is mediocre at best and, you'd think there's character development, but in reality, the author keeps changing their personalities to fit a certain narrative.
also adding a tigger warning for attempted hate crime because i wasn't sure at first if i should call it that or if i was exaggerating in my mind, but i got confirmation that's what it is.
—
initial review
i wont give it a rating for now because im very conflicted. this review contains spoilers but im not going to mark them because. because.
on one hand, i love some of these characters. i love hannah and joanie and luke and wally so much it almost hurts sometimes. but at the same time i hate clay and baker just as much. but not always, not at the beginning and not at the end. just during the everything in between, but that applies to this entire book.
the beginning was so cute that, even if i read some negative reviews, i still thought i will love the book. the ending was so sweet, it put a big smile on my face. but the middle was horrible. the author said she wanted to write a happy ending because all the wlw books she read had sad ending, and i get that. as someone who read far from you before starting this, i get it. but was the middle worth it?
throughout the book hannah keeps wondering if all the pain - and it's a lot of it - is worth it. i kept wondering that too. she suffered so much because of someone who was supposed to make her feel better, to make her feel safe. i understand baker's fear better than i would like, but that is literally no excuse, and she admits it too. the things she put hannah through, the pain... i might not read many books, but i've never seen a love interest that is so selfish... so so selfish. at first she reminded me of mina from far from you, but god. mina was a good person outside of whatever she was doing with sophie. then she reminded me of sebastian from autoboyography cause they deal with kind of the same thing, but again. sebastian never hurt tanner like that.
i'm not going to pretend hannah is perfect even though she is the love of my life, but i cannot for the sake of me wrap my head around the fact that she is the one who apologized the most in this book. she is the one who was hurt the most and still the one who tried to fix everything, with everyone. she deserves so much better than baker. maybe my opinion would be different if the book was from baker's pov. but guess what? it's not. so while i do understand her struggles and i'm not trying to imply she didn't get hurt, i also can't fully empathize with her, either.
so to answer my own question from before, no. the middle wasn't worth it. i know it most definitely wasn't the point of this book, but at times it even made me feel ashamed of myself and who i like. now, imagine how hannah must've felt. i don't usually cry while reading, but if i do it's either because of sadness or happiness. this time it was out of frustration. this time i cried for hannah, knowing how her story will end and how much more she deserves.
i'll end this - before i get mad again - by saying that it's on me, at the end of the day. i should've listened to my gut when it told me i won't like this, at the beginning. i should've listened to my own joke when i thought "a ship called bakerhannah is destined to suck". because i was right.
also clay sucks and a 5 minute heart to heart won't change my opinion, sorry.
trigger warnings: homophobia (especially internalized), religion (catholicism), vomiting, underage drinking, forced outing (kind of), divorce mention, attempted hate crime.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, and Vomit
Moderate: Outing