Interesting. As someone who spent a lot of time researching both mental health, and young adult media, I was surprised at how deep and emotional this book ended up being. A lot of times this book felt more in the genre of Sarah Dessen than a traditional triller. The characters have to deal with so much, and it can weigh on the reader if they aren't expecting that emotional depth. I did feel a little overwhelmed with multiple different perspectives, shifting back and forth. It was hard to follow at some times, but overall it was an interesting way to lead up to the main event.

I was surprised to see the concept of reincarnation in this book. It's not a traditional choice, and while it didn't quite all make sense to me, I was interested to see something very non-traditional religious in this book.

Overall, a solid book, a 3.5, I rounded up to 4. The author writes interesting characters, good setting, it just felt like this book was trying to tackle too much, and I got lost in it at times, but I did enjoy the twist ending, and the book cover is stunning. Overall, give it a go, but be warned it is emotional and deals with heavy topics like mental health and grief.

I expected a ya thriller and a thriller this is not. Instead it’s an exploration of grief after a suicide. Considering this book is targeted towards teens, I would think the topic of suicide would be handled with special care. Instead it felt almost romanticized with the element of reincarnation. It was just odd. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who was impressionable, and I think it’s too ya for someone older (like me) to enjoy

Thank you NetGalley for an e-ARC of The Sky Above Us by Natalie Lund.
This was the first book I read by Natalie Lund and I found her writing similar to that of John Green. This book will be an easy recommendation for teens that are fans of Green. I found the storyline to be compelling and the characters well developed. Although the book's chapters switched between six characters it was easy to follow from the very beginning. This book is being called a psychological thriller, but I feel that is misleading. The book was more a drama than a thriller. My only other concern with this book is the character thinking of suicide as a way to solve life problems. I am fearful that the impact of suicide is not dealt with appropriately for teen readers.

The morning after a beach party, Izzie, Cass, and Janie are woken up by a plane flying overhead. They watch the plane crash into the ocean, and Izzy instantly knows who was on it. The victims are pulled out of the ocean: Izzy’s twin brother Israel, Cass’s ex-boyfriend Shane, and Janie’s secret boyfriend Nate. Each of these girls had a strong connection to the boys. They have no idea what would drive the boys to crash a plane, but they need to find out to get closure. This story is told through alternating timelines, with the boys’ stories before the crash and the girls’ stories after the crash.

This was a devastating story about grief. The girls mourned the loss of the boys in their own ways. The boys also had their own grief that they experienced before the plane crash. Shane had to mourn the loss of his relationship with Cass. Nate mourned the loss of his future soccer career after an injury. Israel experienced his death in a past life every night in a dream. All six of them, and their parents, had different ways of experiencing grief.

One fascinating part of this book was the experience Israel had of remembering his past life. He’d had dreams since he was a child of a man dying in a car crash. He knew that the man was him from a past life. There was a forum he used to speak to other people who also remembered their past lives. I hadn’t thought much about this phenomenon before reading this story, but the circumstances around the man dying, who Israel believed was him in a past life, made Israel’s claim quite convincing.

This was a tragic story that had me hooked from the beginning until the end.

Thank you Penguin Teen for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me early access to read and review this title. I did not know anything about this book when I accepted the copy and boy was I in for a wild ride. As this is a psychological thriller, I don't want to give too many things away - so what I will say, is read the synopsis to get a feel for what's in store.

I was not expecting the twists and turns, the unreliable characters, and the alternating timelines as we navigate to find the truth of a sudden plane crash, leaving multiple people dead. This story follows three boys and the weeks leading up to the flight that leaves them dead and the girls that they left behind as they try to unravel the mystery of why they were on this plane. This is a story, as the synopsis states, about the ripple effects of tragedy, exploring questions with no answers, and the power of friendship.

The book starts with a plane crash carrying three teenagers that are best friends, Shane, Israel, and Nate. It crashes into the ocean among the shock of their friends that were at the beach for a party. We immediately get reactions from three girls that were closest to the boys. Izzy was Israel’s twin, Cass was Shane’s ex-girlfriend, and Janie was Nate’s best friend.

I loved how the book had dual timelines and we get to see all six sides. Thirty days before the plane crash we get the boys POV. While we get to see the girls play out their grief in their POV after the crash. This was a very emotional and hard book to read at times, especially if you have lost someone. It also covered teenage angst, depression, and even reincarnation. The characters were well developed and the book was very well written. This would make a great book club pick because it would have so many interesting discussions from all the different characters!

This is one of those books that I feel like could have been great with a different approach. Unfortunately, I have two main issues with it. One, I do not get any of the psychological thriller vibes that I should be. What this is about is grief. Two, is the way this book handles suicide. Obviously, this is a big part of the plot; however, the way it is handled feels uncomfortable.

2.5/5 ⭐️
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for this ARC. The Sky Above us is told through the perspectives of 6 different teens 3 who died in a plane crash and 3 who were close to them respectively. We jump from before and after the crash as the 3 surviving teenagers try to deal with their grief by attempting to understand what happened the night of the plane crash. I think that first and foremost, this book did a really good job of capturing the grieving process. The difference in how the 3 teenagers left behind took on their grief felt very true to life. I did have an issue kind of seeing how this book constituted as a thriller, as there was no real suspense, but that's a pretty common problem I find in most YA thrillers so it's not entirely surprising. I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did in the end but I just felt like 6 povs made it hard to attach myself or really care about any of the characters and also made them feel very 2 dimensional. I think if there had been a focus on just a few of the characters and really fleshing them out this book would have been a lot more impactful.

DNF'd at 30%. This just wasn't for me, but the story overall was very intriguing, and I think I'll be in the minority of disliking it.

The Sky Above Us was morbid, and I don't think it had enough lightness to really balance that out, so it just ended up being more depressing than hopeful. It also felt like more of a mystery as there was nothing psychologically thrilling about it like the description mentions. Reading about the boy's lives and their motivations was really interesting though, and I felt more drawn to their characters than the girls.

It's also the kind of book that's best read quickly because there's 6 POVs that can be hard to keep separate since they intersect so much especially because there's a dual timeline. I set it down for a few days and when I came back it took a while to get back into remembering how everyone was connected.

There are some themes in this book that I thought could have been touched on more especially because of the sensitive matter in the book. For example, OtherPlanes in the forum chat's advice to Israel definitely needed more attention to it. I just thought the ending was a lot, and would have preferred if it was more focused on the girl's healing than what we got. I'm not sure if I recommend this to any young teenager as it seems more harmful than helpful.

This is my second five star read in a row from Penguin Teen. I wasn't sure what to expect from The Sky Above Us but what I got was a well-written, poignant look at what it means to be in high school when simultaneously your whole life is in front of you and life-changing decisions need to be made at every turn. This book was full of gorgeous, heartfelt moments.

The Sky Above Us begins with a senior year beach party. That morning Janie, Cass and Izzy wake up on the beach only to see a small plane plummet into the ocean--and learn that their nearest and dearest, Izzy's twin brother Israel, Janie's best friend Nate and Cassie's ex Shane, were on that plane. The story follows the girls as they try to figure out what motivated the boys to steal the plane and what happened during the flight, as well as alternating timelines where the boys tell their stories leading up to that moment.

Although there were times in the beginning when it is was difficult to keep all the narratives straight and remember the relationships between everyone, I quickly came to know and love each character. This story deals beautifully with love, loss and grief and doesn't read like YA at all.

"'We're just trying to get the full picture at this point, ma'am.'
And what if there isn't one? Or what if there is, but he took it with him?'"

Five glowing stars. I recommend this one to fans of All the Bright Places & Neverworld Wake.

As I sat down to collect my thoughts on this book, I found myself conflicted. I didn’t know how to put into words the complex emotions I felt while reading The Sky Above Us.

I am left with the understanding that, while there were moments I was angered by certain things happening in the book, overall I truly enjoyed the experience. The Sky Above Us is a story about grief and loss in the aftermath of a plane crash that takes the lives of three teenage boys- and the individual roads each boy took to get to the place they were in their lives to collectively decide to get on that plane in the first place.

The morning after the big senior beach party, Janie, Cass and Izzy wake up in the sand as they see a small plane rise up and then plummet into the ocean, killing Janie’s best friend- Nate, Cass’s ex boyfriend- Shane, and Izzy’s twin brother- Israel. Through the days after the crash, the girls try to piece together what could have made them do something like this, while grappling with their own emotions and fears about what they could have done to prevent it from happening.

This is told from each of the six teens’ narrative, through alternating chapters, and goes back and forth between one month before the plane crash up to a little over a week afterward, dropping tidbits of information here and there.

These characters were each complex in their own ways, with intertwining relationships and stories. There was so much to this book. Some parts I was infuriated by, and some that I really loved. But in its entirety, this book was fantastic! I thought that topics that Natalie Lund wrote about were researched really well. You could definitely sense a major level of understanding that she had for not only each character, but what they were dealing with in their lives.

⭐ ⭐ 1/2

I'm not even sure how to rate this book or how I feel about it. I kept going between 2 and 3 stars so ultimately I'm giving this a 2.5.

First of all, I want to say this is in ZERO way a psychological thriller. Psychological, minus the thriller. I'm not really sure why it was given this genre and it was super misleading as I went into it.

I enjoyed the dual time lines of this story as that's something I always enjoy in books. Before the plane crash, the days leading up to the crash and after the plane crash. It follows 6 characters; the boys and the girls. The boys in the plane crash and the girls who knew them. Admittedly, I had a VERY hard time with these characters. The writing style was sort of the same for all 6 of them so I had to think before each chapter who belonged to who and who was who. Until about midway, I struggled pretty hard with this.

I didn't love the whole reincarnation thing. I don't necessarily believe in it, so that whole situation was very far fetched to me. The whole accident thing and dolphins and..

Lastly, TRIGGER WARNING, I feel this romanticized suicide a bit too much for my liking. Let's just go into the hole and live another life and all things will be so perfect! Suicide is such an important subject matter to have. For teens AND adults alike. I do NOT recommend this book for teenagers, who it's aimed at.; especially if they struggle with mental health. My daughter is 15 and struggles with depression and there's no way I would want her to touch this. Again, it's IMPORTANT for these discussions to happen. It's okay to write books on them. It's just not okay to romanticize it. It's not the "cool" thing to do. Or to encourage your friends to do, and even help them do it.

Ultimately, I would not recommend this book for the age group it';s intended for. I gave it 2.5 stars because it did hold my attention and I wanted to see what happened in the end. I just feel so much of the book could have taken a different route for a "lesson" vs the way it went,

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the advanced readers copy!

The Sky Above Us is penned as a "psychological thriller" but after finishing this book it did not feel as though it were one. I received this arc with the hopes that there would be some type of maybe magical realism element to it, given that the entire premise of this story follows three boys who crash a plane in the ocean, and the three most important girls in their life witness this tragic "accident", and are left to find out what happened to them. So yes, it did have that mystery element too, but I felt that the conversation surrounding the plot of this story was done poorly.

I was not aware that this going to be a book surrounding suicide, and as such, I think that trigger warnings should have been included in this story. In terms of the actual book, I had a few problems with the writing. We are following 6 different POVs: the 3 girls and the 3 boys. Not only are we following 6 POVs, but each pov takes place at a different timeline. This got confusing at times because the voices of the characters never felt distinct enough, and many of them sounded alike. For the first 100 pages, I felt a little bit uncomfortable with the way the POC characters were described and the language used to portray their chapters. A lot of the time, they were described in ways that felt a little bit demeaning. Not only that but also the way that these characters were sexualized. Both of these writing situations were not necessary to the story and didn't move the plot in any way, so it felt like it was thrown in there for no reason.

The discussion around suicide in this book felt off for me. Given that this is a book with a target audience of 12+, I think there should have been a discussion about why these 3 characters felt like they wanted to end their life, what other options they might have had. Unfortunately, there was virtually no discussion around therapy, holistic help, medication, etc., to help with the depression and deep feelings many of these characters were experiencing. Instead, the idea of committing suicide and potentially stepping into another life, based not on any type of true belief or spiritual belief, but instead based on a social forum, seems dangerous and irresponsible to have in a YA book. It was unfortunate because my hope was that, if suicide was going to be a large focal point in this book, I would have liked for some discussion to occur towards the end. Instead, the end of the book felt unfinished and left so many questions unanswered.

The pacing of the story was done well. And there were moments where I found myself continuing reading because I did want to find out exactly what lead up to the plane crash, but it came and then it went and it felt a little bit anticlimactic and I was a little disappointed in that. Overall, I was a little disappointed with this book because I was really excited to read it but it just was not executed well enough to me.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for providing me with an e-arc of this book.

The Sky Above Us is a tragic story told in alternating timelines by multiple characters. It never got confusing which I was glad for.

This is said to be a psychological thriller but I honestly don’t agree with that.

Regardless of that I still really enjoyed this book. It was a bit slow at first but it picked up and I was sucked in.

When three teen girls witness a plane crash on the beach it completely destroys them. They knew the passengers on that plane but why were they on that plane? We follow them in the aftermath trying to find out why this happened.

This books explores grief, suicide ideation, and bullying.

I really did enjoy this book. The writing was absolutely beautiful. It’s not what I was expecting based on the blurb but I very much enjoyed the plot.
I highly recommend it if you enjoy YA.

Thank you to penguin teen for the ARC.

The Sky Above Us was really sad, heartbreaking, and quite hard to read at times. Right from the beginning things are full of deep sadness and pain. Cass, Janie, and Izzy wake up on the beach after a party and hear the sound of a plane. They look above their heads and a low flying plane goes right by, as they watch it, they realize that the plane looks like it is heading straight into the ocean. They watch with fear as it nose dives and disappears into the ocean. Three people were on that plane, Israel, Shane, and Nate. Israel was Izzy’s twin brother. Shane was Cass’s boyfriend up until recently. Nate was Janie’s only real friend.

The format of this book was very unique as we get the days leading up to the crash and the days after the crash. We get perspectives from all six of the characters and it was so heart wrenching to read. The pain, guilt, secrets, sadness that they all feel but don’t tell anyone. It was such a realistic look at the possibility that it was a suicide attempt and what you leave behind if you do commit suicide. What your family members and friends deal with in the aftermath. It also showed how hard it is to be a teenager, and it brought back some heavy memories of when I was a teenager myself. The weight of always wanting to succeed and to impress your parents, trying to balance everything in your life, thinking about college. It can be a lot on good days, but bad ones are even worse.

I will end with this is not a happy book. I struggled to finish this as I knew no good was going to come at the end. Does that mean I didn’t like it? No, not at all. The author had a way of writing such an intense book full of trauma, pain, and grief that you got sucked in and kept reading. The Sky Above Us will not be a book for everyone, but the writing is superb and the characters are really fleshed out.

The morning after a bonfire party, Izzy, Janie, and Cass wake up to a plane crash on the beach. The passengers were Izzy's brother, Cass's boyfriend, and Janie's best friend. The story follows the girls in the aftermath of the crash, dealing with their grief and pain, and their journey to find out what why the boys were in that plane, and also follows the boys in the days leading up to the flight. It is an exploration of grief and loss the girls experience, as well as the hopelessness and desperation that led the boys to that fateful plane ride.
I enjoyed reading this book and getting to know the characters through their emotions and struggles. However, there were several things that didn't sit quite right with me about it.
First off, the book is described as a twisty psychological thriller, which I would not agree with at all. There are no real twists, the plot follows a pretty well marked trail, and there are no thriller aspects about it. It is emotional and sad, but not mysterious or thrilling.
Second of all, the book deals with the topic of suicide, and I was a bit uncomfortable with the way it did so, and have seen other reviewers say the same. <spoilers> The suicide of three teenage boys is painted as a beautiful and liberating way for them to escape the very normal pressures of teen life (grades, girl drama, sports), and the reincarnation plot line almost seeks to soften the blow of that and make it "not really suicide because technically their souls might still be here". </spoilers>
I've also seen some commentary on Janie being coded as autistic and how that was not done very well either, although I cannot speak to that topic personally.
Overall, with those flaws in mind, I did enjoy my time spent with these characters and the feelings they were working through. I would just say to go in with awareness of the actual genre and nature of the content.

“Measuring grief is impossible, but what you can measure, what I’ve already started to measure, is guilt.”

The Sky Above Us is a tragic story told in alternating timelines by multiple narrators which had the potential to become confusing but didn’t. This is one of those rare times when it all pulled together beautifully and I think this is because each character is so distinctively written and nuanced that even if the heading didn’t tell me who was narrating, I would’ve known just by their voice.

When three boys steal a plane and crash it into the ocean, they leave behind family and friends to grieve them and to question why? The three boys each left behind a girl, one a twin sister, another a secret bestfriend/girlfriend and yet another, a girl who broke one’s heart in to a million pieces. These three girls will come together to try and make sense of the months before the plane crash and what drove the boys to this final act.
I want to note that this is a book about death, suicide, grief and loss - all the feelings that accompany death but focuses hard on those feelings that accompany the suicide of a loved one; primarily the heavy guilt and sense of responsibility that those left behind feel. The search for answers that the girls embark on will lead them to some mysterious and mystical places that will open the door to alternate beliefs and possibilities of life after death.

The Sky Above Us was a compelling read for me and I was captivated by the absolute realness of each sharply written character and the bittersweet nature of the story.

My thanks to Penguin Teen for gifting me a copy for review.

THE SKY ABOVE US is a YA drama about grief, loss, and the search for something better. The book follows three boys and three girls in alternating chapters. Israel, Shane, and Nate took a plane and crashed it into the ocean - the ending watched by the three girls who orbit their lives, Izzy, Cass, and Janie. Izzy is Israel's twin, Cass is Shane's ex-girlfriend of 5 years, and Janie is Nate's best friend. The boys' perspectives are given from before the crash, while the girls' perspectives are given following the crash.

In the lead up, we witness the decisions that led to the crash, and the troubles that contributed. In the aftermath, we see the three girls torn apart in their grief, their search for answers, and their hope for meaning in it all. As they follow the leads they can find, they hold hope that the end was not really the end, particularly with Izzy's twin-sense that tells her that her brother is not truly gone and the dolphins that she spotted around the crash.

What I loved: This was a heart-breaking story of loss, grief, and hope. The book is very heavy, as before the boys are wrapped up in their individual troubles and afterwards, the girls are consumed by their grief. I appreciated both sides of the perspectives, which give the reader answers they could never have gotten without it. The book did showed depression and the need for help that can be difficult to see.

What left me wanting more: Neither before nor after do the characters get the help they need, and the boys and girls felt like they were struggling with worries and grief. I would have liked to see more of that, even in the wake of the accident for those left behind but heavily touched by the accident. Although this was billed as a thriller, there was not really any part of it that felt like a thriller to me - it was more of a contemporary/drama. It was much slower than I expected, but this may have been because I expected a thriller.

There are some really heavy themes/topics in this book, and I would recommend also giving resources to teens who might read this. Beyond the depression and grief that we see, there is also troubling internet conduct, forged documents, some bullying, and other things that would be helpful to discuss with precautions and to create awareness of the problems there and how to handle them if you see them.

Final verdict: THE SKY ABOVE US is a heavy YA drama about grief, depression, and hope. This is a heart-breaking read that will definitely stick with me.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

“That’s the thing I’ve learned about grief—you both want to escape and to remember everything.”

This was heavy. It was so sad! It really was hard to read at times.

At a party on the beach, a small plane is driven straight into the ocean. It’s terrifying and scary but one teen believes her brother was on that plane.

We follow 6 teens back and forth from before the accident to after. We get the ins and outs of their thoughts and it’s painfully rough to read.

The book focuses on the belief of reincarnation. While somewhat fascinating, the premise of the story made it too sad. It was achingly difficult to read the teens inner thoughts and fears. Not only was reincarnation the focus, but suicide too. I don’t do well with books on suicide. It’s too raw and real for me. The grief was heavy. It was described well and so difficult to read about the family members left behind.

While the writing was done well, I just did not enjoy this read. It was too much and ultimately not an escape for me. It weighed me down. I did need to know the ending and I’m not sure if that ending made it better or worse.

Many could love this book but it was just not for me. I feel it romanticized suicide and that is not something I can condone. However, the writing really was done well and for that reason alone, I’m giving it 3 stars instead of much less.

Content Summary: Amazon labels this 12 years and up. I disagree. I believe the sex/intimacy details are too much for that age. Also the heaviness of the grief and suicide discussions may be too much. Alcohol (beer and hard liquor), and drugs are also normalized quite a bit in the book. One teen also starts to do extensive self-harm. There were 22 F words.

Thank you to Penguin Teen via NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This book releases April 13, 2021.