Originally, it had been the cover of Cori McCarthy’s Breaking Sky that had me interested in picking up the novel and giving it a read. The description alone had me hooked. A story about a teenage girl growing up In the middle of war times flying a super-secret military jet? And then that same girl ends up meeting a super-secret fellow pilot and the ball gets rolling on their story? It was a promising premise, however after having finished Breaking Sky I have to admit that the novel wasn’t at all what I imagined it to be.

Set in the year 2048, protagonist Chase Harcourt is one of the junior Air Force Academy’s elite Streaker pilots. With fast reactions, reckless wit and an impulsive form of independence, Chase is renown around the Academy under her call sign ‘Nyx’ as one of the only two Streaker pilots in existence. With her best friend, Pip, beside her both on ground and in the sky, there isn’t anything Chase can’t do.

With America under heavy scrutiny as a world war has broken out with China as the opposing force, Chase discovers that there’s a third Streaker with an up-and-coming pilot of its own. When circumstances force both Chase and this third pilot—Tristan—to meet, she realizes that he’s everything a girl could want. Cocky. Sexy. Dangerous. Intense. But with a war unfolding all around them, Chase is aware that at any given moment she might have to go out and defend her country.

Considering Breaking Sky’s premise I was very excited to be introduced to the novel’s leading lady. Chase appeared to be a strong female character who doesn’t take anything from anybody. I absolutely love female characters who can kick your ass and then walk away flipping their hair over their shoulder (or something along those lines) and eagerly expected much of the same from Chase. However, I found that almost constantly I was unable to truly get connected to Chase as a character. All the reasons that I should have felt bad for her only made me dislike her. I was unable to sympathize or empathize with her character and often wished that we could have been given the story through Tristan’s point of view as a result.

Overall, I had a very hard time getting fully immersed in Breaking Sky. There were a lot of high and low points without much excitement in between. What I can say about McCarthy’s prose is that I particularly enjoyed reading her descriptions of Chase’s flights—which, luckily, occur frequently throughout the novel. Whenever Chase is flying one of the Streakers I found myself falling in love with the prose. The way that the moments are described by McCarthy are very well-done and make it easy for readers to envision the scene in their imagination through the imagery.

Personally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance that was introduced into the storyline. While I do think that a lot of readers who are just entering YA literature will appreciate the side-plot and even swoon over the third Streaker pilot, Tristan, I couldn’t get into it. It all felt very rushed and forced in my honest opinion. I do wish that there had been a bit more slow-burn build-up to the romance involving Chase and Tristan but without it I got a very insta-love vibe.

I would recommend Breaking Sky to readers who are big fans of aviation. Any readers who are also interested in reading a novel set in a dystopian universe that focuses on what can happen in the sky rather than on the ground should definitely give Breaking Sky a read. Any readers who are looking to enter YA and dip their toes in the waters (as they say) should also pick this novel up and give it a go.

Unfortunately, this military story rubbed me in all the wrong ways. While this book did have its moments, I just didn’t have the heart to really like it. Many of the events that takes place in the first half and more of the story are really inconsequential to the whole conflict that’s going on. Other than the added war efforts and trials, the book reads like a high school with its dose of characters in emotional turmoil and angst over romantic involvements. I found these parts of the story highly unlikeable as relationships are all tangled up until the very end of the book when they start unraveling. And while there was development of ideas and camaraderie, I didn’t care enough about the characters to see it through.

Told in a futuristic setting of the Second Cold War, BREAKING SKY puts students in a flight academy where they prepare for war against the Ri Xiong Di, a thinly veiled name for the now-Chinese in a one-dimensional war. I don’t even want to get into the logistics of making this the background of the world, but it ultimately felt like the author just used her finger to point at a random non-Democratic country and BOOP, landed on China. As a Chinese reader, it is a very questionable decision. Anyways, despite being in the future, the only technological advances that the world boasts of are its speedy Streakers, which are jets that can run past mach speed. I wanted fun adventure and companionships in this book, but I got a LOT of inconsequential high school drama that wasn’t even fun to read.

I liked the fact that Chase, the main character that the book follows, was hinted to be bisexual (I mean, she hooks up with everyone) until the author brushed it off by saying it was an “experimental stage.” I also don’t think the author deserves credit for killing the only other out gay character, whose death becomes an important pivotal point of the story. Let me know if any LGBTQ+ readers have words on this book if they have read it, as this is not my lane, but from what I’ve been listening to from readers, these aspects just seem insensitive. It’s in the future, yet where is the diversity? It seems like the majority of the cast is white or just not mentioned. I also cover a rant in the highlighted section below that you may skip if you want since it’s not exactly part of the review, but I have to add because I have Thoughts.

Chase, speaking about one of her previous hook-ups:

“Last semester, he had tutored her in history when she couldn’t get her head around which country Ri Xiong Di bought first. And when his cute Asian American features stirred up some cultural curiosity, she’d started doing the same things with him that she now did with Riot.”

I am astounded by the author’s use of the phrase “cultural curiosity” and the fetishization of Tanner’s (the guy’s) “cute Asian American features.” Holy crap. It isn’t until 80% of the book when he is revealed to have a Filipino grandfather – at least the author specified his actual nationality (finally) instead of keeping Asian Americans as a monolith. But wow, I know the heroine Grace is pretty callous in relationships – she’s a pretty prickly character that does grow to open up– but this thought is more than brushing off their relationship. It’s pretty rude and honestly something I hope I don’t come across in literature again.

BREAKING SKY had some fun moments in the sky, and you can clearly tell the author likes writing about these jets and the capricious personality of Chase, but many other aspects of the book ended up rubbing me the wrong way: the world, the secondary characters, and the plot that seemed like was going nowhere. Not to mention the quote I highlighted. Some things written just felt insensitive for me and I’m glad to have finally wiped my hands clean of this book.

Rating: 1