NetGalley thank you for the opportunity to read this. It was a pretty great story while not next for me I did enjoy the story.

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This has been on my TBR pile for so long, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I really enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters change throughout the story was a great character development. The plot was great and kept my attention. I'm glad I got the chance to read this and will be on the lookout for more in the future!

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from this book because it’s not my usual genre. In hindsite I should’ve known this wasn’t for me

Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’ we’re going to review a new book that you should definitely add to your Goodreads reading challenge (yeah, yeah, I know that your TBR is already insane, but this book is worth the room. Trust me). So what is this amazing book you ask? I’m glad you asked people of the internet! Today we’re reviewing ‘The Sky Between You and Me’ by Catherine Alene. Not only is the story interesting, but will definitely leave a lasting impact on you once you finish it. I will try to make this review as spoiler free as possible, so if you’re ready let’s get to the review. Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!

Our story revolves around high school junior Raesha (aka Rae), a rodeo rider who dreams of winning Nationals just like her mother did when she was in high school. We are then introduced to Rae’s best friend Asia, Asia’s boyfriend Micah, and Rae’s boyfriend Cody. Everything in Rae’s life seems to be going well until a new girl named Kierra moves into town and begins to disrupt all of the order in Rae’s life. Throughout the story we learn that Rae’s mother died from cancer when she was a little girl and Rae always carried the guilt due to the circumstances of her mother’s death. Due to Rae’s growing loneliness because of Kierra’s presence in her life, as well as Rae’s father’s constant absence due to his job, Rae quickly falls into the grip of an eating disorder. She begins by just telling herself that she will lose a little weight in order to fit into her mother’s old riding saddle, however things get bad VERY quickly. Throughout the rest of the novel we see how Rae’s eating disorder affects her life, and the lives of those around her in both expected and unexpected ways. This is truly a powerful story with an amazing message of hope that doesn’t sugar coat the dark side of eating disorders.


I not only really enjoyed the plot of this story, but also the relationship between Rae and her father. You could really see the love that they had for each other, as well as his need to try to fill the void that her mother’s death has left in her life, and his terror when he feels as if he failed this task. I also really enjoyed the fact that Rae and her friends were from a small country town and enjoyed completing in rodeos. This was definitely a fresh change of pace from your typical YA setting. Lastly I personally really loved the fact that the entire story was written in verse, which added a unique vibe to the story. Although there was SOOOO much I loved about this book, there were some problems. Firstly I HATED Rae’s boyfriend Cody! He was a completely unlikeable character who made me want to slap Rae for even dealing with him. Cody openly flirts with Kierra every chance he gets, and is completely unsupportive of Rae, even when he finds out about her eating disorder. Also, the story definitely had sections that were very slow and boring, although this didn’t happen often, it definitely lost the book half a smiley face on it’s overall score. Lastly, I really wish that we had spent more time on the obvious connection between Rae’s mother’s death and Rae’s eating disorder. I know that eating disorders are very complicated matters and there is never a necessary “cause” of this disease however, I really feel that this event had a lasting impact on Rae and thus it would’ve been nice to dive more into that. In conclusion I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a great story and doesn’t mind books written in free verse. If you don’t typically enjoy this style of writing then this maybe a hard story for you to get through however, I definitely suggest that you give it a chance. Because of all of this, I give ‘The Sky Between You and Me’ 4 1/2 smiley faces (due to the slow parts of the story). This is definitely worth your time, and I suggest you pick it up right away!

The Sky Between You and Me caught my interest because it deals with mental illness as well as the struggles of a teen girl dealing with friendship issues and the loss of her mother. This is the second book that I read in verse and once again I enjoyed it. It's like a heady mix of poetry and narrative. I was so caught up in the writing and the story that I raced through it.

While maybe this book was written with good intentions on discussing eating disorders, I felt it was written in such a way that I just could not get into. The prose, wording, formatting at times were not a good fit with the story. Also, the names of the characters threw me off and really did not seem to fit the characters and their settings at all. This book was something I could not enjoy.

Honestly the only remarkable thing about this book was the cover.

DNF... the writing style is not for me. I don't know if it's the ARC that is missing punctuation or not but it's very confusing.

DNF at 31%

I received this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

I'm gonna be honest, from the first few chapters I knew this book wasn't for me. I wanted to see it through, I really did, but I just found myself reading less, and skimming more. I've read books in prose before, and often love the format, but felt it just didn't fit this book. Additionally, we never get a proper introduction to the characters, names just start being thrown. And at 5%, an important event happened that I felt lost all weight on me because I didn't feel attached to any characters yet. The way things were described and the flow of the entire book just wasn't for me at all either. It also didn't help that the way Rae was shown and written made her feel unlikable, and we only got to see her pushing herself away from everyone, and then getting mad when they were worried/hanging out with other people instead. In the beginning of the novel, it should've been super important to build up a bond between reader and narrator, but instead we got thrown into the chaos with no way of knowing how things used to be.

DNF at 23%
The formatting of the novel was really off-putting for me because I hadn't realized this would be written in verse. I tried to push through but unfortunately just couldn't due to the fact that nothing about the book was keeping me engaged and wanting to read more. I eventually just had to give up.

Just didn't seem to go deep enough for a title that explores a devastating eating disorder. Good setting and atmosphere.

I'm a bit mixed on how I feel about this novel. On one hand, I loved how it dealt with eating disorders and does not glamorize it. There is nothing dramatic about the way the disorder is discussed and viewed, which makes it easy to see how the disordered thinking is viewed as real and simple. What I didn't like about this novel, is how it is written in verse.

I was going to stop reading this at 10% but I'm glad I pushed through. Reading through until the end allowed for me to see the author's note about her own struggles. This is an ownvoices book about a girl living, dying, fighting with an illness: anorexia nervosa. And even though these kinds of stories aren't always fun to read--they are important, and should be read. This probably won't be as problematic for others but I personally find books about eating disorders to be very triggering, no matter how objectively and factually they are written. So I kind of dislike the feeling it left me with, but it was still a good book. Just not for me. Or people like me.

I received this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The one thing that definitely threw me off the moment I started this book was the formatting. It’s written in blank verse poetry, no rhyme whatsoever. But, I think that’s what made it beautiful because the story itself was beautiful, yet heartbreaking.
We have Raesha, her best friend and her boyfriend. Raesha and her best friend ride horses professionally in a rodeo and they are preparing for a big competition.

Suddenly, we have a new girl enter the picture that automatically gets invited into their little circle. What’s bad enough is Raesha has to watch as the new girl and her boyfriend get friendly. (I hate reading stuff like that because then I hate the boy because he is being a total dick).
She sees how pretty the new girl is and sees herself, comparing the two. She wants to look better, so she starts to exercise a lot and she even stops eating. It gets so bad that she actually throws up to try and lose weight.

Her change is so drastic and sudden that it causes tension with her best friend and even her boyfriend, who continues to be nice to the new girl.

It was very hard for me to read this because, personally, I struggle with my weight and I have since high school. Thankfully, I haven’t tried to puke to lose weight or even stop eating all together. But, it’s still hard dealing with the fact that I don’t have a flat stomach or that my thighs don't have a gap or my face is too full.
Reading about Raesha’s struggle, even though it is fictional, really connected with me because she is just a teenager. Teenagers go through this because of what they see in magazines or what they hear about on television or in movies. The skinny, perfect girl gets everything so girls think they have to be skinny, too.
The poetic element really adds to the emotion of this book because it allows us to really feel what Raesha feels. It’s really heartbreaking to read this book, so I would advise you to read with caution. This is one of those books that make your heart hurt, and not because of some breakup or death or something.
This is different, but powerful.

I found it really hard to get into the rhythm of the book at first. I immediately felt like I was missing some key part to the story, which was unusual. I'm generally a big fan of verse. Some books I consider my all time favorites are written in verse, but I felt like thoughts were left incomplete throughout the beginning of the book. I also had a hard time figuring out how the author set up the section breaks. About 10% through I started getting into the rhythm of the story, and understanding the way the authors writing style flowed.
I feel like I could easily have read this book in one sitting if I had set aside enough time. Once I got to the point where I felt more comfortable with the authors writing style I flew through the book, and found it very interesting. It touched on the subjects of eating disorders and loss with a great amount of respect, and a great amount of understanding. I would definitely consider it one of the best books I've read on the subject of eating disorders. I liked how the story switched focus between eating disorder information and information on horses. It left me wanting to know more on each topic.I do not have a great knowledge of horses , and I found myself getting really interested when learning about them. I had a hard time understanding why her friends who blatantly saw there was an issue not broaching the subject head on. Little comments were made but nothing huge.
Overall I found the story a bit choppy but extremely informative. I enjoyed reading the book as a whole, but I found the verse a bit lacking. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the topics of eating disorders and horses.

This wasn't at all what I was expecting - I thought that it was going to be a light and fluffy contemporary, but in reality it was a deep and emotional novel with a cast of characters that I found myself absolutely loving.

First of all, I didn't expect this book to be written in verse, but it was. I never really know what to expect from books written in verse. I almost...don't get them? I mean, they're nice and all, but I just don't always understand why the author chose that format instead of standard prose. Anyway. That's just a me thing and does not reflect on this book in any way. This book is about a girl with an eating disorder but she really doesn't acknowledge that to herself until the end. The thing I found really interesting about this book is that we never find out how much she weighs. I mean, we might know at the beginning, but we're stuck in the main character's head. So as the story progresses she's obviously losing weight, but we have no idea how much it's been or if the people around her should start getting worried. Honestly, this book really made me think about some things internally. I had never really thought that I would at all be susceptible to an eating disorder since I love eating food and I hate throwing up (not that those are the only types of eating disorders, but those are the ones I'm addressing right now). Recently, however, I've been trying to lose the ten pounds that I've gained since getting married and to do that I've started keeping closer tabs on the amount of calories that I consume. I'm not overweight by any means, but after reading this book I can see what a slippery slope any kind of weight loss is. While I'm still not concerned that I might be developing an eating disorder, for the first time I really felt that I could (at least partially) understand why somebody would.

Note: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 3.5 stars! This book was a little hard for me to get into in the beginning solely because of the writing style and format. Despite that, this novel is really well-written and got really deep, personal, and was easy to relate to despite the seriousness and sensitivity of the issues it covered. I feel like it's a novel that younger readers should definitely read because it touches on so many relevant topics and dives deep into the main character's head and validates totally realistic feelings and fears. I really, really appreciated that. This book is really well-written and carefully thought out. It was a great read!

I don't normally go for books written in prose like this (poetry style) but I could not put this down. The format really lends itself to the story. Raesha is still hurting from the loss of her mother to cancer. Determined to make Nationals, she decides to lose weight. Then there is the new girl, who seems to be moving in on Raesha's friends and her loving boyfriend. As she struggles with eating, her feelings, and her relationships, Raesha will soon fall apart before her family and friends come together to help her get back to who she was.

A very realistic and moving look at grief, eating disorders, etc.