Review: Searching For Sky By Jillian Cantor.

Release Date: 1.7.14
Publisher: Bloomsbury.
Source: From Bloomsbury Australia in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis From Goodreads:

River means everything to Sky. They have lived alone together on Island for as long as they can remember. The two of them hunt for food, wash in Falls and curl up together in Shelter. Their life is simple and safe. Until River sees a boat . . .

Across Ocean is California, a place where nothing makes sense to Sky. She is separated from River and taken to live with a grandmother she doesn’t know. Lost and heartbroken, Sky searches for him so they can return to Island, only to find out that their paradise wasn’t as perfect as she thought, and everything she’s ever known and loved may have been a lie.

A gripping and beautifully told story of love and survival in a hostile world – ours.

My Thoughts:

4.5 out of 5 stars.

I loved this book. I was quickly drawn in and held captivated for the whole of it. I could hardly put it down until it was finished.
This book was nothing like I thought it was going to be. Sky and River live alone on a secluded island and have done so since they were small. They lived with Sky’s mother and River’s father, who have sadly died. River sees a boat and he signals it. Soon he and Sky are ‘rescued’. Sky is terrified and doesn’t want to leave Island, the only home she has ever known, but River convinces her to.

They are taken back to California, where they originally came from. Sky is returned to her grandmother, who she never knew existed, and River tells Sky she has to go on without him and just leaves. I was so shocked at this bit and knew their had to be a reason behind it, that he wouldn’t just leave Sky for no reason. I eagerly read on, needing to know why he would do this.

Sky knows absolutely nothing about the modern world. She compares everything with her limited knowledge of things she had seen on the island, e.g she would call stairs rocks.
Her grandmother calls in a team of professionals to help her learn everything to make her ‘normal’.
She is befriended by her grandmother’s neighbour, Ben, a boy who is around her age. Out of everyone, he understood her the most and was respectful enough to call her by the only name she knows. Her real name is Megan and all the adults insist on calling her that.

I was infuriated and frustrated along with Sky by the adults in her life. They constantly dismissed her feelings. They constantly referred to her by a name she hated. They hid things from her and treated her as if she much younger than she was. I thought her grandmother was the worst offender out of all of them and I couldn’t believe the things she did in this book. She did love Sky and was trying to do the best she could for her, but she did not consider Sky’s feeling at all and was incredibly selfish. I just wanted to shake her and scream at her to listen to Sky and to just stop.

Sky decides to be good and learn all that she can so that she can find River herself since no one else will help her find him. She also has to learn the shocking news of her past and how she came to be on the island, which was a twist I hadn’t even thought of. My heart broke for River because his story was so much more tragic than Sky’s.

The ending tore me apart. Why did it have to end that way? This book is beyond heart breaking. I had tears streaming down my face as I read it. Tragic, but beautiful, Searching For Sky is a must read for all YA fans looking for a contemporary with a different and unique concept. I highly recommend it.

You can add it to your Goodreads HERE.