Customer Reviews

The Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don't Mind

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where to begin with my review? For me, reading THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME was like eating a delicious new flavor of cake: you know you love it, but you're not quite sure which ingredients were used. After some savoring of the writing, I believe these are key to the recipe:

-Morgan's voice, which hooked me as soon as I read the first chapter on the author's website. Smart, sarcastic, and saturated with a restless yearning for something more than a tiny little town in Nebraska she calls Central Nowhere. John Green hasn't written from the point of view of a girl yet, so far as I know, but if he did, I have a feeling it might sound like Morgan... full of wit, angst, and longings that so powerfully evoke what it means to be a teen.

-The people in Morgan's life: her alcoholic dad, the grandma she loves, the girl who kisses her, the coworker guy she has a crush on. All of these characters grow and reveal their many facets, complicating Morgan's life and making for an intertwined story firmly rooted in deep, scream-at-the-hills emotions.

-The setting of Central Nowhere. This book is best read outside, in the grass, on a windy day, where you can imagine Morgan venting her frustrations and desires. That's how I did it, anyway, and it made the experience all the more vivid. I also love the descriptions of the grocery store where Morgan works. I don't know why, but I've always had this strange fascination with expertly described details of everyday life that usually escape the eye of the author.

Disclaimer: I am a fellow Flux author, though my book won't be out until 2010. I am also, however, a choosy reader. There's no way I would actually go out and buy a book unless I thought I'd devour it, and I try my best to be an honest reviewer. So, honestly, I am recommending that you read THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME: AND THE HILLS DON'T MIND, in the hopes that you find it just as good.

I love reading about independent, confident, snarky girls, and Morgan is just that. I'm the exact opposite of all these things, so I tend to vicariously live through fictional characters and their brushes with an interesting adolescence. Mine was very normal: school, homework, that kind of thing. Morgan and Co. are a million miles away from my own life, yet I still found myself wishing I could be more like her. She's not a perfect role model by a long shot, but she doesn't take any rubbish from anyone, and she lives how she wants to.

Morgan's voice is brilliant; clipped and sharp, with sarcasm available on demand. Her I-don't-care attitude is something to aspire to, and the ability to block out nasty taunts and comments is sure to be a highly desired personality trait amongst teenagers.

Morgan goes through a lot in The Sky Always Hears Me, and a lot is packed into its average page count. She faces choices about her romantic life, her home life, and her future after she leaves Nowheresville. All these plot strands are handled realistically, and they could easily be happening to every student in your nearby high school. The teenage years are a time of change and hard decisions, and Cronn-Mills delves into this with both feet.

Sexual identity is addressed, the topic of sex isn't glossed over, and swearing isn't tactfully omitted. It's very much a book about honesty; both to yourself and to showing the world as it is, and I loved every single page.

A wonderful book for its teen audience. It conveys the messages it is trying to get across without hammering you in the head with them. It shows perfectly that there are almost always big things that you don't know about even the closest person to you, but that you can still learn to love and forgive them afterwards. A great read for everyone!

This is a funny book that doesn't preach to its teen audience. It's the perfect gift for a teen reader.

It seems that I've been reading a lot of gay theme books lately. I'm glad that books like The Sky Always Hears Me are becoming more popular. Morgan lives in a tiny town in the heart of America where mostly everyone is homophobic. I thought it was really funny how Morgan handled all these idiots. Overall, Morgan was an extremely funny and likeable character. I loved how she was always day dreaming about Rob and checking out his butt. It was just so outrageous. The way Morgan describes some of the customers in the store was also pretty darn funny, Morgan and her fortune cooking writing was a little bizarre, but in the end it added nicely to the story. Untimely, I wanted Morgan to succeed at her dreams to write the Great American Novel.

The Sky Always Hears Me is a story about relationships, so we get to see a lot of interaction among Morgan and those closest to her: Morgan and her grandmother, Morgan and her girl (crush?) Tessa, Morgan and her parents, Morgan and her boyfriend, and Morgan and Rob. The way I describe it sounds tiring, but The Sky Always Hears Me never felt long-winded. All the characters were well developed and interesting enough to keep me on my toes.

I found the secret that was reveled about Morgan's grandmother to be somewhat anti-climactic. After reading the summary I was expecting something truly shocking, but I ended up not being all the surprised. I did think that the idea of PMS induced aggression was rather unique. It seems like we are always hearing about how testosterone makes men more aggressive, but we never look at how women are affected by their own hormonal changes. I thought that this was a very nice touch and I'm glad the author included it.

My only real complaint about The Sky Always Hears Me are the large gaps in time between chapters. One chapter would end in September and the next one might start in November. Sometimes that would leave me wondering, "what happened to October, May, etc?" Overall, The Sky Always Hears Me was an emotional filled teen angst novel. If you enjoy coming-of-age type of stories you will enjoy this book.

The Sky Always Hears Me and the Hills Don't Mind is a teen angst ridden novel making it a star in my eyes. If you aren't captured by this funny and sometimes heartbreaking novel at first, don't worry you will be by the end.

Morgan is a character whose facing a lot going on right now. Her boyfriend is boring and lousy in certain departments, she just kissed one of her ex-friends....whose a girl, and she and her fellow co-worker at work may have more then platonic feelings for each others. Plus, her grandma may or may not be hiding a huge secret from her. The one thing I liked most about Morgan was that she has a problem or situation that any teen can find and relate to in their own way. Mine being getting out of the small town I grew up in, since she felt the same way. Plus, the secondary characters were also a riot which made me come to love Rob, Tess, and Ingrid. Since,they were always getting themselves in situations that was either extremely funny or sad.

The plot was also pretty good and kept the novel following at a rapid pace making The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind hard to put down. The only complaint I really had was how Kristin would jump from month to month, not really talking about what happened it between. For example for one chapter of the story she would be talking about March and then all of sudden in the couple of pages she would jump to the end of April. Though, in all, this wasn't at all that a big of a deal and did not detract one bit from this.

Overall, The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind is one novel that definitely does not disappoint. I truly look forward to reading what Kristin has up next.

Grade: A-

THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME is utterly incredible. It's saucy and hilarious, twisted and touching. I can't get enough of Morgan's story and Kirstin's writing.

Never before have I come across a protagonist like Morgan. Her snark and wit reminds me of Jessica Darling from Megan McCafferty's hit series (which I love), but her conciseness of speech and thought reflects more of Courtney Summers' characters (another author whose writing I love). Her voice had me constantly cracking up on the inside, a healthy relief from her borderline melodramatic life, which kept my countenance, if not my inner mental state, somber.

Kirstin Cronn-Mills skillfully develops her characters so that all of them are three-dimensional. All too often the choice that the protagonist should make is too easy for readers to spot early on, but that doesn't happen in this book. Yes, Morgan is bombarded with dozens of issues, but readers can clearly see why a resolution is not at all simple. There are many different ways--all equally legitimate--that Morgan could have played out her life, and also satisfying is the realistic ending: one that speaks of hope, but also does not play off of unrealistic dreams of eternal love or easy paths to happiness.

This book is not without a bit of melodrama, of course. Any one of those issues mentioned about in my summary is enough to provide several hundred pages of fodder for a good YA novel. To have them all in the span of 250 or so pages is perhaps overkill. However, things start straightening themselves out in the second half, and by the end of the book I was satisfied with how everything was resolved. Throwing a bunch of issues into the main character's life is a rather amateurish move, but Kirstin navigates Morgan's way out of the overwhelming problems with the ease of a much more established writer. Overall, it's an admirable narration and plotting job.

THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME is one of those books that a lot of people will like, but a few will really get. I think I am one of those people who get it and absolutely love it. Morgan's irreverence and Kirstin's writing style made a long-lasting impression on me. Even if the book doesn't end up speaking to you the way it did to me, you'll still be satisfied with this intelligent, snarky, and deeply satisfying book. Well done, Kirstin. Well done.

If you love quirky reads then this is a book you should check out. I knew this novel would be interesting just by reading the chapter headings--they're all fortune writings collected from various restaurants. Morgan is an unconventional girl, and we journey with her through a year of her life that includes a chaotic relationship with her parents and grandmother, along with her complicated love life as she deals with falling for her coworker while already having a boyfriend (and we mustn't forget to mention the kiss with Tessa). To say Morgan's love life is complicated is an understatement.

One of my favorite relationships that I loved reading in this book was between Morgan and her grandmother. Through this relationship, the reader sees how despite troubles with family, we can retain unconditional love for one another.

Morgan can be an insightful character, and at times, it's almost surprising and certain passages can take you off guard, such as when she compares her life to a disco ball: "Can you be sixteen and write a memoir? I want to write one called My Life as a Disco Ball. Everything reflects off you and you're removed from the fray, up near the ceiling, twirling away" (47).

While this book does delve into some serious topics, it also funny, as in there were moments where I actually laughed out loud. I also loved the writing style. There wasn't an abundance of detail that dulled the book, and I liked the short chapters as if we were getting little snippets into Morgan's life. The book also comes with surprises as Morgan has to deal with hidden secrets. As you keep reading, you realize everything is not as it seems.

I did have a problem with Morgan and her lack of maturity (I often wanted to scream at her), and it is evident that she is a very flawed character. Most of the characters in this story are very flawed, but that's also what makes it interesting and real. It made the novel more believable as if these people could actually exist. Overall, it was a quick and entertaining read and at times, thought provoking, too.

Here's what I loved: Morgan's relationship with her grandmother is both endearing and fraught with the very real fears teens experience. When Morgan is told a family secret, I'm shocked along with her. I feel her pain, her emotional confusion. I also found Morgan to be a realistic character, not one of those too-perfect kids with petty problems. She's perky without being obnoxious, funny without trying too hard.

Although I thought the book was terrific, the only part I struggled with was understanding the intentions of Morgan's boyfriend, Derek. I didn't think he acted like your average teen-aged guy. But then, I never lived in a small town, so perhaps they grow 'em different out there. If you want to see what I mean, read the book. :)

Even though I would have been kicked out of Menudo 24 years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind provides an authentic teenage voice and experience that many of us - no matter our age - can identify. The lead character Morgan contends with a lot of the teenage angst and wunderlust many of us do at that age without getting mired in it. Morgan knows she's better than Central Nowhere and struggles with her "captivity" but she has a wonderful spirit that finds its coping mechanism in her writing and scream therapy. Morgan's observations about the world around her and her place in it ranged from thought-provoking to flat out hilarious. The changing nicknames for where she worked consistently made me chuckle.

Cronn-Mills does a terrific job of character and plot development. You feel as though you know the characters without having to get bogged down in a lot of backstory minutae. This was a fun read I had trouble putting down. I was delighted by the way she transitioned between chapters without using numerals. I believe it made for a smoother break between segments yet helped the overall flow of the narrative.

Even though this work is a piece of fiction it's very real and I highly recommend it. This was a wonderful debut effort from Cronn-Mills and I look forward to hearing from Morgan again.