The Sky Between You and Me by Catherine Alene Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“I wish I could explain, what it was like. Fingers counting the bones that were becoming me.”- The Sky Between You and Me, Catherine Alene

Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

Raesha will do whatever it takes to win Nationals. For her, competing isn't just about the speed of her horse or the thrill of the win. It's about honoring her mother's memory and holding on to a dream they once shared. 

Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

For an athlete. Every second counts. Raesha knows minus five on the scale will let her sit deeper in the saddle, make her horse lighter on her feet. And lighter, leaner, faster gives her the edge she needs over the new girl on the team, a girl who keeps flirting with Raesha's boyfriend and making plans with her best friend.

So Raesha focuses on minus five. But if she isn't careful, she will lose more than just the people she loves. She will lose herself to Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

I think I mentioned this in one of my other blog posts, but when I was first getting back into reading after a two year slump, I picked up a lot of eating disorder books, as well as rape and other VII (very important issue- you'll see this one a lot) books. While I've mostly moved away from those kinds of books, I still find myself reaching for books about eating disorders on shelves. Also, I wasn't really loving the book I was reading at the moment, and decided I needed some YA contemporary. And I realized that this book took place on a ranch and had horses. I love horses, and I didn't even care that it was about Western riding (barrel racing in particular) and not English riding. You see, around the same time I was reading those eating disorder books, one of my favorite blogs was Mugwump Chronicles, about a woman who was a working cowhorse trainer out in Colorado. While she hasn't updated since the October of 2015, I still love going through her archives and rereading her posts about her life with horses. With this book, I was hoping to achieve the perfect combination of the two for a book that the Laura of 2015 would have loved.

And I did like this book. Quite a bit, actually. Perhaps if I was reading this at a different time, I would have rated it much lower than what I did end up giving it, because there are some flaws that I would have butchered most books for. I didn't think Alene's decision to use poetry as the narrative vehicle was very successful, for one. This book would have worked better as straight up first person prose. Or something like JJ Johnson's Believarexic, where she transitioned from poetry to prose. Maybe prose then poetry then prose again, to mimic the process of the disease? The characters, with the exception of Raesha and her father, were also pretty one dimensional, and I found some aspects of this book a bit confusing.

Another thing is just a general observation, but I noticed that dead mothers in YA novels almost have a manic pixie dream girl quality. They're always kind and quirky and beautiful and selfless and all kinds of other adjectives. I mention this here because the dead mother in this book most definitely has this. I find this mildly annoying, but not enough to completely subtract from my enjoyment of the book.

Because overall, I did enjoy this book. I liked Raesha just fine, and found myself relating to her loneliness as another girl seemed to take her place in her boyfriend and best friend's lives. I also liked how, if this was a typical YA or YA romance novel Raesha would be the villain- the jealous girlfriend of the love interest who appears to hate the sweet, innocent new girl main character without any real reason to. You know, like in The Problem with Forever. I also liked the Western vibe, even if I wanted more of the actual barrel racing. I wish Alene had touched on the impact riding has on Raesha and didn't fast forward through many of the barrel racing parts. I also loved the refreshing family dynamics shown, with a real stand-up single dad character. 

Raesha's eating disorder was sensitively and skillfully done. Eating disorders in fiction are hard to write about, especially given the sensitivity of the disorder. I appreciated how Alene didn't mention any specific numbers about her weight (or even her height, which factors into weight, given that the shorter you are the less your healthy weight will be). While it stuck out a bit when Raesha mentioned she had gone X amount of hours without food, I can see and get behind why Alene would be reluctant to put an actual number to the hours, probably realizing that if someone was going to read this book while in recovery that could likely set them off. Those parts of the book are well done. 

This book definitely isn't for everyone, and I can see why it got rated on the mediocre side on Goodreads. But it worked for me, and again, I think a lot of had to do with the time I read it. While this was a long book, it was a quick read, but then again novels in verse are always easy for me to get through and the verse took me back to reading Ellen Hopkins' 600-700 page books in like 2 hours (and feeling completely emotionally drained afterwards). I do recommend this book if you're looking for a good quick VII read.

8 out of 10