The Sky Blues
Sky’s small town turns absolutely claustrophobic when his secret promposal plans get leaked to the entire school in this witty, “earnest, heartfelt” (Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author), and ultimately hopeful debut novel for fans of What If It’s Us? and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it.
What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen?
Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator.
But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?
Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it.
What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen?
Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator.
But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
3.75 stars rounded up
This was a fun read, and as a follow-up read to Blaine for the Win, I can definitely see a common thread connecting the two books in tropes, motifs, and writing styles.
At the heart of the book is a very endearing plot that follows MC Sky as he trudges through the last 30 days of High School with only one goal in mind; to ask Ali Rashid out in the most epic, spectacular, fantabulous promposal that Rock Ledge has ever seen. However, one awfully bigoted act of hate speech in the form of a mass e-mail sought to crumble Sky's plans and his self-esteem at large. But what happens next proves that it takes more than a slur to put a Queer down cus we're tough as fucking nails.
The characters, too, were a joy to read. I love the dimensions in Sky's character; Mars, his tragic backstory, his non-existent relationship/memory of his dad, his fear of being perceived through the cis-hetero lens etc. Bree and Marshall are spectacular friends, and the other side characters, Ali, Teddy, and Dan were also fabulous as well. The relationship between the core trio made me feel a bit nostalgic about my time in high school, which I think is a testament to Couch's ability to capture the essence of teenage friendship.
The book has a handful of plot twists that genuinely made my jaw hammer to the ground and my eyes well up in tears. And the best part? I could not have called most of these. Especially the Marshall master planning Teddy's promposal and the yearbook reveal bit.. Those were incredible.
However, a glaring problem that the book has – in my opinion at least – is that it keeps leaving the best parts out. The chapters often end the moment a climax is achieved or, well, it just ends at really unfortunate timings. For example, the aftermath of the fight between Gus and Sky could have been explored instead of cutting to the next day and having Sky's feelings about yesterday's happenings be relegated to 2 mere lines. Furthermore, the Lake Michigan dip scene could have been so much longer because we never got to see how the others reacted to Mars and what that meant to Sky. It could have been so heartwarming to see the whole scene drawn out more. Next, the ending is pretty stupid because, at the core of the book, the central theme hanging over each character + the reader is prom! So to not have a glimpse into how their prom worked out, or how Sky felt about going to prom with Teddy instead of Ali, or how this could have been like a full circle moment for the gang is absurdddd to say the least. Lastly, Teddy and Sky's relationship is criminally underrepresented in the book which is insane? After Teddy's promposal we just cut to 30 days later LIKE ????????
I could keep going but I will stop here. This book could have easily been 4.5 or 5 stars but the missing in-betweens kept putting me off, but this is an otherwise decent book!
(EDIT: Aside from the missing in-betweens, I loved how most of the loose ends were tied up by the end of the book; like the aforementioned promposal master planning, and Bree's doleful mood at the time of Ali's party so that's another merit for the book!)
This was a fun read, and as a follow-up read to Blaine for the Win, I can definitely see a common thread connecting the two books in tropes, motifs, and writing styles.
At the heart of the book is a very endearing plot that follows MC Sky as he trudges through the last 30 days of High School with only one goal in mind; to ask Ali Rashid out in the most epic, spectacular, fantabulous promposal that Rock Ledge has ever seen. However, one awfully bigoted act of hate speech in the form of a mass e-mail sought to crumble Sky's plans and his self-esteem at large. But what happens next proves that it takes more than a slur to put a Queer down cus we're tough as fucking nails.
The characters, too, were a joy to read. I love the dimensions in Sky's character; Mars, his tragic backstory, his non-existent relationship/memory of his dad, his fear of being perceived through the cis-hetero lens etc. Bree and Marshall are spectacular friends, and the other side characters, Ali, Teddy, and Dan were also fabulous as well. The relationship between the core trio made me feel a bit nostalgic about my time in high school, which I think is a testament to Couch's ability to capture the essence of teenage friendship.
The book has a handful of plot twists that genuinely made my jaw hammer to the ground and my eyes well up in tears. And the best part? I could not have called most of these. Especially the Marshall master planning Teddy's promposal and the yearbook reveal bit.. Those were incredible.
However, a glaring problem that the book has – in my opinion at least – is that it keeps leaving the best parts out. The chapters often end the moment a climax is achieved or, well, it just ends at really unfortunate timings. For example, the aftermath of the fight between Gus and Sky could have been explored instead of cutting to the next day and having Sky's feelings about yesterday's happenings be relegated to 2 mere lines. Furthermore, the Lake Michigan dip scene could have been so much longer because we never got to see how the others reacted to Mars and what that meant to Sky. It could have been so heartwarming to see the whole scene drawn out more. Next, the ending is pretty stupid because, at the core of the book, the central theme hanging over each character + the reader is prom! So to not have a glimpse into how their prom worked out, or how Sky felt about going to prom with Teddy instead of Ali, or how this could have been like a full circle moment for the gang is absurdddd to say the least. Lastly, Teddy and Sky's relationship is criminally underrepresented in the book which is insane? After Teddy's promposal we just cut to 30 days later LIKE ????????
I could keep going but I will stop here. This book could have easily been 4.5 or 5 stars but the missing in-betweens kept putting me off, but this is an otherwise decent book!
(EDIT: Aside from the missing in-betweens, I loved how most of the loose ends were tied up by the end of the book; like the aforementioned promposal master planning, and Bree's doleful mood at the time of Ali's party so that's another merit for the book!)
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.