Jillian Cantor has a BA in English from Penn State University. She received her MFA from The University of Arizona and was the recipient of the national Jacob K. Javits fellowship. She is the author of award-winning novels for teens and adults including, THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS, THE LIFE OF GLASS, and THE TRANSFORMATION OF THINGS. Her latest novel for adults, MARGOT, a re-imagining of Anne Frank’s sister in post-war America, was published by Riverhead Books on 9/3/13. Her next book for teens, SEARCHING FOR SKY, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2014. Born and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia, she currently lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons.
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor was a quick and interesting read. These days books are all about people figuring out how to navigate in a world very different from what we have today but this story focuses on two individuals who grew up on an island and are suddenly thrown into our existing world. I found myself pulled right in and couldn’t wait to see how things went.
Sky and River grew up with Sky’s mother (Petal) and River’s father (Helmut) on a remote island. They were always told that they were the sole survivors of a boat crash and they managed to survive for a number of years. The story opens on Sky’s sixteenth birthday and we find that now, it is only Sky and River left and they are doing their best to survive but it isn’t always easy. River had always challenged Helmut and his rules and now that he is no longer around, he makes the decision to try to draw attention to their island. He believes that if a boat would find them, he could go back to his mother, who he believes was left behind.
A boat does come for them and both River and Sky are thrown into a situation that they don’t know how to adapt to and the only thing familiar to each of them (each other) is ripped away and they are forced apart. Sky it turns out is actually Megan and her grandmother comes to take her home with her…and away from River who happens to really be Lucas.
As the story progresses, we find out there is really more to this story and Cantor does a wonderful job of peeling away the real story layer by layer. Sky’s mother was really a part of a cult, which happened to be run by Helmut. Before they left on the boat, Helmut enlisted the help of Lucas to feed the cult members apples that happened to be poisoned. Because of this and the fact that the press has had access to the images showing Lucas in the pictures, there is an immediate bias toward him, not only by the public but specifically by Sky’s grandmother. It is because of this bias that she basically pays him to stay away from Sky which ultimately creates larger issues.
It was really hard once River was back in Sky’s life to see how different their integration to the real world was. Where Sky had someone who tried to care for her, River had no one. He didn’t know how to do anything but survive in the wild (for lack of a better way of explaining) and because of that, he ends up living in a somewhat similar situation to before…just a different location.
I really did feel bad for these two. We see the story through Sky’s eyes and to see her ripped away from River and then everyone trying to force her to be someone she wasn’t made me want to shake everyone and make them see how much they were hurting her. Ben was the one person to pull through for them in the end and I appreciated how he admitted what his role was supposed to be and to make up for it, he did what he had to in order to gain back Sky’s trust.
Overall this was a solid 3.5 stars for me. I thought the pacing was good and the way Cantor brought me into these characters lives was great. It was a quick read and I found myself turning the pages to see how it would all end up for these characters. I would have liked to know more about the decision Helmut made (with the mushrooms – – why then…did something happen??) but it in no way took away from the story of Sky and River.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the review copy.
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