We Own the Sky

T;his is just a cute fantasy book that revolves around the heroine and the ghostly hero falling in love. Its a cute fantasy book that if you like fantasy, its the book for you.

I enjoyed this read.

It’s a really good book. It will defintly make you cry during some chapters.You will have to read the whole series

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I really have to applaud the author of this book. She did a marvelous job of drawing me into this world from the very first pages all the way to the stories climactic and cliff-hanger of an ending. I am already a big fan of Greek mythology, often employing it into my preferred reading material and my own writing. Getting to explore this underutilized aspect of mythology was brilliant. The story did a fantastic job of creating and building upon one of the world’s largest and most inspirational mythologies while blending a unique and personal tale of what it’s like to grow up in today’s society.

The character development was the highlight for me. As a mental health awareness advocate, this story did a great job of both highlighting the struggles of those with mental health ailments and showing the stereotypes those with mental health illnesses must deal with within our society. It also highlighted humanity’s instinct to label those who are creative or act outside of what society has deemed “normal” as being “crazy”, an offensive word that brings negative connotations to the mental health profession. The protagonist Sylvia is a relatable teenager and artist, showing how therapeutic and mentally alleviating diving into the arts can be for people. As someone who suffers from depression, I know my love for writing has helped me to channel the sadness and loneliness I’ve felt into something positive, and that’s what this author has shown brilliantly.

Overall I loved this story. It was emotional, personal and a fantastic entry into what promises to be a thrilling new YA franchise. This story is just the tip of the iceberg for the story of the Muses, and I cannot wait to dive headfirst into Sylvia’s story in book two. If you haven’t yet been sure to pick up your copy of We Own The Sky by Sara Crawford today!

I received a complimentary copy of this book for free to give a voluntary honest review. This review contains only my own thoughts and opinions of this book. As much as I am grateful for this opportunity I gotta say, this book did not do it for me. At. All.

We Own the Sky is basically a huge insult to any artist out there. I mean, sure. The idea behind the whole Muses theme is interesting and different and usually I’m all for originality and uniqueness. However, this book takes the word “talent” and makes it completely meaningless and useless. Because the artists in this world doesn’t have any own talents. Not really. No, the muses gives it to them and the “artists” takes credit for it. There is no need for any own talent or hard work if you are just given music, songs or the ability to sing better, paint a Picasso’s painting or act. And then they use the word “inspire”. Like they “inspired the artist” or “the artist was given inspiration”. Well, that word is extremely miss-used. Inspiration means that you find/are given a idea or a small puzzle piece, but then make it your own work, with your own efforts and thoughts and ideas behind it. Basically you make it all on your own with the idea you’ve gotten and you struggle and work hard for it. It is not even close to inspiration if you are just given the art right away and play it off as your own with no effort of your own either. It especially annoys me that the protagonist used her muse to basically cheat her way to a solo role in a concert. He made her sing good, so how was she more deserving of the part than anyone who actually could sing without a muse’s interference? Someone who actually had talent all on their own?

I think this book’s muse was Stephanie Meyer because the whole romance between Sylvia and Vincent hit a bit too close to twilight for my taste. Mainly because it was a very codependent unhealthy relationship (seriously, the main girl started crying like sobfest101 just because she couldn’t be apart from him for two days. Grow a pair! Or better yet, grow up and get some independence for gods sake!) where Vincent constantly put Sylvia in danger just by being close to her. Because of that he leaves, but comes back because he does not have the strength to stay away from her. Sounds familiar?

Their whole everyday life is spent with each other like clingy apes. I guess it was to show the readers how much in love they were, but it honestly felt very forced to me. They couldn’t have a normal human conversation ever. Their relationship contained only dialogues of music, the problems they faced and how much they loved each other. It felt more like a play of romance instead of an actual romance. It disturbed me that they could never argue or be in any sort of disagreement either. They were always on the same page (both figuratively and literally, in fact). It was just so unrealistic and so dull. There was nothing I could relate to in their relationship. The same goes for personality. These people could not possibly exist in real life, and I don’t just mean because of the hole muse thing. These people does not exist because real people don’t act like this.

Sylvia I guess was supposed to win our affection by her angsty behavior and troubled past. All I got from her however, is that she is so full of herself that she can’t think outside herself and notice the people surrounding her and that she’s socially awkward (she danced in the middle of the street while walking to school, and write in a diary she named Lily? I think most readers can agree with me that books are a way to escape embarrassment and awkwardness we personally experience in real life. So don’t make us read about it as well). Most everything about her annoyed me and I just wanted to climb into the book and tell her to get over herself and grow up. She kept throwing pity parties for herself and blamed her surroundings instead of actually actively trying to help herself. No, she expected everyone else to do it for her and just crawled into her little hole of loneliness and couldn’t understand why she was lonely. She thought of herself so special as well, naming every instrument and musical object like that is not a known fact that many musicians do.

I get that this book perhaps is more for music fans out there, but I can’t be the only one who found all the pop culture references too much, right? They were everywhere, in every page and chapter. Seriously, 90 % of this book was about music on repeat, what songs she listened to, what musicians and bands she liked. What she put on to listen to for bed, for waking up, for shower, on her way to school, her way home, while eating, while … well, while everything. I know her passion was music but that’s just overkill.

There were just to much negative in this story to see anything of the good parts. The one thing that kind of made it better, perhaps, is the whole drama with Travis in the end. Other than that I can’t find any reason to want to keep reading this series, sadly. It was just too messy, with all the name dropping’s, pop culture references, bad romance and worst of all the butchering of art and talent. I’m not really artistic myself, so I guess it shouldn’t bother me that much. I do, however, have a sister who is an amazing painter and a seamstress. This is insulting to her and her gift. There is no invisible man telling her what to paint or sew for her to be good at it. She is an amazing artist because of practice and hard work, plus a smudge of genetics. Nothing and no one else!