Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi- Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
...........................................................................................
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genres: Dystopia/Post Apocalyptic
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012
My Review:

In this book, we have two main characters: Aria and Perry. Aria has never been outside the place she lives in, called the Pods. She basically lives in the Realms, virtual places where you can do anything, be anything, and imagine anything. You don't feel pain or anxiety or anything like that. It's an easy, comfortable life. Perry, however, is an Outsider. He lives out in the open, in a tribe. He doesn't know a comfortable life. He must hunt for food, take care of his little nephew, and try to deal with his brother.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for giving me an ARC of this book!

First off, lets talk about the cover, since I love judging books by their covers. I love this cover! It really does the book justice, plus, it actually makes sense. It's not some random cover, like a random girl in a random dress [there seem to be a lot of those types of covers out there!]. It hints a little bit at what the story will be about. Overall, the cover is gorgeous!

OK, with that out of the way, lets talk about all the reasons I loved this book...:

-The setting. I really loved the world Rossi has created. Everything was generally easy to understand for me, but it wasn't plain and simple either. It was really great, and well-done.

-The writing. I loved, loved, loved the wording Rossi used, especially the ending. That ending was just amazing. Just the last paragraph. I don't even know why I loved it so much, but I just did. I loved how everything was so vague, but you knew what was happening anyways. It's kind of hard to explain, but nonetheless, I loved it. I also liked Rossi's wording throughout the story. She doesn't come out and say everything directly, but almost dances around it. It's something I liked.

-The characters. The characters were simply amazing. The main characters weren't perfect, they had their flaws, but that made them even better. I also loved how they learned for their mistakes. Learned from each other. Characterization happened! We watched the character grow, and frankly, I don't see that in very many books these days. Plus, they weren't brain-dead or stupid. They used their wits, and weren't frustrating at all. And I love how the side-characters also had great personalities. I personally loved Roar. He was a funny type guy that I immediately liked. And even Cinder had his good qualities. Overall, we have a great crew of characters in this book!

-The romance. This was probably the main winner in the story for me. Usually, I'm not a fan of romance in books. Actually, almost 99% of the time, I'm not a big fan of romance in stories. And I especially despise insta-love. Especially insta-love. *shudder* We can talk about my hate for insta-love later, but let it be known that I really, really, don't like insta-love. But this story, for once, didn't have insta-love! A big shock, yes, I know. The romance in this book was slow, sweet, and it developed over the course of the story. It wasn't like:
Girl: "Hi there!"
Boy: "Hey!"
*20 seconds later*
Girl: "I love you!"
Boy: "I love you sooo much!* and all that other mushy stuff I hate. We could see the slight changes of feelings throughout the book. Definitely one of my favorite things about the book!

So why didn't I give this book a full 5 stars? There's two reasons...:

-The Aether. I really don't understand what the Aether actually is. Rossi really didn't give us explanation about it. Is it like a layer of the sky? Or is it the actual sky? It's something that really confuses me, and I think it will play a very big role in the next book, so I think we need to know more about the Aether.

-The last few pages. I know I said I loved the ending above, but that's basically the last paragraph. The last few pages of the book, lots of time flies by. Thing is, we don't know how much time went by, or what happened to the characters during this time. I know at least a few months have gone by, and during this book, that's a fairly long time, since some major events happen before this all this time flies by. So I would really like some extra details on what exactly happened. Hopefully, what happened during this mysterious amount of time will be explained in the next book [which, by the way, I'm absolutely dying to read].

Wow, have you ever heard people say how hard it is to talk about a book you love? I never believed them, but let me tell you, after writing this review, it's really hard to describe exactly why I loved this book so much. My advice though? Go read this book. You won't regret it.





Tweet