Candlelight Reading...: Read my review of The Weight of the Sky by Caroline Schley #YoungAdult #Contemporary @carolineschley @XpressoTours

The Weight of the Sky

by Caroline Schley

Speak meets Gossip Girl in this searing contemporary Young Adult novel where the most courageous three words a teenage girl will ever have to say are, “I need help.”

But fifteen-year-old Chris Miller is far from courageous. She does nothing when her best friend is sent to juvenile detention for a crime Chris knows she didn’t commit. She stays quiet as her mother steamrolls her into a scholarship program at St. Catherine’s Prep for her sophomore year. She acquiesces when her new friends introduce ‘drinkstagram’ at their sleepovers. Chris understands that quiet insecurity isn’t the most valiant approach to life, but it gets her through the day unscathed. Until she’s sexually assaulted.

In the aftermath, Chris’s fragile coping mechanisms crumble, alongside her grades and her tenuous happiness. When Chris is forced to volunteer at an afterschool program to maintain her scholarship, she finds herself catapulted back to the very neighborhood she has been struggling to escape. When her family is thrust into the crosshairs of a gang war, she discovers just how much damage her silence can cause. Ultimately, she must decide if she will continue to stay quiet as others call the shots and remain a victim, or if she can forge the strength to stand up, declare the truth and call herself a survivor.

Trigger Warning: This story contains content that may be sensitive for some readers including sexual assault and drug/alcohol consumption

Publication date: May 20th 2021

Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

MY THOUGHTS

Chris’s lot in life thus far has given her few opportunities. She doesn’t know who her father is, and her mother refuses to speak of him. With an overbearing mother such as Chris has, Chris is not sure whose life she is living – her own, or her mother’s. Her future opens up when she is given a scholarship to St. Catherine’s Prep, although it is clear she does not fit in. There is no way she could’ve afforded to attend the school without the scholarship, let alone wear clothing and jewelry of the same standard as the other students.

Chris falls into a group of friends, who seem not to mind much about her lack of knowledge about clothing and makeup, although Chris does not speak much about her own upbringing, for fear that they would make fun of her and stop talking to her. When Chris catches the eye of Caldwell, a handsome senior, she barely listens to the warnings her friends give her about him, that he is a player and that it is very unlikely he actually cares about her.

Chris is a very brave character. Having to change schools, to such a drastically different environment, is one thing, but trying to fit in is another. Her mother wants her to become a doctor, but Chris isn’t so sure she wants to. Nevertheless, and despite the school being wary about signing a sophomore up for an AP class, Chris’s mother ensures her daughter is in the hardest, most challenging, and potentially good-looking on a university application, classes St Catherine’s Prep has to offer. It is clear Chris does not particularly want to take these classes, but there is nothing she could say to her mother to get her to change her mind. Chris takes on an exponentially large amount of studying, alongside trying to keep up with her new friends and the endless amount of drinking games, parties to crash, and names to remember. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, and Chris does not see this as a good thing – too many girls have already been disgraced from the school social ladder for rumours, and she does not want to join them.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Chris’s new friends. Coming from such different lifestyles, I was arguably more wary about them than Chris was, but they, for the most part, seemed quite nice. Chris seems to spend more time with Sterling than the others, and Chris grows to be comfortable in Sterling’s house, comfortable enough to help herself to the food stacked in the pantry that would otherwise never get eaten – the calorie content is far too high for Sterling to even consider eating it. I liked Ainsley, more than the other girls, because she is so kind and sticks by Chris no matter what. She seemed like more of a normal friend, the kind of friend who you can mess around with, trying to throw food into each other’s mouths, rather than the kind of friend that you need to pretend around, or pick your words carefully.

There are clearly some scenes in this book that would be triggering to some readers. Chris’s life is turned upside down when she finds that the word ‘no’ is sometimes completely ignored. I couldn’t have felt more sorry for Chris, and I wished that she would tell someone and get the help that she needed. However, the support system that she so desperately needs is not there for her, and she doesn’t feel like she deserves it. There are several different issues brought up in this book, such as what happens to Chris, Sterling’s issues with food, and the feeling that these girls have to hide their problems so they can get through the day safely, and without causing trouble.

There is one character in this book, other than Chris, that I absolutely adored, and that was Petey. Petey is a senior, and he has no romantic intentions towards Chris in the slightest, having a girlfriend that he is devoted to. Instead, he becomes her entire support system, there for her when she needs him to be, and ready to help out with anything she might want or need. The relationship that forms between them is one of close siblings, and he is exactly what Chris needs, and what she should have from her mother.

This book is an incredibly emotional read, and you definitely need to be prepared for what is to come when you go into it, for it is harrowing, for lack of a better term. However, I feel like the issues and scenes were approached considerately and portrayed with care. This book is not about ruined lives, but about people who have the courage to stand up to others, and to help each other. Not all friendships are the sort that you should keep, and not all boys are worth pursuing. But when you find those friends that are there for you through everything, who are willing to do anything to help you, they are worth holding onto.

Despite having some issues while reading this book, purely because of the horrors that Chris faces, and at such a young age, I was gripped and couldn’t put this book down. It is the kind of novel wherein you are so desperate to know what happens next, so desperate for everything to end up alright, that you simply keep reading it until you are done.

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I am a writer, teacher and outdoor enthusiast, always looking for a new adventure.

Originally from New York City, I have also lived in China, New Zealand and Spain. I’m on a constant quest for the best food and views in the world. Some of my favorite places are the GR 221 in Mallorca, the top floor of the Musee D’Orsay in Paris and the window seat on a Fifth Avenue bus in Manhattan.

I’m have received comprehensive work training in a large variety of fields including political street canvassing, freelance writing, white water rafting, latte making, childcare and secondary science education.

I have an undergraduate Magna Cum Laude degree in Environmental Science with a focus in Hydrology from CU-Boulder and a graduate degree in Secondary Science Education from NYU. I’ve served as an NSTA New Teacher Fellow, a Jhumpki Basu Fellow and participated in the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots Training program.

I’ve just completed my first YA contemporary manuscript and I’m seeking agent and publisher representation.