This book was good, really good to be honest. But (yes there is a but) it annoyed me. Really annoyed me. Really really annoyed me ... I could go on.

I was swept along from the beginning being drawn into Fin & Maximums world. I wanted to know what would happen, I agreed with their decisions and wondered how they would cope with what I predicted (correctly) would happen. I cared about the characters, sympathized with Noll's moral questioning and Fin's worries about spoiler the gun, his dad, his mum lack of food. I was impressed with the way the characters were represented, average 17 year olds being generally badly stereotyped (by average I mean one who would find our world normal rather than say Katniss who has grown up with The Hunger Games, she is not a typical 17 year old).

What really annoyed me was the end. It ended abruptly, too abruptly for me. I felt as if there were space for at least another 100 pages of story. I was disappointed I didn't get an overall resolution to the story. So it gets a 3.5 stars from me. The Sky so Heavy was great but it could have been soo much better. ( )

Great book. Thought it could be beginning of a series but I kind of liked how it ended and happy if it stopped there. Would love to write the screenplay adaptation of this story. Think it would look amazing on film or TV. ( )

Great book. Thought it could be beginning of a series but I kind of liked how it ended and happy if it stopped there. Would love to write the screenplay adaptation of this story. Think it would look amazing on film or TV. ( )

Erica read this 5/19 on recommendation from her school librarian. We had a good discussion

about it. ( )

This is good. Characters are great and the plot is surprising and realistic. It presents the reader with lots of possibilities, and the choices made by the characters are laced with what ifs? Moral dilemmas are rife, but the overriding concern is with survival and what people are willing to do in order for that to happen. An obvious first in a series, it offers a shocking ending - quite unforeseen. ( )

I reviewed this but once again my review was lost by the stupid app, so here is the goodreads synopsis:
For Fin, it's just like any other day - racing for the school bus, bluffing his way through class, and trying to remain cool in front of the most sophisticated girl in his universe, Lucy. Only it's not like any other day because, on the other side of the world, nuclear missiles are being detonated.
When Fin wakes up the next morning, it’s dark, bitterly cold, and snow is falling. There’s no internet, no phone, no TV, no power, and no parents. prepared him for this. With his parents missing and dwindling food and water supplies, Fin and his younger brother Max must find a way to survive all on their own.When things are at their most desperate, where can you go for help? ( )

I just couldn't get into this one, unfortunately. ( )

Thank you to University of Queensland Press for providing a copy of this book. This did not influence my review in any way.

Claire Zorn has just become a must-buy author for me. First The Protected, and now The Sky So Heavy, colour me impressed! The Sky So Heavy is an apocalyptic novel set in the Blue Mountains. Our hero is Fin – seventeen years old, just your average teenage guy, bluffing his way through class and through interactions with Lucy, who leaves him weak at the knees. There is talk of nuclear testing that day when he’s at school, but he never expects to find himself in the middle of a nuclear winter. Suddenly, there’s no power, no water and only limited supplies of food. With his dad unable to get home and his mum unreachable at her Government job in the city, it’s up to Fin to look out for younger brother Max and try to find a way to get them through this, together with Lucy and the unpopular Arnold Wong who Fin had never spoken to other than in jeers before now. Four kids, alone, and just trying to survive.

Reminiscent of Tomorrow, When The War Began (which I also loved), The Sky So Heavy was an instant hit for me. I read it in a day and was utterly consumed by it. A couple of chapters in and I started to wonder how much canned food we had at home. Half the book in and I was developing my survival plan. Then, too wrapped up in Fin’s world, I couldn’t think of anything else. I think what made it so compelling was the fact that it feels like it could happen tomorrow. Overnight. Just like that.

The characters were well developed and while not always likeable, both they and their actions were realistic. Fin is forced to doubt his life and his choices, Lucy was intelligent and a bit of a badass especially with a cricket bat, Max was maturing and slowly growing up while a part of him still wants to be a kid, and Noll was trying to hold on to his faith. I loved the relationship between Fin and Max, and the way Fin took over a parent role for Max - he really stepped up even when it was difficult. Fin and Lucy's developing relationship was sweet and kind of sad too, considering all that was happening, and regarding that I especially loved this line: "I know you don't need me to, but I will protect you" and the fact that he recognises she can stand on her own two feet. I love that she confronts him when she thinks he's leaving her out of dangerous trips because she's girl or that she can't hold her own. And he apologises and then changes his attitude. It's so great to read and so rare!

As I closed the book, I wondered to myself, does this need a sequel? And while I would love to know what happened to the characters, I think this works perfectly well as a standalone. I didn't want to give them up just yet, but at the same time I was kind of glad to finish because I was on edge the whole time I was reading. But it was a bloody good read that I really enjoyed and I'm looking forward to what comes next from Claire Zorn! ( )

Similar is style to John Marsden's 'Tomorrow when the War Began' . Set in the Blue Mountains of Sydney, the story allows us to get to know Fin, his family and his high school crush, Lucy, before throwing the whole lot into chaos when a nuclear threat becomes reality. Fin and his younger brother Max are abandoned, surrounded by radioactive snow. Food supplies are diminishing and hunger is turning neighbours into enemies. The action ramps up further when Fin and Max are reunited with Lucy and join forces with an unlikely companion for a dangerous mission to the city. ( )

Apocalyptic novel set at the beginning of a nuclear winter. There were elements that reminded me of books I read when at school or starting out in libraries, titles such as Z for Zachariah, Brother in the Land and Children of the Dust come to mind. It is not a simple copy of these stories however and the Australian setting along with many current issues underpin the story. Ideas explored here include the heavy reliance of the modern world on electricity and a lack of understanding about living with the natural world and the treatment of refugees, in this case due to an environmental disaster. Many other elements are there as well, survival, starvation, mental strength, bullying and racism.
It begins like any other day for Fin, a fairly normal Australian teenager. He is living in a small town in the Blue Mountains, N.S.W. where everything and everyone is familiar. It it all goes downhill from here. Nuclear missiles detonated after a conflict between two unnamed countries on the other side of the world spell disaster for everyone in Australia. Plunged into a nuclear winter Fin and his younger brother, Max, separated from their parents, have to survive. they are alone with food and water becoming more scarce and cold and darkness setting in. The normal way of behaving changes as people become sick and desperate for food, medicine and fuel. There is nothing coming out from the authorities and any hope of some sort of rescue fades. Suspicion, paranoia and rancour become more and more evident throughout the once friendly neighbourhood. Fin and Max decide to head to Sydney, with some friends, to try find their mother. The journey to Sydney really brings home the enormity and finality of what has happened to Fin. The realisation that things will never go back to "before" hits home. He and Max are refugees in their own country on the wrong side of the barrier. As the story progresses Fin has many increasingly difficult choices to make and each one has consequences. He is not perfect and his character reacts in very understandable ways.