Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Sky in the Deep Review

by Edie Hoganson

Warning: spoilers!

I recently read Sky in the Deep, a stand alone novel about two viking clans, the Aska and the Riki, who are mortal enemies and fight each other every five years. The main character, Eelyn, a warrior, has a brother, Iri, who she saw die in battle. But she sees Iri fighting on the side of the enemy clan (the Riki) five years later, so she goes to investigate and gets captured by the Riki. There she finds that Iri is living as a Riki clansperson and has a new family there, including an adoptive brother Fiske (who is Eelyn’s love interest). Things happen and Eelyn has to unite the two tribes before they all die horrible deaths. 

I thought the plot was okay, if trope-y. The ending felt rushed and too easy. Two clans that have hated each other for generations, who have hating each other deeply ingrained into their cultures, aren’t going to suddenly work together so well even if there’s a common enemy. The way the clans work together even after they’ve stopped the common enemy is really unbelievable. The author tried to make it more believable with an attempt by the Aska to defeat the Riki, but the Aska were way too easily dissuaded from their attack. 

I also felt like more of the important characters should have been hurt or killed from the wars. It’s hard to have so many people die (in a random way) and not have at least one of them be closer to Eelyn. The viking clans aren’t that big. The author also makes Eelyn out to be this great warrior but she always gets super injured whenever she fights, which didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Another thing I didn’t like was the whole thing about the gods having a plan for Eelyn. That’s a trope that really annoys me because the way the gods work never makes sense (I get that they’re supposed to be all ~mysterious~ but still) and the way the gods intervene in mortal lives is never well explained and makes me annoyed.

The characters were okay but not very memorable. Eelyn felt really similar to a lot of other YA protagonists, and a lot of characters weren’t very well developed. 

This story was all about feelings, and it did hit me in my soft spot. I thought the author developed Eelyn’s feelings about everyone (and everybody else’s feelings, mostly) really well. She explored the emotional aspects of the situation well, and made Eelyn’s feelings change gradually enough that it was realistic. I did think the whole Fiske suddenly saving Iri, someone who’s part of a group he’s hated since he was born, because they were stuck in a ditch together was sketchy and not very well explained (he just felt that it was right!). I certainly wouldn’t save someone I’d been trained to kill my whole life on a whim, and I also think the way Fiske’s whole family goes along with his decision is too convenient. 

I personally didn’t like the author’s way of writing. I already returned the book, so I can’t give examples, but it was a bit painful to read. Other people might like that style better, though. 

Lastly, I had mixed feelings on the romance. On one hand, Eelyn and Fiske are really cute together, but on the other hand, it felt kind of forced (I mean, what are the odds that two characters in a YA novel who come from different backgrounds that hate each other won’t fall in love?). For example, Fiske doesn’t really seem to be changing his attitude towards Eelyn at all for most of the book (he hates her for the first half), but then suddenly he has to protect her from something (even though she’s a strong capable woman who was able to defend herself, she needs her love interest to save her from a threat she could deal with just fine just to advance the romance. Obviously.) and he becomes all friendly, and then like 3 chapters later he trusts her with his life. Also, he shot her in the shoulder with an arrow, on purpose, for (in my opinion) not a very good reason and makes me a bit uncomfortable. But besides that, they fit together really well and aren’t problematic. 

So, overall, the plot and the characters weren’t great, but the emotional impact made Sky in the Deep a pretty okay book. I’d recommend it to people who like books like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard or Renegades by Marissa Meyer.