Sky in the Deep

By: Adrienne Young

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

In her highly-anticipated debut audiobook, Adrienne Young brings to life a lush, vivid world that will enchant listeners everywhere. Sky in the Deep is mythic in scope and speaks straight to the heart.  

Raised to be a warrior, 17-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: train to fight and fight to survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield - her brother, fighting with the enemy - the brother she watched die five years ago. 

Eelyn loses her focus and is captured. Now, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan settling in the valley, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family. 

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother's friend. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family to find a way to forgive her brother while daring to put her faith in the people she's spent her life hating. 

This epic audiobook adventure will transport listeners to a distant time and place, but the characters themselves will seem like old familiar friends.

"Fearless in its exploration of family, forgiveness, loyalty, and love, Sky in the Deep is fierce, vivid, and violently beautiful. This book will wage a war with your heart as brutal and as bold as the battles inked in its pages." (Stephanie Garber, New York Times best-selling author of Caraval)

©2018 Adrienne Young (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"Young’s often poetic writing forms a stark juxtaposition with her vivid descriptions of battle and bloodshed, creating a clear picture of the brutality of war." (Publishers Weekly)

"Young’s staccato prose matches her fierce fighters, but the raw emotions and rapid pacing belie a well-honed voice and taut narrative. A rousing saga and moving coming-of-age tale, perfect for those who appreciate the wild and the wildlings, strong female protagonists, and cinematic battles." (Kirkus)

A rich character-driven narrative, well performed

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Sky in the Deep is definitely something unique in the YA Fantasy landscape. Intensely character-drive, stark, bleak, and yet the thread of hope is pulled taut throughout the entire narrative.

What other book might you compare Sky in the Deep to and why?

And I Darken by Kiersten White, but less dense and complex, quicker paced, with a touch of fantasy influence.

Which character – as performed by Khristine Hvam – was your favorite?

Eelyn, but she differentiated all the characters well. Never took me out of the story. Excellent performance.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

All the interactions between Eelyn and Halvard. Totally disarming.

Any additional comments?

Sky in the Deep hit me in the feels with its focus on family relationships, both blood family and found family, and in particular the close and complicated sibling relationships. Aaaaagh my favorite!

Lest you think Eelyn is yet another generic Strong Female Character Who Is Not Like Other Girls, please let me clarify: The beautiful thing about this book is its reflection of Viking culture and the role of women. Eelyn is not special because she's a woman warrior. There are lots of women warriors. It's just the way of things. And the men in this book are deeply emotional, too, and not at all afraid to show it. Eelyn is loyal to her core, fierce, proud, loving, and ultimately powerful in a way that has nothing to do with her physical strength.

Raw and Brutal With A Lot of Texture and Depth

This. Is so much. Everything. I can’t. I just. I want to find the right words to explain why, or even how this grabbed me by the throat and squeezed until I forgot how to even breathe and no longer even cared that I couldn’t. But I can’t. I’ll try, but I already know I’m going to fail to do it justice.

This YA fantasy, reminiscent of a Viking culture, is one of my favorite reads of 2018 so far, and I’m already 171 books deep and have read some pretty amazing stuff. I currently can’t name any of those other titles, because I only have eyes for Sky in the Deep right now, and as a result, everything else has suddenly paled in comparison.

This is absolutely brutal and stark, but with so much texture and depth and richness of the world that I want to throw away my flip-flops and messy bun for battle armor and braids. The MC is pure wrath and solid conviction, and I love that her level of ferocity and concept of honor is paired with so much raw emotion.

On a worse note, this novel is so incredible that it has completely crippled me with self-doubt, and I’m now floundering with my current writing project. So I both love that it could destroy me like this, and I hate that I allow myself to be made small in comparison. Probably, in a few days, after I pick myself back up off the floor and stop reeling, I’ll try to resolve this crisis of writing faith. For now, I mostly just want to pick this story back up and bury myself deep inside the world again. And then again and again.

As an aside, if you can’t handle blood, gore, battle, and violence, then you will struggle with this book, but I suggest you find a way to handle those things, if at all possible, as there is so much heart you’ll be missing out on if you pass this one up.

Loved the narrator

For me, the saving grace of this book was Khristine Hvam. If I hadn't listened to it, I might never have finished this one. There was so much that left me questioning everything about this. For one, the brother. Five years he spent separated from his family. Which I could get, honestly. It wasn't like they had a mail service, cell phones, or even pigeons to send messages. What I never understood was the circumstances of how brother and sister had their fateful meet. That is what kept me from enjoying this book. It didn't make sense and it was never explained (and I can't explain without giving away spoilers).

I think this might have been better without the brother, Eery (Or is it Eerie? Eary? Ahhh! The only trouble I have with audiobooks!). If she were captured without the pretense of her brother being alive (by all rights, he should be dead), the story could have been so much more without him. I think the soul searching would have meant so much more.

Boring.

I struggled to finish this book.
I found the main character quite dull. She kept saying she was strong, bold and amazing, but she doesn't act like it. It is odd to hear/read someone praising themselves for their awesomeness. The storyline was pretty boring. I feel like the romantic relationship between her and the love interest was forced, and came very sudden.

Gosh what garbage

I disliked this book from the first couple of chapters on but given the great rating it had, I held on and listened to the end - I wish I hadn't. What a waste of time. No relatable or even marginally likable or distinguished characters; obvious and predictable plot; redundant descriptions, and just overall a crappy story.

meh

This was a hard one for me to finish. I just couldn't get into it.

Only okay

I saw that this book had several really good ratings and I was in the mood for a YA adventure type book so I gave this one a try. The narration was good but the book itself didn't really impress me. It was a bit on the gory side in some places, which didn't really put me off but wasn't a plus for me either. It might bother other readers so I thought I should mention that. I didn't really identify with the characters and feel with/for them the way I usually do in a good book. I just felt like the story wasn't explained well or something. Like, so many things happened kind of all the sudden. Like the romance part of it...I didn't necessarily feel like either person had feelings for each other, but all the sudden things were happening with them. And so many other things that you expect the characters to have to work through, just turn out out okay without anything really happening (with the exception of some battle scenes). I don't know how to explain it... I think it could have been a good story but there just wasn't enough build up or back story or something for me to feel attached to any of the characters. When I finished I just kind of thought, "So that's the story, huh?"

good but predictable

It was an easy read (listen) with good characters and strong women role models but the story line was very predictable.

I don't understand the hype

Touted as this great work of YA fiction in 2018, but it was tough for me to even finish it. The first half of the book is the MC moaning about hating another clan...over and over and over again. Annoying and repetitive, the only saving grace was the strong narrator. No plot twists or turns, this bland story makes me question how publishers decide on which authors to represent.

Lucky to have Hvam

The narration of this story kept me listening. I wasn’t 100% sold on it even to the end. Young made a fantastic choice in Hvam!