Review Detail

Funny story: I was browsing shelves at the library when I picked up The Sky Inside because the title reminded me of Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi, which is a book I really want to read. It turned out to be a really lucky coincidence, because the cover blurb was really interesting, and I ended up checking out The Sky Inside, hoping for a cool dystopian novel.

I think at this point, it’s going to be impossible to create a “new” and “unique” dystopian premise. Since The Hunger Games, the genre has really taken off and it seems like 1 out of every 2 YA novels being released are dystopian. So while I can’t really say that the premise and plot of The Sky Inside is completely different and unlike anything I’ve ever read, I can say that this book was very, very interesting. In the best possible way, of course.

Martin is 13 years old, and he lives with his specially-designed genius sister and his parents. They all live in steel domes, known as “suburbs,” and their only communication into the world outside their dome is what shows on their television. For his birthday, Martin gets a new “dog” and from there he comes to question everything he’s known about his world and who he really is.

Again, not the most uncommon set-up for a novel, but it was all in the presentation. The Sky Inside is, I think, one of the only novels I’ve read where every single aspect of daily living has been twisted beyond recognition—in this book, humanity as we know it is completely dead. So watching Martin function, to uncover these lies, was truly fascinating for me.
I was a little disappointed that the “big reveal” only came in the very last chapter, and that it took the form of an info-dumping conversation. It would have been nice for Martin to figure things out on his own somehow.

Side note: that “dog” you see on the front cover? Yeah, I want one. Really badly.

Among the soup of dystopian novels swimming around, The Sky Inside stands out. Dunkle’s treatment of her topic was extremely interesting, and I very much enjoyed experiencing life inside the steel-domed “suburbs.”