Book Review: Out Of The Blue; Sophie Cameron.

This reading slump is killing me, but I have to say this book was enjoyable and helped me a lot. It was picked for me to read out of a hat alongside a group of friends, and timed perfectly with my trip to Edinburgh!

SOURCE: Netgalley
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: Out Of The Blue
AUTHOR: Sophie Cameron
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Children's Books
PAGES: 272
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult

RATING: 4.5/5 Stars

Blurb:

When angels start falling from the sky, it seems like the world is ending. For most people it doesn't. But for Jaya the world ended when her mother died, two weeks before the first angel fell.

Smashing down to earth at extraordinary speeds, wings bent, faces contorted, not a single one has survived and, as the world goes angel crazy, Jaya's father uproots the family to Edinburgh, intent on catching one alive. But Jaya can't stand his obsession and, struggling to make sense of her mother's sudden death and her own role on that fateful day, she's determined to stay out of it. Then something extraordinary happens: an angel lands right at Jaya’s feet, and it’s alive.

Set against the backdrop of the frenzied Edinburgh festival, Sophie Cameron's Out of the Blue tackles questions of grief and guilt and fear over who we really are. But it’s also about love and acceptance and finding your place in this world as angels drop out of another.

What I Liked:

• I really loved that (a) Sophie Cameron set up a present-day reality in which angels fall out of the sky so realistically that I was actually horrified to imagine that this probably would happen and (b) wrote a book about angels falling out of the sky that didn't fall for every urban fantasy/paranormal genre trope under the sun. THANK YOU.
• The diversity and themes covered in this book were what struck me most about this read. It's hard to find LGBT PoC characters, especially main characters. I was so pleased to see Cameron be so effortlessly inclusive in the story and I'm glad that this was a story about love, friendship, family and grief rather than just angels.

What I Disliked:

• This wasn't a major dislike of mine but I did feel that the end was a little rushed and dramatic in comparison with the rest of the book's pacing. I also couldn't help but notice a few plot points that were unrealistically incidental. I know Jaya's relationship with her father was strained, but I can't believe for a second that she never demanded to know what he planned to do with the angel if he got one.

Overall Conclusion:

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and think this was a stunning debut from Cameron! I have seen that a lot of people enjoyed this, and was really excited to read it myself. I'm glad I was finally pushed to do so! If you like reading books with supernatural elements, particularly angels, but find most of what you read to be the same old story then I really recommend this!