I first discovered Veronica Rossi and Under the Never Sky when I was getting ready to go to RT Teen Day back in 2012, which was in Chicago (and really that long ago? Wow!). The night before Teen Day, Anderson's in Naperville had a Spring into the Future tour stop, featuring Rossi, Cynthia Hand, Tahereh Mafi, and Anna Carey. I got UTNS signed, thinking it was a book I'd love...
Then I tried reading it a month or two later and HATED it. I gave up after 100 pages, completely confused about everything and feeling very meh. Fast forward to January this year: on one of our bazillion snow and/or cold days off from school, I was stuck at home and had just finished the only book I'd brought home from my classroom library, not expecting a day off. I was looking through my books at home (which is surprisingly not many) and saw the tossed-aside UTNS. For whatever reason, I decided to give it another try and miraculously, I really enjoyed it. I pushed through the confusing parts at the beginning and everything started to come together and become a really enjoyable book.
I didn't like TTEN and ITSB as much as UTNS, but they were still interesting and I felt pretty satisfied by the end of the series despite giving the last two books only 3 stars each. Sometimes's Rossi's writing style was too much for me and it's for that reason that I never wanted to just sit and read without stopping. I'd read a chapter or two, then do something else, then go back to the book. She did a nice job of recapping events and characters in TTEN and ITSB without being obvious, so that was nice for people like me who have a hard time remembering events in series books.
Right now, this series is not popular at school but it should be, so I plan on pushing it on students who like science fiction and dystopias. The dual narration is a great way to get students invested, although the covers are not. Man, do I not like these covers! Talk about cheese! Good thing we don't just books by covers, right?
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