YA Sci-Fi Reviewed for Adults: The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew

It’s been a while since I reviewed a YA science fiction book, and I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. While I love YA romance, it feels like so many of the recently published books in this genre are geared toward adult women rather than actual teenage readers. The plots seem to be getting darker, the sex scenes more descriptive, and the characters less like real teenagers and more like thirty-year-olds trapped in teenage bodies.

While I enjoy the content of these older-feeling YA romances myself, I’m finding it a bit of a shame as my kids get older that there aren’t more books available that I’d feel comfortable buying for my preteen. I’d like to be able to buddy read a book that has enough action and romance for me, but doesn’t scare my kid or give him the oogies.

I’m thrilled to report that The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew was not only fun for me as an adult reader, but I’d happily buddy read this one with my kid. The romance is sweet and satisfying. The plot, although it touches on dark themes, feels hopeful. And the book teaches a beautiful lesson that adults and teens alike should consider as we navigate a culture that often seems to value productivity over humanity.

In a futuristic Boston driven by productivity, Liv works as an Emo Proxy, providing vicarious emotional experiences for elite business people who are too busy climbing the career ladder to stop and smell the roses. Anything from the adrenaline rush of extreme sports to the peace Liv feels when she sees the city skyline can be sold as an emotional experience to a busy Upper, moving Liv one step closer to freedom from life in the impoverished Towers.

But Liv is also illegally selling emotional scraps on the side to Lowers, and when rookie cop Adrian catches her in the act, he pursues Liv into the wilderness outside the city.

When Adrian catches up to Liv, he finds that her memory has been wiped. She doesn’t know who she is or why she’s fled town. He offers to help her trek the wilderness, secretly planning to lead Liv back to the Metro and take her into custody. But as the two work together to survive animal attack, natural dangers, and capture by outlaws, they can’t deny the attraction simmering beneath their banter, nor the sense that there’s something in their simple existence together in the woods that was missing in their old lives in the city. And when Adrian’s people close in, he’ll have to choose between his career in the Force and the well-being of girl he’s falling for.

The story is fast-faced and exciting without feeling stressful. And there’s something about the style of banter and the colourful descriptions that made me picture the whole thing as an anime-style movie. That’s a huge compliment, since I adore Japanese animation. In fact, my goal for my own book was for it to feel as cinematic and colourful as some of my fave sci-fi cartoons.

And speaking of A Symphony of Starlight, if you like my book, I think you’ll adore The Dividing Sky, and vice versa. As dystopian cyberpunk romances, the two stories have a lot in common. The Dividing Sky is solidly cyberpunk even as it’s also a fairly clean and tame YA read.

Besides the usual techy mods, dystopian corporate society, and underground drug scene common to cyberpunk, The Dividing Sky also boasts the intriguing and unique concept of emotional and relational proxies–people who live the social and emotional lives of the wealthy so the elites can focus on being productive at their work. This concept is not only a fun plot device, it also feels all too realistic in our productivity-focused world, and reminds us of the dangers of focusing on work at the expense of living the meaningful moments in our own lives.

The only thing I didn’t 100% enjoy about The Dividing Sky was the male lead. Adrian sometimes came off as borderline incompetent. By the end of the book, I still didn’t feel like he fully deserved to be Liv’s partner going forward.

On the other hand, what twenty-year-old guy is as mature and competent as a romance novel MMC? Adrian was realistic for his age range and life experience. And maybe that’s healthy in a YA. Maybe it’s better than making the book boyfriend so unreal that real-life boys can never live up to the perfection.

The important thing about Adrian is that he has a good heart and he makes the right decisions in the end.

Overall, I loved this book and would read it again as a buddy read with my preteen. It’s the perfect combination of hopeful and truthful, with enough action and depth for an adult to enjoy as a solo read and enough youthfulness to be considered a true YA. I highly recommend The Dividing Sky to both adult sci-fi romance readers and teens looking for a meaningful story full of fun banter, kissing, and unexpected adventure.