NOSTALGIA REGARDING ANGELS – OR NOT? – Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron

TITLE: Out of the Blue
AUTHOR: Sophie Cameron

RELEASED: March 22, 2018
PUBLISHER: MacMillan Children’s Books
FORMAT: Paperback

GENRE: YA Fantasy, LGBTQIA+
GOODREADS RATING: 3.81

TRIGGERS: Grief, illness, suicide

SYNOPSIS
Ten days after Jaya Mackenzie’s mum dies, angels start falling from the sky. Smashing down to earth at extraordinary speeds, wings bent, faces contorted, not a single one has survived.

Hysteria mounting with every Being that drops, Jaya’s father uproots the family to Edinburgh intent on catching one alive. But Jaya can’t stand this 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.

When her best friend disappears and her father’s mania spirals, things hit rock bottom and it’s at that moment something extraordinary happens: An angel lands right at Jaya’s feet, and it’s alive. Finally she is forced to acknowledge just how significant these celestial beings are.

Years ago, I went through this stage of reading anything angel-related. Hush, Hush is the first series that pops into my mind when I think back to that time. Sometimes, you just want to go the nostalgic way and read one of those books again. This time, I got nostalgic by reading the blurb of Out of the Blue in the bookstore. Angels! Yes, please! Give me that nostalgia!

The only good thing, the thing I want to applaud in regard to this novel, is the LGBTQIA+ main character. Back when I read other angel-related stories, this diverse aspect (or any diverse aspect for that matter?) didn’t have any voice. Seeing that in this novel was a plus!

But that’s where it ends. Unfortunately.

I expected this story to be way more about angels than it actually is. The focus is way more on general friendship / family issues than anything else. On top of that, it isn’t as if the story actually goes into those issues very deeply either. It felt bland, really.
To be clear about the angels: the one angel that’s featured throughout this story doesn’t speak our language. So there’s no communication. You could almost say the angel featured as a prop more than anything else? I definitely wanted that to be different.

Apart from the impossible and non-existent communication with the angel, the other characters weren’t all that interesting either. Sure, they have their issues. Family issues, illness, other issues. But they still fell flat and were one dimensional.

On top of all that, I didn’t even like the ending! Throughout the book, I asked myself so many questions in regard to the angels and none of them got answered. None. I hate when that happens. Sure, the ending was nice.. writing-wise. Fulfilling, though? Nope. Definitely not. I was disappointed by all the questions that remained.

Good lord, it’s been a while since I did this.. But since there was only one thing I actually liked and that’s about it.. One cupcake it is.

Have you ever had certain expectations for a book and then it ended up being completely different? Did it surprise you or disappoint you?

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