The hate you give vibes! Very well written with a strong plot line. Keep me interested with some unsuspected twists! Would definitely recommend checking for triggers prior to reading

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Please read the trigger warnings before reading this book.

Christopher is a high school student with the opportunity to enroll in an elite school. When she starts her school year, academics become the least of her problem - until they too become a problem as a result of a traumatic event.

Caroline Schley did a wonderful job writing this story which had several surprises imbedded.

A great book overall!

THANK YOU TO THE PUBLICATION HOUSE AND AUTHOR FOR PROVIDING ME WITH ADVANCE READERS COPY OF THIS BOOK AND MY OPINIONA SRE NOT INFLUENCED BY ANYONE
IT WAS SUCH A HEARTFELT BEAUTIFUL STORY AND DEALT WITH MANY GOOD ISSUES

First of all, thanks to NetGalley for approving my request and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review.
You have to know English isn’t my first language, so feel free to correct me if I make some mistakes while writing this review.


Real rating: 4,5 stars.


TRIGGER WARNING: alcohol, drug purchase, abortion (mentioned), doubtful consent, assault, rape.


Bridgeport, Connecticut. Chris lives in the poorest and most criminal part of town, she's fourteen and has just gotten a scholarship to attend her sophomore year at St. Catherine's, a prestigious private school across town. It has always been just her and her mother, a nurse who made it through great sacrifices and who always repeats to Chris how important it is to take advantage of all the opportunities she is given - but she never says a word about her father and she frowns upon Chris's friendship with Lesley.

Chris is basically a good girl, but her mom doesn't know that she's already kissed a boy and had a little experience and that Lesley is great at stealing her mother's alcohol and knows the right people to buy weed from - plus, Chris isn't even sure that the dream of being a doctor is really hers alone.

St. Catherine's is a whole other world and the social and economic differences are all too obvious, even if her new friends Sterling, Bree and Ainsley never make a big deal out of it. But it's also an extremely competitive school and the pressure from her mother upon Chris to excel in every field doesn't make things easier - Chris would also like to spend time normally with her friends between sleepovers, snacks at the diner frequented by the popular kids and crash the seniors' parties. A senior just like the terribly charming guy that Chris has a crush on, despite all the warnings about him and his reputation from her friends.

And it's precisely at one of these parties that one of the worst things that can happen to a girl happens, the consequences of which are tragic: of the three people to whom Chris tries to say it immediately, only one of them believes her and is on her side, while the her grades plummet and her entire life seems to fall apart - pain, anger, shame, fear are now the only constants of her life and nightmares.
Only by accepting the support of those who have never abandoned her and remembering the love and teachings given to her by her putative father, Chris will be able to get back on the right path to learn how to heal.


From the plot, the book looks more like "The Hate U Give" than it actually is. We are told that Chris's is not a nice neighborhood and that Jose - the husband of her mother's best friend and the only father figure Chris has ever known - has been in jail for five years because he found himself in the middle of a gang's business and didn't want to report for fear of repercussions, but apart some news later and a couple of meetings with people from hers old life, Chris's existence runs far from those tracks.

The first half of the book is mostly focused on the economic difference between Chris and her friends and the constant shame of not being or having enough, despite her mother always telling her that a rich person is no better than her just because they have more money. Celeste is a tough mother, who certainly tries her best as a single mother, but who often appears unlikeable due to the expectations she places on her daughter and because she herself pretends that everything is fine and doesn't talk about the problems even when clearly there's something wrong going on.

The book begins to engage more emotionally from the Halloween party onwards - and Chris's dubious consent when she's with Caldwell, the guy she has a crush on and everyone had warned her about, isn't even the worst part of the story. The author did an exceptional job of describing and dealing with all the consequences in Chris's life following the sexual assault: anger, shame, fear, apathy, inability to focus, keeping at distance even people who believe her and want to help her - everything is described so realistically that it hurts.

I deeply loved the friendship between Chris and Petey, already in the air even before that night - Petey is clearly a guy who, from personal experience, knows full well that money doesn't automatically make you a good person and is determined to help Chris in any way he can, even asking his girlfriend in college for help on how to do it. The effort and attention that Petey puts into getting Chris out of her shell is something that warmed my heart and that I would like to see more often (in real life and fiction) and I also loved how Chris didn't need any romantic relationship - also because it was really the last thing she needed - to be able to save herself.

I think I "felt" this book in an even more intense way than those books where the protagonists are seventeen - although seventeen is the most critical age for me in my memories and in my life.
But I remember what it was like to be fourteen / fifteen - that feeling of having the world at your feet, of being invincible, of finally reaching the age to start experimenting with alcohol and getting infatuated with older kids and hoping to be noticed by them. That feeling of knowing exactly what you are doing, even if people sometimes warn you about situations you're getting yourself into.

Certainly Caldwell was terrible and superficial, certainly he took advantage of a girl's infatuation for his own pleasure and he certainly wasn't really listening to what Chris meant / wanted to tell him - I hated him, but never as much as I have hated the other male character and Caldwell's gesture in the end gives me hope that he understood the gravity of the situation and what the limit is, making him a better person in the future.

The title has its meaning - this is because the sky of Chris's life will never be as blue and cloudless as it was until that night, but that doesn't mean that dawn can't rise again. It's absolutely a good book, with heavy themes dealt with in the right way - it didn't involve me as much in the first part as it did in the second and it didn't make me burn with rage like other books did, but it's certainly deserving of all your attention. It's also impossible not to love Chris and her journey.

This book broke me. I think it should be required reading for the kids in privileged areas who might better under the cycle that rotates in the "bad" areas. My heart has been sitting with this book since I read it. Excellent job.

Well written novel that deals with very real struggles in a respectful way. Highly recommend for YA and adult readers alike.

Please note: This is a review from the author! So probably not fair and unbiased. But read on if you would like some context on the backstory of the novel.

If you can believe it, when I started working on the early drafts of ‘The Weight of the Sky’, it was a love story. In the summer of 2019, when I was learning some hard lessons about how to kill your darlings, deep questions about the #metoo movement gripped the United States.

It was an uncomfortable time in the country, with debate about sexual misconduct coloring everything from Supreme Court nominations to dinner table discussions.

At the forefront of this critical juncture sat a courageous and resolute group of women who were seeking genuine change in the tone of the American conversation around sexual assault. Even now, it’s difficult for me to accurately describe the admiration I had for the bravery of these women, who voluntarily put the most vulnerable and difficult moments of their lives in the crossfire of a national debate.

I drew tremendous inspiration from them, as well as from my years of experience as a high school teacher in institutions ranging from high-needs public schools to expensive independent campuses, as I built the cast of characters in this novel.

I wanted a story that respected the difficult moment in history during which it was written and spoke to the contemporary young adult experience with the #metoo movement. I can only hope I’ve succeeded in any small way with these lofty goals.

This was my first novel, and its creation was one of the most unique and beautiful experiences of my life. I hope you enjoy it! If you would like to know more about this and other writing projects, please stay in touch at www.carolineschley.com

The Weight Of The Sky tells the story of Chris a 15 year old sophomore, to begin with her life is running along nicely. She has be accepted into a posh school, St. Catherine's on a scholarship which is described as a "opportunity of a lifetime".
However things take a turn for the worse when her friend is sent to juvenile detention centre and Chris thinks she is to blame.
When she starts at her new school she quickly makes friends with three girls and starts to have a crush on one particular boy. Basically throughout the school year there are various party the friend go to where they drink more and more until the slightly predictable happened.
After one particular climatic night Chris's life is changed forever and inevitably her school work dramatically declines and her mother is brought in and Chris is given one last chance.
Will she manage to overcome her problems and get her life back on track?
Let's just say the ending of the novel was a bit of a shock to me, maybe you will see it a mile off! Happy reading!

Thank to Netgallery for giving me this novel in exchange for my fall Frank and honest review.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Weight of the Sky in exchange for an honest review.

I have such mixed feelings with this book. Honestly, the first about half felt like reading about rich kids talking about rich kid problems despite the fact that the MC herself isn't wealthy and I really wasn't into it but once the book's main trauma happens, everything is so well handled that I can't justify giving it a bad rating. Schley really manages to make their protagonist feel so real in her assault and response to it that it's impossible not to root for her to come out okay after everything. I'm not an SA survivor so I'm not the best person to speak to this book's accuracy, but this felt like a really respectful way of opening up discussions about sexual assault.

I raced through this book in 2 days. It is a thoughtful, well plotted YA looking at the impact of sexual assault, parental expectations and peer pressure in a social media age. The characters feel real and the handling of sensitive issues is done well.