Review: Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Amazon / Goodreads / TBD

Title: Under The Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Romance, Post Apocalyptic, Adventure
Format: Paperback, 376 pages
Source: bought from Powerbooks

Synopsis:
Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered.
This was worse.


Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland — known as The Death Shop — are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent energy storms will. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild — a savage — and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must come together to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.



I was excited to start this series and join the bandwagon because I can’t relate whenever some of my friends talk about this book. I also saw some fandoms on Tumblr which made me more intrigued with this book/series, thinking it must be really good so I bought the whole series and succumb to the hype.

“It's hard to follow a person's logic if you don't know how they feel.” 

I tried really hard to like this book, I was thinking maybe it was my lack of experience with dystopian books that made me confused when I started this. I was sooo bored and the world building confused me a LOT. The book started with Aria thrown out of the Reverie. A place where people had Smarteye, a device that helped them see or create different realms. Can’t understand? Yeah me too.

“The more I try to catch up, the farther I fall behind.” 

The world building sounded so promising although I didn't get it at the beginning. There were a lot of complex ideas that weren't explained clearly like Reverie, the Aether storm, the Unity, and the different clans or tribes or type of people that lived in Aria and Perry's world. It’s hard to imagine a supernatural world when you don’t really get the whole picture, right? It took me to read the whole book before I could finally understand some of the supernatural ideas this book had.

So there, it started with Aria’s exile to the Death Shop which in turn was the world of the Outsiders or Perry/Peregrine’s world, the male mc. There they met and discovered that they needed each other for their own agendas. From what I understood and in my own terms, Aria came from a future world with eyepiece that creates a pseudo-place for them and Perry lives in the real world were you hunt for your food, feel fear, get hurt and experience real sex. Yes, in Reverie sex was kind of a mind thing, just think and it happens.

“Because people are more than emotions. People have thoughts and reasons for doing things.” 

Aria and Perry weren't really interesting and I didn't really enjoy this two. There were just moments were their encounters were funny and amusing, but they were very few. However, I liked how their relationship progressed in the book. They got to know each other, they bickered a lot from the beginning and discovered things they never knew would wind them together. I was glad that even if they spent a lot of time together from the start, their relationship wasn't insta-love. Yes there were moments that they felt attracted to the other person, but that didn't drove them to suddenly make out. They made love something that needs to be cherished and something that was built through time.

“He kissed her slowly. Everything went slowly so he could follow her temper, and search into her eyes. When they joined, her scent was brave and strong and certain. Perry took it into himself, breathing her breath, feeling what she felt. He'd never known anything as right.” 

Roar, Perry’s best friend, was trying hard to bring comedy to the story and be the minor character that puts a little kick to story, but sadly I think he failed. He may be interesting, but it was not just enough. Or maybe the world building just bothered me so much that I focused more on trying hard to understand their world than feeling the characters. Or maybe, lack of description of the character's life.

One thing I liked in this book though was how their names relate to their gifts or talents or abilities. Like Aria, she was described as an exceptional singer and the whole Reverie knew this, hence the name Aria.

Overall, this book did disappoint me and the only thing that made me hold on to this book longer was the love Aria and Perry had. It was sweet and passionate at the same time. And because I already bought the other two books, so yes, I am gonna continue and hope that it will get better in the next two books.

“People can be cruelest to those they love.” 

2 out of 5