The Sky Blues, by Robbie Couch, narrated by Michael Crouch

[Ulysses]

The Sky Blues
By Robbie Couch
Narrated by Michael Crouch
Published by Simon and Schuster, and Audible
Five stars

Sky Baker hates his life. Thrown out by his mom at sixteen when she found out he was gay, he’s living in his friend Bree’s basement. Author Robbie Couch takes the reader through a slow build, pulling us into Sky’s daily life at the Brandstone’s house and at Rock Ledge High School in northern Michigan.

The whole book is another reminder of how hard it can be to just be a teenager, and the ultimate surprise of this story is the revelation that Sky, for all his troubles, really has a lot to be grateful for. The key plot point—a homophobic racist leak of personal pictures on the high school’s student e-blast—comes along well into the story. By this time the reader already knows what Sky doesn’t yet quite realize—that there are people who care about him a lot and will support him. The damage done by his mother’s rejection and the loss of his father when he was a little boy (represented by a burn scar on his chest that he has named Mars) have left Sky almost unable to see the good in his life. The real plot arc is witnessing Sky’s realization (not unlike Jimmy’s Stewart’s realization in “It’s a Wonderful Life”) that his life might not be so bad after all.

Michael Crouch does a great job, as usual, narrating the many voices in Sky’s life, including his own inner voice. The distinct pleasure of an audio book is the performance of the reader, and this is a stellar example of a good choice by the author.