Book Review: We Own the Sky by Sara Crawford

It's been a while since I've posted a book review on here. Unlike my previous reviews, though, this one isn't old. In fact, I just finished reading this book today, and I'm dying to share my thoughts with you guys.

So here is my review for Sara Crawford's WE OWN THE SKY. Or, as a more descriptive title, MYTHOLOGY IS SO MUCH MORE AWESOME WHEN YOU ADD A KILLER SOUNDTRACK.

Book Title: We Own the Sky
Series: The Muse Chronicles (Book 1)
Author: Sara Crawford
Age Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Number of Pages (According to Amazon): 510
My Rating: 4 out of 5

Okay, admittedly, about 80% of the reason I initially decided to pick up a copy of this book was because of THAT COVER. I'm a sucker for gorgeous covers. However, I can assure you that the story inside definitely does the cover justice.

We've had plenty of stories about vampires, mermaids, and ancient myths of all types, but I can't recall ever coming across a book about the Muses. Especially not one with a modern take on Muses, where any artist who dies can become a Muse. That's right -- in this story, there are pop star Muses, emo Muses, and '50s pin-up girl Muses. Also a love-interest Muse. We'll get to him in a minute.

Our protagonist is Sylvia, a lonely, music-loving teenager with a history of depression. Over the course of the story, we see her use music to connect with the real world and make some new friends, which I thought was a lovely arc. She has a quirky habit of naming objects that are important to her -- her iPod is Murphy, her journal is Lily, her drum set is Charlie. She also has an excellent taste in music, as the references sprinkled throughout the story attest (anyone who listens to The Beatles as much as she does is a winner in my book).

Sylvia's love interest is Vincent, a Muse from the 1800s who died at 19 and now eternally looks that age (so it's totally not creepy :P). A lot of people have compared their relationship to that of Edward and Bella -- the immortal dude who stalks his love interest, and the clingy girl who can't live without her man -- but, you know, at least Vincent never got the overpowering urge to kill Sylvia.

Okay, in truth, the romance wasn't bad. I just kind of wish there had been more connection between Sylvia and Vincent other than "We both love Art" and "tingly feelings." I didn't really get a sense of how their personalities match up, and I often found myself asking whether their relationship would exist if Vincent was a regular human. But like I said, it's still a better love story than Twilight (*badum tish*) (No, actually I'm serious).

So what's the main conflict in the story? Well, the modern Muses are overseen by the original Muses from Greek mythology (Calliope, Erato, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Urania, and Clio -- but not Thalia, because ... well, read the book to find out). Urania, the current ruling Muse, has been very lenient about which artists can become Muses. This has angered her sister, Clio, who vows to kill some of the modern Muses to pare things down a bit. Of course, she wants to start with Vincent, who has flaunted the Muse rules by becoming visible to his artists -- most recently, Sylvia. We get a dual narrative -- Sylvia going about her high school life and trying to explore her new-found musical inspiration, interspersed with what's going on in the world of Muses. Vincent acts as kind of a bridge between the two. You'd have thought that this sort of holistic narration wouldn't leave many surprises to be discovered, but there are, in fact, plenty.

Overall, the general appeal of this book to me was the unique concept. I loved exploring this modern interpretation of the Greek Muses myth, and Sylvia's sensitive character and heavy musical themes just added to the joy of reading WE OWN THE SKY. If you'd like to read something that blends mythology, modern music, and a Twilight-esque romance, then this book is for you.

Buy your copy of WE OWN THE SKY here.