Book Summary and Reviews of Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie

Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie

Skye Falling

A Novel

by Mia McKenzie

  • Published:
  • Jun 2021, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A woman who's used to going solo discovers that there's one relationship she can't run away from in this "hilarious, electric" (The New York Times) novel, a probing examination of the complexities of family, queerness, race, and community.

When she was twenty-six and broke, Skye didn't think twice before selling her eggs and happily pocketing the cash. Now approaching forty, Skye still moves through life entirely—and unrepentantly—on her own terms, living out of a suitcase and avoiding all manner of serious relationships. Maybe her junior high classmates weren't wrong when they voted her "Most Likely to Be Single" instead of "Most Ride-or-Die Homie," but at least she's always been free to do as she pleases.

Then a twelve-year-old girl tracks Skye down during one of her brief visits to her hometown of Philadelphia and informs Skye that she's "her egg." Skye's life is thrown into sharp relief and she decides that it might be time to actually try to have a meaningful relationship with another human being. Spoiler alert: It's not easy.

Things get even more complicated when Skye realizes that the woman she tried and failed to pick up the other day is the girl's aunt, and now it's awkward. All the while, her brother is trying to get in touch, her mother is being bewilderingly kind, and the West Philly pool halls and hoagie shops of her youth have been replaced by hipster cafés.

With its endearingly prickly narrator and a cast of characters willing to both challenge her and catch her when she falls, this novel is a clever, moving portrait of a woman and the relationships she thought she could live without.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Maybe it's because we're coming out of a year of isolation, or maybe it's because I've spent far too much time extremely plugged into social media, or maybe it's simply because I'm a Gemini, but sometimes, I wake up and crave chaos. I (truly, emphatically, unconditionally) don't want to be a part of the drama—but I do want to read about something so outrageous, so unexpected, so out of pocket, that I feel as if I am buzzing and I can't help texting my friends to gossip about it. How lucky I am, then, to have read Mia McKenzie's hilarious, electric novel, Skye Falling." —The New York Times

"Razor-sharp and outrageously funny, Skye Falling is an absolute winner. Mia McKenzie has created a one-in-a-million heroine in Skye Ellison and has crafted an entirely fresh story about love that charms with curmudgeonly wit and a tender heart." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising

"I can't remember the last time a book made me laugh, cry, and reflect as thoroughly as Skye Falling. Mia McKenzie has written the kind of story I've been searching for, and maybe even gave up on as a possibility, and now, suddenly, it's here. This is a narrative about family, responsibility, and home. It's a new kind of love story, the best kind, and you'll be turning the pages just as quickly as I did." —Ashley C. Ford, author of Somebody's Daughter

This information about Skye Falling was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Mia McKenzie

Mia McKenzie is the award-winning author of The Summer We Got Free and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous Media, an independent media and education project that centers queer Black women and girls. She lives with her parenting partner and two children in the Happy Valley of Western Massachusetts.

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