SKY OF SEVEN COLORS

Seventeen-year-old Meg has already lost her mother, and now she is about to lose her best friend, Andrew, to college.

But Meg never imagined that she might lose her whole world. When a terrible accident leaves Andrew clinging to life by a thread, Meg is blindsided by grief and guilt. Hiking back to the site of the accident—where Andrew at last confessed his love for her—she is suddenly transported to a space between worlds, unable to return to her own. Trapped in a strange, colorless land among giants who believe she is the key to the salvation of their kind, Meg must fight to save those she loves, possibly even at the expense of her own life. Ironically, the bookends of the narrative set in the human world feel less vivid than the gray world of the giants. There’s something ineffably beautiful about the whimsical and wild fantasy world and culture Nelson has created. Meg is an interesting narrator, defined more by her circumstances and choices (or lack thereof) than her personality, though her stubborn determination to remain true to herself and her principles makes it easy to root for her. Her struggle for personal autonomy in a world that has stripped her of it will ring painfully true for many young readers. Supporting characters are vividly portrayed: alien without falling into caricature. Meg and Andrew are cued White.

A wonderfully strange debut.