Her Name in the Sky

Kelly Quindlen

2014 • 414 pages

Ratings11

Average rating4.2

Seventeen-year-old Hannah wants to spend her senior year of high school going to football games and Mardi Gras parties. She wants to drive along the oak-lined streets of Louisiana's Garden District and lie on the hot sand of Florida's beaches. She wants to spend every night making memories with her tight-knit group of friends. The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a girl--especially when that girl is her best friend, Baker. Hannah knows she should like Wally, the kind, earnest boy who asks her to prom. She should cheer on her friend Clay when he asks Baker to be his girlfriend. She should follow the rules of her conservative community--the rules that have been ingrained in her since she was a child. But Hannah longs to be with Baker, who cooks macaroni and cheese with Hannah late at night, who believes in the magic of books as much as Hannah does, and who challenges Hannah to be the best version of herself. And Baker might want to be with Hannah, too--if both girls can embrace that world-shaking, wondrous possibility. In this poignant coming-of-age novel, Hannah must find a compromise between the truth of her heart and the expectations of her community. She must break through her shame and learn to trust in the goodness of her friends. And above all, she and Baker must open their hearts to the saving power of love. Raw, moving, and teeming with unforgettable characters, Her Name in the Sky is a modern love story about the teenage quest for identity and the redeeming power of the human heart.

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Iara

While I enjoyed the talk about religion and how being queer doesn't go against that and they can co-exist, I felt like everything that happened after a certain point was too extreme. It's probably something that can happen, I guess, but it felt unrealistic and like the author was trying to play up the drama so that the characters who had been ‘mad' would get over it and intervene.

I do like that both Hannah and Baker are somewhat called out for what they do, even if they were in pain, but I also feel it's not enough. Same happens with Clay. I don't think anyone would be that forgiving after what these characters do to some of their friends.

I think I would have enjoyed this more had I read it years ago. It was still enjoyable but it felt lacking. Though I do think it's an important and interesting conversation to have.

October 31, 2021

Hosu

(I asked for a recommendation in the end, I'd love if someone read it, no need to read this whole ass paragraph, just the last lines)

3/5 I liked it, I bit too long for what the story needed. Hated the the dialogue on cap.
Hannah shouldn't have forgiven Barker so easily. Barker was a bitch along side Marlene.
A lot of emotions.
Wally deserved better

Honestly , this book made my cry like a baby. I think I never cried this much reading a book.
I was so hook up that I finished in one day.
I loved the group dynamic.
I even rooted for Wally and Hannah, after everything Baker did to Hannah I felt like she did not deserve her back, no matter how scared she was, there's no justify for her actions.
I felt towards the end it was like a fanfic, when all the stuff in the last party when down but then I remembered reading so many real cases of attack towards gay folks just for the sake of being gay.

I thought the book was going to end with baker and Hannah in the hospital and I'm glad it didn't.
I was really happy that hannah went and talked to all her friends about it and how everyone of them reacted. Just wished she had told Wally that she did like him and she didn't send the mail.

I'm not catholic and I don't know much of the bible of all those things but i relate to something hannah did. I'm gay and I have often struggling with the why am I like this, I have cried myself to sleep wishing for it to just go away. I have even asked “God” for help (I put it the “” bc I'm not really sure what I mean with God)

You know at some point in the story I thought Hannah was going to hurt herself but it ended begin Baker.
I was happy with the end and how things got resolved (for what I could tell, Marlene was expelled right?)
However I still wanted Wally to be with Hannah. I read the book because it was a sapphic story but ended up rooting for the straight couple lmfaoooo

Can someone recommend me book with character like Wally? Doesn't matter if it lgtbq or straight, I just want more of Wally