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muddypuddle's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 Two sisters (one just out of prison) take a road trip following their dead mother's scavenger hunt-like clues from IL to NM. Lots of dinos , lots of talking, and lots of getting on each other's nerves. I only liked one of the sisters....
rainbow_reader's review against another edition
5.0
This was a very enjoyable read and I like reading about Billie and Rhiannon and their interactions seemed very realistic. The road trip was also cool and I liked the low-key mystery vibes. I don't have much to say about it but I really enjoyed reading it.
bookwoods's review against another edition
5.0
4,5/5
Getting to spend over 400 pages with Anne Valente’s characters was such a treat – I’m so impressed at how real they feel in short stories, and in a novel format you can get so much more out of them, especially the characters of The Desert Sky Before Us. Rhiannon is an ex-race driver, her sister Billie has just been released from a six-year prison sentence and their mother, a renowned archaeologist, has created a sort of a treasure hunt for her daughters before an illness took her. During the journey that the treasure hunt develops into you slowly get to know Rhiannon and Billie in a way that is almost painfully real. I was sucked in right from the first page, needing to know what brought the sisters in their current circumstances and whether they’ll succeed in reconnecting with each other. While of all this inner turmoil is going on with the sisters, the world shows signs of chaos: repeated airplane crashes, droughts and endless rain; Valente doesn’t fail to provide an environmental aspect, which I was thankful for. I would have appreciated it if climate change had even more direct and prominent role, but then again, The Desert Sky Before Us really is about the mental journey of the two characters and as such, it's brilliant.
Getting to spend over 400 pages with Anne Valente’s characters was such a treat – I’m so impressed at how real they feel in short stories, and in a novel format you can get so much more out of them, especially the characters of The Desert Sky Before Us. Rhiannon is an ex-race driver, her sister Billie has just been released from a six-year prison sentence and their mother, a renowned archaeologist, has created a sort of a treasure hunt for her daughters before an illness took her. During the journey that the treasure hunt develops into you slowly get to know Rhiannon and Billie in a way that is almost painfully real. I was sucked in right from the first page, needing to know what brought the sisters in their current circumstances and whether they’ll succeed in reconnecting with each other. While of all this inner turmoil is going on with the sisters, the world shows signs of chaos: repeated airplane crashes, droughts and endless rain; Valente doesn’t fail to provide an environmental aspect, which I was thankful for. I would have appreciated it if climate change had even more direct and prominent role, but then again, The Desert Sky Before Us really is about the mental journey of the two characters and as such, it's brilliant.
sariggs's review against another edition
3.0
I liked that this book is about three very different women, and about how little we know our parents, and how different yet the same siblings can be. Little tidbits like what being the only woman race car driver or a woman paleontologist or hawk handler were fascinating, as were the small references to what it was like being gay in a small Midwest town. I didn’t always enjoy the repetitive whiny arguments the sisters had. I liked the settings a lot, since I’ve never been to any of their road trip stops, and don’t know much about bird or dinosaurs. I loved the very believable results of climate change in the book. The loss of air travel would be a huge blow to our way of life.
mgdoherty's review against another edition
I’m gonna need to stop weeping before I write a review.
happiestwhenreading's review
This one had great potential, but there were a few things that just weren't working for me. I appreciate that an author has to dangle some carrots in order to keep their audience engaged, but when those carrots just keep adding up and none of them are resolved, I found that I stopped caring. It ruined the overall excitement for me. Also, there were a few too convenient things that would happen. It's just unrealistic and it was one-too-many eye rolls for me to continue. Last, though no fault of the author's, there was some editing that clearly needed to happen. I only read through 150 pages and it was very repetitive. I got the point! Jeez. And this is one of those books we all seem to hate - the ones with no quotation marks...drove me bonkers.
In the end, this one just felt like more work than it was worth. The premise was enticing to me and I am curious how this wraps itself up, but I couldn't get passed a few of my issues enough to slog though.
In the end, this one just felt like more work than it was worth. The premise was enticing to me and I am curious how this wraps itself up, but I couldn't get passed a few of my issues enough to slog though.
laurynreads's review
4.0
I remember finding this book randomly in the used section of Harvard Bookstore and being stoked about a desert road trip that two sisters take. I don't think I anticipated just how hard it would hit me. Valente's writing style is just enough to kind of keep me on my toes the entire time, it was so interesting. I really love Rhiannon and Billie and this journey. It also confirms for me that the desert will always be in my heart, will always be home, even if I don't live there.
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