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    Her Name in the Sky
    Her Name in the Sky
    Her Name in the Sky
    Audiobook11 hours

    Her Name in the Sky

    Written by Kelly Quindlen

    Narrated by Piper Goodeve

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.



    Contains mature themes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 11, 2017
    ISBN9781541471337
    Author

    Kelly Quindlen

    Kelly Quindlen is the bestselling author of the young adult novels She Drives Me Crazy, Late to the Party, and Her Name in the Sky. A graduate of Vanderbilt University and a former teacher, Kelly has had the joy of speaking to PFLAG groups and high school GSAs. She currently serves on the leadership board of a non-profit for Catholic parents with LGBT children. Kelly lives in Atlanta.

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    Reviews for Her Name in the Sky

    4.5/5

    167 ratings12 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a beautiful and engaging story that explores love, self-acceptance, and the struggles of understanding one's own sexuality. The characters are alive and their feelings are real, making it easy for readers to root for them. The book is highly recommended for teens dealing with similar struggles. It also portrays the pressure of hiding oneself from society and the inner turmoil of discovering one's sexuality. Although some readers found the protagonist's suffering anxiety-inducing, the overall consensus is that the book is well-written and the narrator is perfect.

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      What a beautiful story! A journey through love and conflict in hopes of self-acceptance. I wish I had this book available when I was seventeen and struggling with understanding my own sexuality against the background of a religious upbringing.

      This book should be required reading for any teens dealing nowadays with those same struggles.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      So many beautiful uses of literary imagry that really tied the story together

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Tbh this book gave me anxiety. The protagonist is suffering for the majority of the story. Baker sux... but I still understand why Hannah forgave her. I probably would have done the same thing.

      I’m not religious but that didn’t bother me. It was good to see the inner turmoil of discovering your sexuality from a different perspective from my own. I still think Baker was awful though.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Made me cry several times. I wish i could have read this a couple of years ago, but still touched me and my 14 year old younger self :") I loved it! i freacking loved it!!
    • 5/5
      This book is so stinkin good. It's the classic girl-in-the-closet falls in love with best friend coming of age story, but also so much more than that. It's so well written and the narrator is perfect. If you're gay, read this book and you'll relate to it so much. If you're straight, read this book, to see a beautiful new perspective on love. I would give this book 6 stars if I could.
    • 5/5
      Honestly such a good book. As a teenager with a very religious family (fortunately i live with not so religious family members) i understand the pressure to not disappoint them even if they love me. Also as someone who has dated a girl in the closet with very traditional family I think this book truly portrays the struggle of having to hide yourself from society in fear you don’t fit it.
    • 5/5
      I'm only giving it 5/5 because I can't give it 10/5. It was a masterpiece. The characters were alive, their feeling were real, and by the end of the book, I was rooting for them with all I had.

      Overall, it was very engaging, and the stakes really start to pile on, making it a very suspense filled story with plenty of bomb shells and twists. I was on the end of my seat the whole time, and I'm happy to say that the ending absolutely delivers.

      Highly recommend this book!
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. Really well written and the narrator was perfect.
    • 4/5
      I know the whole intent was to make this about discovering yourself while balancing the weight of the church and church expectations…. But for me, it felt a little heavy handed. The “it’s okay to be gay” at the end wasn’t really well balanced, so for me I wouldn’t EVER suggest this for a young adult. I’d honestly cater this to those that are gay that came from religious homes and are FULLY comfortable about who they are…. I feel like it takes a certain level of understanding and therapy based knowledge to actually make this one palatable.
    • 4/5
      I'm not entirely certain what drew me to this book. Young adult, Christian lesbian romantic coming of age book isn't exactly my ordinary reading material. Romance as portrayed in novels tends to trivialize the true beauty of love by reducing it to a montage of banal misunderstandings leading to overwrought grand gestures. This was a bit different. The emotions and behaviors had a legitimacy that fiction often lacks. Moving and lovely.I received a complimentary copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway. Many thanks to all involved in providing me with this opportunity.
    • 4/5
      Succinctly, Hannah loves Baker and Baker loves Hannah but they're afraid, Baker more so than Hannah. It goes against everything they've learned in their Catholic school upbringing. Each goes out with a boy in their six-person clique, hoping their longing will subside and their mutual attraction is just an aberration. They're also afraid of what their parents might say if they discuss it with their parents, all god-fearing, good Catholics.

      Her Name in the Sky started off a bit slow and ended up a bit preachy, but that did not detract from the story. The characters were great, teens, teachers and parents. The heartache felt by Hannah and Baker was palpable. In the realm of gay literature, it is a welcome component.

      It's probably worth 4 1/2 stars, but I'm a bit conservative when it comes to that.
    • 5/5
      In her last year of high school, Hannah looks forward to the senior prom, the trepidation and excitement of college applications, spending time with her best friends before they go their separate ways, and of course, the parties. She lives in a conservative Catholic community and attends mass weekly. Even the school she goes to is steeped in all the Catholic traditions and teachings. Still, teenagers being teenagers, Hannah's friends find ways to go around parent and school restrictions to spice up their after school events. In one particularly wild Mardi Gras outing, Hannah and her bff, Baker find themselves alone and sharing an innocent kiss.

      Convinced by beliefs ingrained for life that they are 'wrong' and seized with guilt, Hannah and Bake avoid each other at all costs and try to find 'normality' with other boys.

      The first few chapters are a little meh for non-YA fans, as Hannah and her gang go about their daily teen activities. Things take an interesting turn after the first kiss. There is more angst here than the typical YA book. In fact, way more than most adult lesfic books. But none of it feels contrived or unnecessary. This is one of the most realistic and beautiful treatments of teen sexuality problems--from denial, to self-doubt, to anger, to acceptance, to positive action--all the steps wrapped in an engrossing plot. And the author manages to do all that without disparaging or trivializing the protagonists' deeply-held beliefs and convictions. At the end of the book, I felt like I wanted to go through all my previous YA and NA books and downgrade them all by 1 star. :)

      This book should be required reading for all teens struggling with the moral issues of homosexuality. Not many books can entertain and educate equally well.