Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Publisher: Harper Teen

Released on January 3, 2012

Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

In her enthralling debut, Veronica Rossi sends readers on an unforgettable adventure set in a world brimming with harshness and beauty. (from HarperTeen)

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I just love it when a book can get under my skin that even after a few days and starting two other books I still can’t get it out of my mind. That’s what Under the Never Sky did to me, not only from its crazy ending but with its characters that captivated me and its world full of originality.

The beginning starts off with a bang, we get some pretty fast paced craziness right from the start that just gives you a taste what this book book will be like… a wild unpredictable ride. After a few chapters when Aria gets exiled from the only place she ever knew, things begin to slow down a bit but it does not become boring at all, not in the least. We actually get a good amount of fascinating world building and lots of character development which I loved, we get to know Aria and Perry deeply which helps to easily connect with them and grow to love them. 

I was a bit hesitant about reading another dystopian, we had quite a lot last year and there were hits and misses for me, several. I’m glad Under the Never Sky was not like that, it actually had a lot of uniqueness to it. There were two different types of societies, one highly advanced and futuristic and another one that seemed at times like the prehistoric times, and at others a bit medieval. It wasn’t confusing though, there was plenty of greatly detailed world building that it felt like this futuristic world Aria was living in was a character itself, with a personality of its own. I am glad for the time the author took to describe it,  It was plenty scary and creepy, but also beautiful at times. Another thing I loved was that there was no insta-love but more of a hate on first sight kind of relationship that took some time to develop into something else. The ending was killer, ackkk!! Not quite an infuriating cliffhanger but one of those that had me flipping back and forth between the last few pages to make sure I didn’t miss anything. It definitely leaves a lot of unanswered questions about some shocking things that you’ll discover towards the end of the novel.  The wait for the sequel will be torturous but if it’s like this one it’ll be well worth it. If you love exhilarating dystopian reads with originality and a bit of supernatural aspects to it, then I highly recommend Under the Never Sky. Fantastic debut!