Akemi Dawn Bowman is one of my favourite authors and like her first book Starfish, I loved Harley too. Trust Akemi to write about identity and mental health issues, and she would do absolute justice to these themes.

Harley in the Sky follows Harley Yoshi Milano, a teen living in Las Vegas, whose parents run the Teatro della Notte circus. Harley dreams of joining her parents’ circus and becoming an aerialist. But her parents refuse that because they want her to join college. She then leaves home and joins the rival travelling circus Maison du Mystère to pursue her dreams.

Both of Harley’s parents’ are biracial and that makes it difficult for her to understand all four different heritages of her. She feels like she exists in this in-between space. People told her how she’s ‘not Chinese enough’ but also ‘not American enough’. Akemi challenges the racial stereotypes and prejudices. She shows that Harley has the right to every part of her identity without anyone telling her that she’s ‘not enough’.

Through Harley, Akemi has tried to show a multi-layered character. Harley makes mistakes but she grows out of them and learns understanding and forgiveness along the way. Though ambitious, she always had good intentions and cared for others. She knows that putting her ambitions above her family and friends is not right, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to regret not ‘trying’.

Vas stole my heart the moment he appeared on the screen. I liked how broody and mysterious he was and took his time to open up. Somehow, whenever there was a scene of Vas playing, I wanted to hear his music on screen? I loved Popo, Harley’s grandmother. She provided some lighter moments in the story as well as the wisdom Harley needed about her heritage.

Everyone talks about a backup plan. and Harley says that why it is always that people who wish to pursue careers in the humanities streams are asked about that? And parents always have some pre-set goals for children and to achieve them they pressurize them. Harley’s mother uses different tactics to emotionally manipulate her. But behind all those, there is, of course, parental love and Akemi has shown this beautifully.

Depression is the core of the story and Akemi has presented it in a very subtle and realistic way. Harley’s emotions were generally all over the place and often she found it hard to get words out of her mouth. I was able to relate to her concerns, her rage and her fury. Akemi has also shown how people still don’t take mental health seriously. We see the neglect of mental health by Harley’s parents. Her family had a stigma surrounding the conversations related to this. Harley also talked about using ‘labels’ that until you put it inside some label, people don’t take it seriously.

This book also celebrates (found) family and the life of a circus. Harley’s love for the circus is infectious. You can’t help but dream about the big top, trapeze artists, shiny stage, costumes and the whole beautiful aura of it. Though in the beginning people of Maison du Mystère didn’t accept her, slowly she made a space for herself in the troupe through her hard work and determination.

The best thing about Akemi’s writing is how effortless it feels. It is always poetic but at the same time leaves an impact that is hard to forget. I was fully immersed in the story since the beginning. Akemi knows exactly how to balance between descriptive elements, characters, important issues, dialogues and pacy plots. Even the characters’ internal feelings and conflicts don’t sound boring. She has distributed this story into essential parts where each moment, whether it’s small or big, has it’s own importance and eventually leads to some important moments later in the story. You can’t help but be compelled and enthralled by the story of Harley and her dreams.

I have come to a point now where I would read anything written by Akemi. And if you are someone who is yet to start reading her work, why not start with Harley? In simple words, just READ IT! Definitely recommended.

The book follows Harley Milano, a mixed-race teenager as she wants to be a trapeze artist in her parent’s circus, Teatro della Notte, but her parents don’t want her to be an aerialist.

Her parents want to play it safe and have a back-up plan of going to college but Harley wants to go head-first into being an aerialist. I found this aspect to be very relatable, because parents usually want their kids to stick to a safe plan because of their own struggles. There’s a complexity to Harley’s struggles with her family and you can both sides properly and the way its portrayed as dysfunctional and complex.

Harley runs away from her parents and joins the rival circus, but achieving her dream isn’t easy. She has to make a lot of tough decisions and she can act impulsively but there’s a lot of depth portrayed in her character. This is quite a character-focused novel and you end up rooting for Harley as the underdog and its eye-opening when different themes are discussed in the book.

When she joins the rival circus, she has a tough time fitting in and she does make friends along the journey. One person in particular, Vas, is the love interest and I absolutely love him. He’s not there to change Harley but to support her. It’s not a book about love saving the day but a story that explores Harley’s growth through it all in a realistic way and that is Amazing.

The book has a fair share of twists and conflicts to keep the story interesting and always moving forward. It’s a well-written novel with Akemi’s usual artistic and beautiful writing and there’s even aspects of it written in email format. It’s a story of family, growth and how things can fall apart when you’re focused solely on your dreams. A realistic, raw book and I loved every single aspect of it.

SO GO BUY IT BCUS ITS AMAZING

I kept putting off writing this review because I so desperately wanted to do it justice, but I just don't think I can find the right words because I am so in awe with this book. I finished this three weeks ago and I'm still suffering a book hangover. I've barely read anything because this was just SO GOOD and I want need more.

Harley in the Sky is a beautiful book set predominantly within a travelling circus... a circus that rivals our main characters parents own. The setting was so fun and it felt really atmospheric to me, but what really captured me was the characters, mostly that of Harley, our main character. I really related to her. There were moments where she was talking about how she felt or things she goes through that I connected to so hard. It was as if I were talking about myself at parts and it was so powerful to feel so so close to a character. My heart is bursting just thinking about it.

As always, Akemi's writing is beautiful and her storytelling is just like none other. I am so honoured I got to experience this story early and I cannot wait for everyone else to get their hands on it