I am going to admit straight out that I skimmed some of this book. Although it was beautiful and mystical and full of gorgeous descriptions it was also overwhelming - like too much frosting on a cake.Nevertheless I loved the scenes of the Japanese attack on Darwin- so vivid and meaningful to view it at street level and learn how it affected individuals. There were also some great characters, my favourite being the Japanese pilot. He made the book for me, especially his awe at the Australian flor...

I absolutely loved Boy Swallows Universe and have been counting The days to read this book and was so ready to love it too (while managing expectations because a tour de force like that only comes once from an author). But sadly no. This one didn’t hit it for me. I found it a really long read and had to force myself to slog through it. It was just too fantastical. The dialogue too clunky and forced and way too heavy w symbolism. If I had to read ‘dig molly dig’ one more time I was going to scre...

⭐️4 Stars⭐️All Our Shimmering Skies is part magical realism and part adventure, it's bustling with unrestrained imagination and the atmospheric beauty of the Australian NT wetlands flora, fauna and landscapes.Several pages into the book the story felt a touch oddball to me but once I got intune with the author’s mythical type storytelling I really enjoyed the energy of it.Our protagonist Molly Hook is larger than life, she is hugely likeable and a gravedigger's daughter. Molly lives with her vio...

This book is a delight. To enjoy it fully, I believe it's helpful to approach it as an Australian fairy tale, some of it rooted in history but the overall feel being mythopoeic. It is brutal in many parts which I often find overwhelming but it was necessary to the story and not gratuitous, so I persisted and am glad I did. Like its protagonist, Molly Hook, All Our Shimmering Skies is both poetic and graceful. I have already bought another copy for a friend, and recommend it without reservation.

The novel opens with Molly and her mother, Violet, standing next to the headstone of Molly’s grandfather, Tom Berry, and the epitaph tells the story of how Molly’s family is cursed. Cursed because her grandfather stole gold from a character named Longcoat Bob.In reference to the title of the novel, Molly’s mother, Violet tells her that the sky is her best friend. Look to the sky she tells her. It has all the answers.Unfortunately, Violet is dying and tells Molly that this moment is the last they...

3Trent Dalton's All our Shimmering Skies is a solid followup to his incredibly popular (especially here in Australia) and much loved debut Boy Swallows Universe. For me though it just isn't quite as good.There's too much repetition. The book needs a good edit and could be reduced by 100 pages or so. Some key characters are overblown caricatures that don't quite work.For all that this is a big hearted and compelling story about a young girl, Molly Hook (from a family of gravediggers and gold pros...

Honestly could not get on board with this book. Loved BSU but this one just did not hit any of the marks for me. A little dull and meandering. Had to force myself through every page.

OMG, I'm going to be unpopular. I was so looking forward to this book and am so disappointed. I have given it a one-star as I can't bring myself to finish it. Half way through and I have to force myself to pick it up. Molly is just not doing it - you have to have some sense that the character could be a real person, but sorry Trent you have missed the mark. It is disjointed, drags on, and overall boring. I wonder whether the raving reviews on the back cover are 'paid' reviews as I cannot see it

Oh no, I feel I might have an unpopular opinion on this one - I just couldn’t get into it. Felt flowery and overdone, and just lacking that certain something that made Boy Swallows Universe so special. The magical elements were still there and there were certain, incredibly moving scenes but overall it just failed to enthral me and I found that, at times, I had to force myself to continue reading. So disappointing!

A superb magical oddysey, with characters that stirred two extreme emotions in me: live and hate. Three wonderers thrown together by a sheer coincidence on a quest to conquer the evil.Loved the writing and the story. The book I needed at this particular time.

This one fell short of my incredibly high expectations (I loved Boy Swallows Universe, and this book has been hyped alot!), yet Dalton's characterization and whimsical prose style continues to enchant me as a reader. I love the energy and fairytale aspect to Dalton's narrative style, and will continue to read future works by him.We follow 12yr old Molly Hook, a motherless daughter of a gravedigger, and she is on an adventure to get to the bottom of a family curse in 1942 as Darwin is being bombe...

Trent Dalton has written another book full of wonderful characters, all encased in a gorgeous cover bursting with colour. His writing is unrestrained and glorious, full of imagination, magic and wonder at the beauty of the world. In his main character, twelve year old Molly Hook, a motherless daughter of a gravedigger, he brings us another memorable character. A girl who loves poetry, talks to the sky and is full of grittiness and determination with a quest to right the wrong imposed on her fami...

There's only people, Molly. There are good ones and there are bad ones and then there's all of us nuts stuck in the middle.This is so very different to Boy Swallows Universe, and yet similar at the same time. It's a completely new story in a new time and new place, but that Dalton voice is just as strong and descriptive and captive. It's kinda like an outback Wizard of Oz but with slightly less magic (or more depending on your point of view). Trent walks the tightrope between brutal and beautifu...

I really enjoyed Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe, and I had grabby hands for All Our Shimmering Skies, which I loved just as much. This one definitely has a different feel with touches of magical realism, and a historical on top of it; a unique story for certain.Set during World War II in Australia, All Our Shimmering Skies is a story of friendship and resilience that offers hope and adventure. At the heart of the story is Molly, a gravedigger’s daughter. She is seeking the sorcerer who put...

When it comes to authors Aussie Trent Dalton is a rare beast. Capable of producing stories having an almost mythically Australian feel to them in time and place with an evocative fairytale-like feel. This was very much the case with his debut novel, Boy Swallows Universe, and thankfully continues here with a story full of sweeping plains, and if anything is a place that we Australians have experienced thousands of times without realizing. Molly, the daughter of a gravedigger in Darwin has endure...

3.5★“Bonnie Russell, 1865–1923. Grey limestone. Apex top contouring. An epitaph line that Molly hopes every night in her sleep will turn out to be true: ‘Death is only a wall between two gardens.’ Molly standing in one garden on one side of that wall, here in the Northern Territory, her garden filled with ironwood trees and fern-leaved grevilleas with orange flowers the colour of fire; her mother, Violet, on the other side of that wall, standing among roses, red and pink roses and nothing else.

2.5 (rounded down, because The Boy Swallows the Universe was far superior to this and, still, only garnered 3.5 stars from me).I pushed through and forced myself to finish this - admittedly, I skimmed here and there. I was hoping Dalton's second novel will be more to my liking, as I wasn't as charmed by his debut, although I appreciated some parts of it.I'm sorry to say that this novel did nothing for me. I thought it was half-baked and I could see the writer's hand in everything.Before page 10

Molly Hook was a character for readers to love, to pour our sympathies upon and to cheer on.    When she was only seven her mother passed on some words of wisdom  before  saying goodbye and leaving this earthly world forever.   She implored Molly to live a grand and beautiful life.  To be poetic and to be graceful.    To be strong.   To know she is blessed regardless of what anyone else may say.    To know, and always remember, this place is hard but her heart is as hard as a rock, so hard it ca...

Aussie writer Trent Dalton gives us gloriously enchanting, yet brutally gritty storytelling in this piece of historical fiction, of adventure, a family drama, that embraces magical realism set during WW2 in 1942, portraying a war torn Darwin being bombed by the Japanese. At the centre of this novel is the larger than life 12 year old Molly Hook, a grave digger with her grave digging shovel, Bert. She has lost her mother who had told her to look to the sky whenever she needed her, which would pro...

After LOVING Boy Swallows Universe, this book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020 and I know I’m not alone in that. I’m happy to report that...it did not disappoint!At the heart of the story, we have Molly Hook, a 12 year old girl who’s a bit of an oddball - she talks to the sky, digs graves for all her childhood and has a shovel as a best friend. As she runs away from bomb-ravaged Darwin into deep-country Northern Territory in 1942, she comes across Greta, a sassy actress from her h...