Under the Fading Sky
Cynthia Kadohata
Atheneum
Published April 22, 2025

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About Under the Fading Sky

A teen boy thinks his vaping habit is harmless until it becomes a crippling addiction of nightmarish dimensions in this searing young adult novel from Newbery and National Book Award winner Cynthia Kadohata.

Sixteen-year-old Elijah is pretty damn sick of his parents always being on his case about vaping. It’s not like he’s shooting up or knocking back pills. Until something changes, so slowly Jacob isn’t even aware it’s happening. Instead of vaping every now and then when he wants to, he’s vaping all the time because he has to.

And soon, Elijah and his friends need even more than vaping and are stumbling their way into the sprawling drug culture of Southern California, where girls sell pictures of themselves for vape and pill money, and the dealers are cutthroat. The more desperate the teens become, the more money they need. And to get that money they’re being blackmailed into an impossible choice—and an end you won’t see coming.

My Review

Under the Fading Sky gets pretty dark. It has a strong, conversational voice. Elijah speaks directly to the reader in what sometimes feels like a stream-of-consciousness narrative. It creates the sense that we’re figuring things out right alongside him.

Elijah is a biracial sixteen-year-old. His dad and grandfather served in the military, and they talk about things they witnessed in combat. While Elijah isn’t part of a military campaign, he views the experience of his generation as being at war, citing the high numbers of teens who die from drug overdose or suicide each year. As someone deeply interested in history, he sometimes connects events from his current life to moments or trends from history, which draws some interesting comparisons.

As Elijah becomes more deeply enmired in drug culture, he and his friends begin doing things that are far out of character for themselves. Elijah has moments of clarity, where he can’t believe what he’s doing, but he also has a lot of moments where he’s so fixated on what he wants that he isn’t able to feel discomfort or shame about his other choices.

One thing that I found myself really wishing for with this novel is an author’s note at the end. I listened to this novel as an audiobook, and it didn’t include any extra material, like resources for getting help for drug or mental health issues or any clarification for what elements of the story are based on research. I would have liked to know what led her to write the novel and, more importantly, what she learned in her research as she wrote the story.

Conclusion

Under the Fading Sky will appeal to readers who like gritty contemporary young adult novels about kids who face addiction and mental health issues. Please take care reading this. The book contains suicide death and a character who repeatedly tries to pressure others to commit murder.

Content Notes for Under the Fading Sky

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A man Elijah and his friends buy drugs from exposes himself to them. References to sexual abuse and coerced sex. Kissing.

Spiritual Content
References to Elijah’s family identifying as Christian and praying together before their meals. Elijah describes some of the people with bad intentions that he meets as demons, and meeting them makes him feel as though he has stepped into a demon world.

Violent Content
A boy gets injured doing a dangerous skateboarding stunt. Elijah’s dad and grandfather briefly share war stories from their time in combat, including reference to buddies who were killed. One describes a person severely injured who begged for death. References to sexual abuse and assault. One character repeatedly encourages another to commit murder for money. References to blackmail and drug overdose. One character dies by suicide. It doesn’t happen on page, but the main character is immediately aware and is first on-scene/first to call emergency services afterward.

Drug Content
Elijah and his friends vape and take pills. He attends recovery meetings with other kids who have used other drugs. The story explores the ways in which vaping and the pills affect Elijah’s attitude about school, his family, and his behavior/boundaries. Elijah learns about a person who overdosed.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from my library. All opinions are my own.