If you're about to read Under the Never Sky with the intention of reading dystopian fiction, I'll caution you to change your perspective. This is paranormal, a little post-apocalyptic, very sci-fi, and not very dystopian, in my opinion.

My review is three stars, but once I could get over the weirdness of the book (and its surprising me by not being what I intended to read when I saw the genre of dystopia), I enjoyed Rossi's writing.

What I Liked
Both Aria and Perry are likable. They are both independent, a little angsty but not overbearingly so, and distinct enough to have recognizable personalities and voices.

The new words made me think a little too much of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld at first, but I eventually grew to like the adaptation into slightly futuristic speech.

There is slow progression into romance in this book, which I appreciated. No love at first sight (more like love at an awkward moment, but I discuss that more below). The gradual connection between Aria and Perry made me root for them more.

I loved the way that Rossi writes. Her descriptions and metaphors are lovely, especially when she describes the gifts that Aria and Perry have.

What I Didn't Like
I'm not a big fan of a lot of sci-fi and paranormal, and I was startled to find both of those in the book. If you like things like Seers and Scires, then you'll love Under the Never Sky, but it was a struggle for me to get into Perry's world and tribe.

Perry only becoming attracted to Aria after smelling her period blood destroyed me. It was weirder than (Twilight spoiler, if you care about spoiling Twilight):

Spoiler

Renesmee and Jacob being a couple

. I was already struggling to accept that a futuristic world could have mutations like mind-reading and smelling emotions, but after Aria's period smelled like violets, I shut down. The super powers were too strange.

There was almost no background to this world. Or world building. There's a dome run by consuls and split into pods. There are tribes of mutants that run the rest of the world. There's a crazy, stormy aether that swirls around magically in the sky. But whys and hows don't exist. I enjoyed the characterization and relationships in the book quite a lot, but I struggled to understand how the earth possibly got to that point.