This year is apparently my Brandon Sanderson year lmao because Skyward is his first YA novel in his Scifi-series - and I enjoyed the ride a lot!

The story begins on a planet called "Detritus" where humanity has essentially made its home and subsequently last stand - for the Krell, aliens coming from the sky no one has ever got a glimpse from, have apparently made it their mission to wipe out humanity with their continuous attacks. Pilot numbers have been dwindling for years and every attack gets more and more dangerous.
Enter Spensa, our protagonist. She wants to be a pilot because her father was one - that is, before he died in a Krell attack while being branded a coward. Spensa is determined to show everyone that she's not a coward, like her father (not that she believes he is, anyway), and is willing to do anything to get into a cockpit - but is being a Defiant really worth her life?

I loved Spensa as a protagonist. Sure, she starts out as a little rascal (okay,,,big rascal) but her emotional growth over the course of 500 pages was wonderful to witness. Secondary characters didn't get the short end of the stick either and made for wonderful companions. I did have a few problems overall with Sanderson's writing style, as it's really not my thing but I was very well-entertained and even got sufficiently sad at the emotional scenes! Definitely worth checking this book out imo~