Sailing in the Sky by Starr Green
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Disabled and Neurodivergent Authors, Deity Characters, Magic Users, Fae/Fey, Mythological Creatures, Neurodivergent, Action, Adventure, Detective Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Various Magic, Water Magic, Celtic, Faerie, Ship, Coming of Age, Found Family
Series: Wave Sweeper #1
My Rating:
Published on: 12th April 2022
Pages: 215
Disability Representation: Autistic Spectrum Disorder
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In a magical world shifting under her feet from moment to moment, who should she trust?

An autistic teen runaway, Piper never believed in magic until faced with a sea dragon. A simple choice between helping the creature or catching her getaway bus propels her into a tangled mystery with Irish gods from myth. Not able to return home, she must decide to keep running or trust the fae.

MacLir, the youthful guardian of the seas, doesn’t see the point in spending time with mortals until he meets Piper. When girls go missing near the faerie mounds, he joins the perilous search as an excuse to spend more time with her. A plan complicated by the return of an old enemy that he can’t defeat alone.

Read the enchanting first installment of Piper’s journey in Wave Sweeper Trilogy’s Book One. A fast-paced YA urban fantasy with sweet romance, this trilogy follows a female autistic lead in a contemporary reimagining of Irish legends.

This book was provided for free by Edelweiss and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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Sailing in the Sky by Starr Green caught my attention, as it’s a fantasy book featuring an autistic character written by an autistic author, with elements of fae and Irish mythology. I was sold immediately. Did the book meet my expectations? Keep reading to find out!

Piper’s life changes dramatically when she finds a trapped sea dragon at the beach. As if finding a mythological creature on a beach wasn’t odd enough, they are soon joined by a man who appears in a flying ship. When she’s offered a chance to join Lucky on his ship as his travel companion, Piper hesitates at first. She was already planning to leave home, but naturally, she’s reluctant to just hop on a ship, even a flying ship, with a stranger at the behest of a sea dragon she’s just met. It’s not just stranger danger; Piper is autistic, and she would rather be anywhere else than making small talk with Lucky. That’s until her parents appear and try to reach her before she leaves. Not everything is great at home for Piper, and a flying ship with a stranger is looking pretty good about now.

Accepting Lucky’s offer, Piper can avoid dealing with what she’s going to do next. Especially as she’s swept into a world of magic and mythology that she didn’t know existed. She soon learns that the Irish gods are, in fact, real and alive, as are the Tuatha Dé Danann, the fae. When the Irish god of the sea, Manannán mac Lir, joins the ship, Piper finds herself drawn into a mystery involving missing girls near fae mounds.

MacLir has never understood Lucky’s penchant for spending time with mortals – until he meets Piper. Likewise, Piper has never wanted to spend much time around anyone until she met MacLir. As they spend more time together while working to find out what has happened to the missing girls, they start to learn new things about each other and themselves. But the girls are part of a much bigger plot that involves a returning enemy and a danger to them all.

Sailing in the Sky by Starr Green caught my attention due to the Irish mythology and fae plot, and the fact that this is a book with an autistic main character written by an autistic author. I had high expectations for the representation, and I was not disappointed. One thing I noticed straight away was how much more detail Green went into regarding Piper’s neurodiversity compared to other books with characters who have autism spectrum disorder. Being neurodiverse is not the same as having a chronic health condition. It’s a completely different way of thinking and feeling, and I felt that in every part of Piper’s narration. From talking about how sticky things feel on her skin, to eating certain textures and flavours, and to expressing why social situations and communication are difficult, Green covers a wide array of autistic representation without information dumping.

The story is interesting as well, offering a new spin on the Tuatha Dé Danann and Irish mythology. Sailing in the Sky is a book that comes under multiple genres and was a fun read. I adored the adorable Flutterwing, and the scenes with Flutter and Piper were wonderful; they balanced out the darker aspects of the book very well.

It does include the teenager dating an immortal trope, however, as MacLir is an immortal. I have mixed feelings about this trope and found it less predatory in this book, as the immortal is not a vampire. Instead, it felt that someone with a much wider view of the universe was able to connect with Piper more than someone with a mortal perspective. For those who are concerned about this trope, see below my spoiler cut:

Sailing in the Sky is a great fantasy mystery based on Irish mythology, and it’s a fantastic book for anyone looking for authentic neurodivergent representation. I highly recommend checking this one out. I’m definitely looking forward to following more of Piper’s story in book two of the Wave Sweeper Trilogy!

About Starr Green

Starr Green is an autistic author living in the Pacific Northwest and has a degree specializing in Environmental Communication from Oregon State University. As a teen, she was delighted by all the worlds she discovered in the local library. Her debut novel Castaway Strangers was the first of her many fantasy books.

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Thank you for reading my review for Sailing in the Sky by Starr Green!

This review is a part of GeekDis, an event for the disabled and neurodivergent community to discuss representation from our perspective. You can learn more about this event, how to join in or support it at the GeekDis Information Hub.

Sailing in the Sky and the other two books in the Wave Sweeper trilogy are available to read on Kindle Unlimited! Sign up to Kindle Unlimited now and get three months free!

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