Title: I'll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Release date: September 16th 2014Pages: 371
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Glbtq
Publisher: Dial Books
My rating: 5/ 5
Source: Bought
Synopsis:
A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.
(taken from goodreads)
Review:
Wow wow wow. This book was just mesmerizing. Then again, it's Jandy Nelson, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise.
During the first few pages I was like "Ok, this is good, I'm enjoying it". That being said, my words were tinged with a little bit of fear. Fear this book wouldn't really live up to the withstanding love that I hold to The Sky Is Everywhere. Looking back, I feel real silly for even thinking that because Jandy Nelson is freaking amazing and I will read anything she writes.
The writing in I'll Give You the Sun is truly exceptional. Jandy Nelson's use of metaphors is simply mesmerizing; almost lyrical. She never fails to create these beautiful images with the words she writes. Her writing never falls flat.
What I would say is the main thing I loved about I'll Give You the Sun, would have to be how it covers so many topics, such as: betrayal, sexuality, family, friendship, faithfulness, grief, loss, etc. It's just this stunning mess of complicated things that somehow manage to come together beautifully.
The way in which the story is written was honestly something that I thought would be a problem at first, but turned out to be one of my favorite things about the book. The story is told from the perspectives of two twins. You have Noah, whom narrates the times from when they were 13, and you also have Jude whom narrates the present time in which they are 16. Slowly but surely, we get to see how these twins' (and their whole family's) life starts falling apart piece by piece. It shows the extent to which grief and loss can affect someone and take over so many aspects of their lives. It shows how difficult it is to, not only find your true self, but how to be your true self. It shows It shows how lies can destroy even the strongest of relationships. More importantly, it shows how important and powerful forgiveness is. In short, there is a lot that can be taken from this book.
As for the characters, what can I say? They were just so... God, I don't even think there are words to even describe them! Jandy Nelson always creates such perfectly imperfect characters. They are always so flawed, so damaged that the seem authentic and relatable.
Overall, this book has definitely made it onto my favorites list. It's a story that moves you and makes you think. I seriously hope more people read Jandy Nelson's books because they are pure works of art.
Great review. I’ve had this book on my TBR list for a long time, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. I can’t wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Omg you need to read it. I promise you will not regret it. :)
DeleteI listened to this on audiobook and thinking back, if I would have read the actual book I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. It was so beautiful, though! Great review! :)
ReplyDeleteThe idea of it on audiobook sounds nice! I still haven't given audiobooks a try... I'll keep it in mind from now on :)
DeleteLove the way you said it in your review. I absolutely adore this book and it's really hard to explain, but I pretty much agree with everything you said. Such a beautiful book :)
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to explain, isn't it? It's just too much perfection to actually articulate proper words. I loved it and I'm glad you did too!
DeleteAwesome review. Because of this review, I'm planning to buy it really... :) Thanks!
ReplyDelete