Book Review - I'll Give You the Sun

I'll Give You the Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: April 2nd 2015
Publishers: Walker Books
No. Pages: 412
Source: Review Copy - Walker Books
Rating:

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.

So to say this book was very high on my wishlist would be nothing short of an understatement. The minuet I first heard about it I knew that I had to have it, even before I put two and two together and figured out it was the same author who did The Sky is Everywhere. Though that book had sat on my TBR list from many years and I had no previous experience with her writing, I was excited. However when it came out I completely forgot about it, I kept forgetting to buy it and it seemed like for a while it was going to just pass me by, until that is I got an email from Lovereading4kids offering me the opportunity to read it (I should note too that it was them that gave me the chance to read The Sky is Everywhere haha). Obviously I jumped at the chance and though I had to wait a few weeks due to issues, my excitement just grew and grew. I dived straight into the book the minuet it turned up at my house and right from the beginning I could tell that I was going to love the story.

I'll Give You The Sun is set from two different (in ever way) point of views. We have Noah when he was a 13 year old so consumed with getting into a special art school that he will stop at nothing to reach his goal, and his twin sister Jude, 16 years old and at the art school Noah dreamed of going to. Yes ladies and gentleman, this book is set in the past and the present and it is nothing short of vital at showing us the type of people the twins were and are now, but most importantly at showing us what happened to them. To some people the changing from past to present can be confusing, they might feel like it doesn't give them enough time to connect to one character because every chapter leaves on a mini cliffhanger. They also might find it hard to connect because for all intensive purposes Noah at 13 and Jude at 16 happen to be some what moody characters and its not until the story goes on do you understand why that is, but by then the damage may already be done and you might have already made up your mind. My advice to you when it comes to this book is hold out before judging them too harshly.

As I said already, the twins are very different people. In Noah's POV we see him go through some very hard and confusing times, not only is he unsure about his sexuality but Jude and him seem to be fighting for the approval of their mother. We meet the first boy that Noah has fallen hard for, only to watch as it seem like the feelings aren't reciprocated. All throughout Noah is utterly convinced that he belongs at CSA, he's the quiet type and though Jude is just as talented as he is, but in a different way, she is more of a social butterfly. They both have this bond that goes beyond the twin thing, sadly though age 13 was the last time they were truly close.

Fast forward to Jude's POV and we no longer see the Jude or Noah we know. It's like invasion of the body snatches as they have seemed to dramatical swapped personalties. Gone is the bubbly care free Jude and is serious, now Noah he's the life and soul of the party and she's the strange one, obsessed with her grandmothers book of superstitions and is convinced she's seeing ghosts. She got into CSA and Noah didn't, putting a big dived in their relationship. A lot has happened in the past 3 years, they have both suffered greatly and they are dealing with it in odd ways.

Though both points of view couldn't be more different, just like the characters, they manage to flow perfectly and each new chapter reveals more and more till there aren't any secrets any more and everything is out in the open. Out of the two I loved Noah the most, Jude was a very good character don't get me wrong, I just found myself connecting more with his character and what was going on with him than I did with Jude, however I liked her chapters for completely different reason, I loved watching her soul heal as the story went on and she learnt to forgive herself for things that really weren't her fault.

I know this book isn't for everyone, and that's ok because not everyone can like the same things, but it was a perfect read for me. I didn't cry like everyone else seems to have, but my heart did break on more than one occasion. This book was a such a lovely read and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fluffy contemporary with heaps of depth.

"Meeting your soulmate is like walking into a house you've been in before - you will recognize the furniture, the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelves, the contents of drawers: you could find your way around in the dark if you had to."