Book Review: I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Title: I'll Give You The Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Publication Date: September 16, 2014
Publisher: Dial Books
Pages: 384
Format: ARC/Paperback
Source: BEA/Publisher
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary

       

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell

Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and 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 divisive ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor. 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, fully alive, sometimes very funny novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

I finished reading I'll Give You The Sun yesterday and honestly, I don't even know where to begin with this review.  It seems like I have been lost for words after all of these great books I have been reading lately.  I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I decided to start reading I'll Give You The Sun. To be honest, I hadn't heard of Jandy Nelson either.  But let me tell you, I have been on stalker mode ever since I started reading this masterpiece.  I have never read a book in which I felt like the words and pages needed to be framed and hung up on my walls.  Jandy's writing is so beautiful and expressive.  It's like the words just pop out off the white pages and hang up in the air in bright colors - kind of like the cover of the page. The cover just doesn't do this book justice.  

I am sure you have heard that twins have a special connection between them.  Some even have their own language and can read each other's thoughts before they even finish each other's sentences.  Well, Jude and Noah are like those twins.  They have this special connection that makes them special and their love for art is very real.  The story is told from both Jude and Noah's POV, but Noah tells the story from "before" and Jude tells it in present time.  It is not at all confusing. Actually, it is perfectly done and it goes perfect with the story.  Even though they both share the love for art, they are both very different.  They both carry their own secrets and soon realize that they need each other in order to make it through.   

The whole time I was wondering what the secret is, but you don't find out until three quarters of the way through. Every time the POV changed, a new puzzle piece was unveiled. So once you reached the end, you get to see how every character is intertwined with one another.    

After Reading I'll Give You The Sun, I immediately have the urge to buy any and all books by Jandy Nelson.  I think she has become one of my new favorite authors.  Thank you so much for writing such a beautiful and inspiring story.