I'll Give You The Sun By Jandy Nelson Review

I'll Give You The Sun | Jandy Nelson
Release Date: September 16, 2014 | Dial Books
Genre(s): Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT
Pages: 371
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Rating:

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.

* Wipes Dust Off Of Laptop *

I can't believe it's been five months since I've been here . . five whole months since I've shared my thoughts with you all. Has it really been that long though? Probably so. I lost count after month three, and after many failed attempts at reviewing, I sat myself down and said " Listen sis, it'll happen when it happens. Don't push it, don't rush it, " and well, here we are. Months after the fact, but still.

 As some of you know, I landed a really cool job working as a Technical Support Advisor for Apple. It was such an exciting life change for me, and while I love the holy shit out of my job, I never thought about how mentally challenging this position would actually be. Juggling work, raising my little monster, a social life, and any other things adulting throws at me, kinda knocked blogging off kilter and pathetically, I've been struggling to bounce back ever since. But the right book came in at justtttt the right time, pulling me off my ass and throwing me back into the world of blogging.

I hope you scoundrels have missed me. 😉

A monster of feels. Have you ever loved a book so much, that you have too many words and not enough all at the same time? It's definitely something that's hard to explain, but in short, this story was beyond just fiction for me. It felt more so like I was watching old VHS tapes of my own past experiences. So much hit so close to home and in some instances, the line between this book and my life melted together, becoming one big ball of emotions.

I'll Give You The Sun follows Noah and Jude, the moon and the sun as I like to call them, as they navigate life in their teenage years. The story has quite an interesting timeline in which the events are told, a dual point of view with Noah covering the past, and Jude the present. With Noah and Jude being twins, this perspective worked to build not only their development as individuals, but their dynamic as siblings as well, but even that wasn't what knocked me off of my feet.

The writing, lawd it had to be one of the best I've ever read in YA. I'm not exactly sure if it would be considered magical realism, but it was enchanting nonetheless, making the book nearly impossible to put down. The author had such an unconventional way of describing things, such a quirky style that I fell in love with from the very beginning. 

He floated into the air high above the sleeping forest, his green hat spinning a few feet above his head. In his hand was the open suitcase, and out of it spilled a whole sky of stars. 

Jandy's writing style evoked so many different emotions from me. Within one chapter, I was either cheesing like a mad fool, sighing because I was just so freaking satisfied, or sobbing uncontrollably. You just never knew how you would feel as the story progressed and if the author's goal was to create something that was loaded with feels, she most certainly nailed it. Speaking of feels, I don't think I've ever really felt an emotional connection towards characters like I did with the twins. Noah was my precious baby, Jude my fierce little beast. They were like night and day but miraculously ended up being one in the same, two fragile individuals suffering from a loss and so much more.

Reading I'll Give You The Sun, helped me to see so much of myself in the twins. The way our main characters dealt with their life-changing moment, sort of mirrored my own experience with losing my brother. I was so angry that I didn't get to properly say goodbye, felt this strange guilt in regards to the fact that maybe, maybe I could've spent a little more time with him, (death is just so fucking unexpected) and just heartbroken af that I lost my only sibling in the first place. While our tragedies weren't completely similar, I was still able to relate to these fictional human beings, and that in itself is the greatest thing an author can give.

If this title isn't on your TBR list for this year, you seriously need to add it. I'll Give You The Sun delivers in all aspects with its heartwarming story. The message of death, grief, guilt, sexuality, and most important of all, family, packs a powerful punch. It also brilliantly showcases unexpected friendships and relationships built with the most peculiar, most unforgettable characters ever. My love for this book is oh so real.