I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Publication:16th September 2014

Goodreads summary:

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.

My thoughts:

This book was beautiful. It has become one of my favorite contemporary novels of all time. The way Jandy Nelson intertwined her characters' stories was perfect.

It had a very unusual structure. There were two narrators but they were taking place three years apart. Noah's narrating the events that happen when the twins are 13/14 and Jude tells us the story of when they are 16. I loved this gap between the stories as it made me more intrigued. I loved seeing how much their relationship changed from when they were thirteen years old. I found both story lines to be equally compelling.

The thing I loved most about this book was the writing. It's very expressive and packed with unique imagery and metaphors. Some of the passages are stunning, Jude and Noah's artistic minds shine through in how they describe the world around them.

The plot was very well constructed. I loved how everything from both story lines seemed to connect to each other, even though the events are three years apart. You can see Jandy Nelson really planed the story.  They way she weaves these two timelines together is just brilliant.

My only problem with this book was that I felt like I didn't really connect with Noah. The characters for the most part are developed but I felt like I didn't really know Noah as well as I knew Jude.

My rating: 4.5 stars. I enjoyed this book immensely and will definitely be picking up Jandy Nelson's other book.