Book Review #2

I'll Give You the Sun

By Jandy Nelson

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.

What is it? Funny. And sad. With great characters and a good plot. Some dramatic irony. Dual POV. One point of view is in the past, the other is in the present. Really sweet romance. Sibling story. Written with a lot of metaphor (don't worry, it was done well). Contemporary teen artsy.

My Rating: A-       

Alright. Let me just start with: this book was great. I'd heard about it a lot. I saw people reading it a lot. I wasn't too sure about it from the summary, but then. I read the first page. The entire first chapter was like reading colors rather than words. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Look, here:

“His soul might be a sun. I’ve never met anyone who had the sun for a soul.” 

“We wish with our hands, that’s what we do as artists.”
You see what I mean? Oh oh, and this one:

“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.” 

Oh my gosh and this:

“When people fall in love, they burst into flames.” 

       See? What am I supposed to do with that? It's just so pretty. I got close to the end and I wasn't quite sure I  should keep going because I just wanted to read more words like that. Over and over. And then when I did finish, I wanted to have never read it, so I could randomly go to the book store one day and catch the cover in the corner of my eye and pick it up and hold it in my hands for the first time and read that first line, that first chapter, that amazing scene, those final words all over again. 

       The book is written with point of views from the past and the present. Or the present and the future. However you want to look at it. Twins, a brother and a sister, narrate the book. Thy were grat. All of the characters were really great. The book was intense in some scenes and light in others. It was a lovely balance of funny and strange and romantic and artsy and emotional. 

       I'm not even sure how to critique this one. The only thing I really have to say is that I thought the ending went by a little too fast, that it was just a little too rushed. The climax hit and it was great and it tied everything together and then there were like five pages and then that was it. I would have liked just a little more...ending. 

        I don't really have much else to say. Just read it. I loved it. So go read it. 

~Sarah Elisabeth                   

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.