Book Review: I’ll Give You the Sun

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Synopsis:

At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah, are inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them. Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they’ll have a chance to remake their world. 

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~SPOILER ALERT~

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Let me start by saying that while I did enjoy the story, I hated how how it was told.

I tried reading this on my own and was just too damn bored. The audiobook made it a lot better, but the male narrator was awful and I didn’t enjoy reading Noah’s thought process. The repetition of certain words, his constant complaining. Not for me.

Jumping into the actual story I have to admit that I fucking hate Noah. He’s such a bitch and he is always whining about something. Honestly, he has to be one of the world’s worst brothers. Before anything crazy even starts happening, he throws away Jude’s note to their mom, then destroys her sand women. I understand that he may have felt a certain way about Jude and Brian going in the closet together. but nothing even happened, yet he’s putting her toothbrush in the toilet…. seriously that’s fucking disgusting. And while he’s mad because he thinks Brian kissed Jude he actually makes out with Heather, and that happened first! On top of that, while he tries so hard to hide his own sexuality he fucking outed Brian to Courtney. Who the fuck does that?

Don’t get me wrong, Jude is not perfect but at least she’s not as bad. I do really feel for her because I do think that Zephyr took advantage of her. She was way too young, not even legal and that’s statutory rape. I also feel bad about the fact that she really needed her mom at that point but she was already gone. On the other hand, not mailing Noah’s letter was an asshole move. Then again, he sabotaged her first. I also fucking hate the whole “girl is broken but everything falls back into place because she meets a hot boy” thing. Like, I’m cool with the prophecy and their connection and all of that. However, I do not support the notion that your life isn’t fulfilled until you’re in a relationship or that no longer being single suddenly makes everything better.

What I did enjoy, was the way that every single character is so strongly connected. I picked up that Diana was having an affair – did not expect it to be with Garcia. The fact that Jude went to him for mentorship is kind of ironic. As well as Noah meeting Oscar so early on and then him and Jude falling in love. I love the connection and the way that these pieces start to fall into place but I just feel like the story could have been executed in a better way.

2.75 stars.

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