I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Synopsis/Summary:

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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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Five stars and the sun itself :) Even while I was reading this book I was thinking of re-reading it. I just knew it would become one of those books that never leaves your nightstand. I´ll Give You the Sun is one of the most heartwarming books I have ever read, and one of the only ones that kept me pondering on its message for so long.

This novel deals with two siblings, twins to be specific: Jude and Noah. The book follows each one of them as they come of age, fall in love, discover and hide secrets, find their artistic way, sink, and thrive; each sibling is a separate story, but in the same way that two paths converge in one. Something has happened to these siblings that breaks their seemingly unbreakable bond, and you come to see how each one copes and lives without the other. There are twists and turns in the plot, connections between their former years and actual ones that will potentially make Jude and Noah´s path cross all over again, on a deeper level than just the corridor to their bathroom.

I am confident that every teen living on Earth should look closely into each word written by Jandy Nelson. It reflects the difficulty of adolescence with its ups and downs and how anything can so easily be seen as the most burdensome task through the perspective of a teenager.

What I mostly love about this novel is the impact it had. It has made every bone in my body tremble and melt, my heart pump and race and be filled with warmth. It was not one of those books in which I wanted this or that character to be with his/her meant-to-be or open their eyes only for the sake of the construction of the plot. But because I wanted to see how they grew. I wanted to learn with them and see that development reflected on me. It is truly incredible: from the beautiful metaphors, to the life lessons, the genuinity of the issues, the realism of their execution, and the originality and verisimilitude of its characters. Somehow, amazingly, with all its thought-provoking themes and heavy-loaded plot and narrative, it still manages to be an easy read. For me, at least, it was totally captivating, and pages never stopped turning because I couldn't wait to uncover both why things went wrong and how things would turn out.

Believe me when I say that I loooove that character that is a badass, that can deal with everything (Kaz Brekker and Jude Duarte vibes) but with (this) Jude and Noah, I saw the reality of being a human. I saw them collapse because they didn´t know what to do. I watched them create a different self in order to fit in, while I got an insight on how they really thought. I witnessed how they did awful things and still I felt their guilt while doing them.

This book is for patient people, for people who usually dig deep into thought and have an enormous imagination. The way Noah sees everything through the eyes of an artist and paints those memorable things in his mind just blew mine. My mind was all colors when I read through his point of view.

These twins have the power to remake the world. They are two forces that together could beat anything, but apart they are just energy going nowhere. They were lost without one another and that paid off for both of them in different yet similar ways. Art is a really important matter in this book. We well know that art is a way of expression and in this novel, it symbolized their legitimate essence, the key to escaping the cage where they felt trapped. I was able to see how they swapped personalities when each departed from art.

I’ll Give You the Sun is perfectly written. I never got bored with each POV and story. It always left me wanting more: when I’d finish reading Jude’s narration I wouldn’t want it to end, but then I’d switch to Noah’s and I felt the same all over again.

I was wrong with the rating of this book at the beginning; I’d put a 100/10 if I could, because it truly has it all. It's perfection.