I'll Give You The Sun
Author: Jandy Nelson
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction.
Published: April 2 2015
Pages: 429 pages (Paperback Edition) (Walker Books)
Read: June 2015
Rating: 5 Stars
From the author of The Sky Is Everywhere, a radiant novel that will leave you laughing and crying - all at once. For fans of John Green, Gayle Forman and Lauren Oliver. Jude and her twin Noah were incredibly close - until a tragedy drove them apart, and now they are barely speaking. Then Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy as well as a captivating new mentor, both of whom may just need her as much as she needs them. What the twins don't realize is that each of them has only half the story and if they can just find their way back to one another, they have a chance to remake their world.
I'll Give You The Sun is the second novel by the author Jandy Nelson. It revolves around the life of two twins, Noah and Jude. Noah and Jude have had a fallen out with each other and this book is essentially about each of the characters and their lives.
I picked up I'll Give You The Sun because I had heard so much good things about this book. Everywhere I turned people were talking about how amazing this book was, and the 5 star reviews were glowing. Another aspect that had me picking up this book was the beautiful cover, colour and presentation of this book. I know many people had a problem with the goldy / mustard yellow colour of this book, but I was really attracted to it!! For someone who has mostly black covered books, it's after adding an immense brightness and colour to my shelves. Pictures can be seen below of my copy of I'll Give You The Sun!!
But I must admit that I was apprehensive on picking up this book because of the fact that I hadn't liked Jandy Nelson previous book - The Sky Is Everywhere, my review which can be seen here!
So that left me with a bit of apprehension before buying and reading this book. There was that constant niggling thought of maybe I won't like this...
But was I wrong?? I fell in love with this book, with the story. Once you've read this book and then look back on the blurb again, it is easy to see how vague the blurb was. The blurb does not give this book any justice, if it did I probably wouldn't have had so much doubt. There are many really important aspects of the story not mentioned in the blurb, which I honestly felt should have been added. Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I loved the mystery that was enveloped in the realistic fiction genre of this book. I loved the LGBTQ addition to this book.
Which gets me onto the characters. Each and every one of these characters had their flaws and I appreciated that so much. There was no one perfect in this book. Jude and Noah were both characters with such quirky personalities that I fell in love with them quickly. And I watched them make their mistakes, I saw them break and become mean. I saw each and every side of these two characters that I felt I knew them so much more than just being characters in a book.
The one small problem I had with this book was this - Jude believed in superstitions. She openly condemned black cats in this novel, more than once, through the superstition of black cats are bad luck! This superstition of course is dependent on where you live, because in Ireland black cats are said to bring good luck. But anyway, away from the superstitions. The reason I disliked this small piece of the novel was because I come from an animal background, I can easily see that black animals, be it dogs or cats, are much harder to rehome in shelters. I have heard and seen evidence of black cats (especially around Halloween) being tortured, burned and thrown into bonfires and this is even in my own locality, hence why my black cat is going to be not let out in her run during the Halloween period. Not saying that any other coloured animal are harmed, they are!! And it's sick. And that became a rant, I am truly sorry!!
Overall, I extremely enjoyed I'll Give You The Sun!! It was the best book that I read in June 2015 as you may have seen from my Best of the Bunch post. And I have a feeling it's going to stay up at the top of my Best of 2015 list also!
If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. Even if you've read, and disliked Jandy Nelson's The Sky Is Everywhere, like I did, I really believe you could enjoy and love this book, also like I did.
I know for certain that I will be keeping an eye on Jandy Nelson from now on about her future releases!!
I picked up I'll Give You The Sun because I had heard so much good things about this book. Everywhere I turned people were talking about how amazing this book was, and the 5 star reviews were glowing. Another aspect that had me picking up this book was the beautiful cover, colour and presentation of this book. I know many people had a problem with the goldy / mustard yellow colour of this book, but I was really attracted to it!! For someone who has mostly black covered books, it's after adding an immense brightness and colour to my shelves. Pictures can be seen below of my copy of I'll Give You The Sun!!
Of Course One Photo Had To Turn Sideways grrrr
So that left me with a bit of apprehension before buying and reading this book. There was that constant niggling thought of maybe I won't like this...
But was I wrong?? I fell in love with this book, with the story. Once you've read this book and then look back on the blurb again, it is easy to see how vague the blurb was. The blurb does not give this book any justice, if it did I probably wouldn't have had so much doubt. There are many really important aspects of the story not mentioned in the blurb, which I honestly felt should have been added. Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I loved the mystery that was enveloped in the realistic fiction genre of this book. I loved the LGBTQ addition to this book.
Which gets me onto the characters. Each and every one of these characters had their flaws and I appreciated that so much. There was no one perfect in this book. Jude and Noah were both characters with such quirky personalities that I fell in love with them quickly. And I watched them make their mistakes, I saw them break and become mean. I saw each and every side of these two characters that I felt I knew them so much more than just being characters in a book.
The one small problem I had with this book was this - Jude believed in superstitions. She openly condemned black cats in this novel, more than once, through the superstition of black cats are bad luck! This superstition of course is dependent on where you live, because in Ireland black cats are said to bring good luck. But anyway, away from the superstitions. The reason I disliked this small piece of the novel was because I come from an animal background, I can easily see that black animals, be it dogs or cats, are much harder to rehome in shelters. I have heard and seen evidence of black cats (especially around Halloween) being tortured, burned and thrown into bonfires and this is even in my own locality, hence why my black cat is going to be not let out in her run during the Halloween period. Not saying that any other coloured animal are harmed, they are!! And it's sick. And that became a rant, I am truly sorry!!
Overall, I extremely enjoyed I'll Give You The Sun!! It was the best book that I read in June 2015 as you may have seen from my Best of the Bunch post. And I have a feeling it's going to stay up at the top of my Best of 2015 list also!
If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. Even if you've read, and disliked Jandy Nelson's The Sky Is Everywhere, like I did, I really believe you could enjoy and love this book, also like I did.
I know for certain that I will be keeping an eye on Jandy Nelson from now on about her future releases!!
I think the cover is really pretty too!
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I was kind of on the fence with this book, mostly because the blurb is so vague I had no idea whether I'd like it or not, but you made me want to read it!
Isn't it just??
DeleteThank you!! I was the same but absolutely loved it :) You'll have to tell me what you think of it when you do read it :)