I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

 Title: I'll Give You The Sun

 Author: Jandy Nelson

 Publisher: Dial Books

 Date Published: September 16, 2014

 Genre: Contemporary

 Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

 Age Range: 15+









                                                                        Summary:

     At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; 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.

                                                                           Review:

     I have siblings, and I'm really close to them. Because I am more than five years older than my sister, the second oldest in the family, we are not as close as Noah and Jude are assumed to be in this book. Noah and Jude are supposed to be incredibly close- the flap even says so! They are supposed to be the same soul split into two bodies- inseparable, similar, etc. But I really wasn't feeling it. There was absolutely no evidence that these two were as tightly-knit as everyone claims, except for references to things that they did together that the reader never gets to see. The book opens to a tragic scene, and quickly dissolves into the two twins being incredibly divided. Never do we see loyalty, love, or camaraderie between the two protagonists- at least not until a page or two away from the end, in my opinion. In fact, they really seem to hate each other, and to blame each other for everything wrong in their own life. And I just didn't want to deal with that. I got really tired of hearing Noah complain about Jude, and Jude complain about Noah. In fact, I was done before I finished reading the first chapter.

     Any other relationship that these characters had with any other character, was dwarfed by the "terrible" loss of losing each other. Both twins apparently fell into disrepair, barely even functioning. Instead, they both fell into the pits of fake depression and floundered in their own self-pity. I wanted nothing more than to shake both of them and tell them to just talk, or, because I couldn't be bothered to care, to grow a pair and move on with life.

     I feel like my very negative reaction to the book wouldn't be so bad if I had liked any aspect of the book. But I didn't. Why, you are probably wondering. I disliked every part of this book because I HATED the writing. It felt amateurish, slow, very boring, and I didn't like the writing style. It was meant to be artistic and profound, but nothing worked. It was sloppy, stupid, and grated on my already-thin nerves. Because I didn't like the writing, I didn't like the plot, the characters, or any aspect that author tried to throw at me as a reader.

     The only thing that this book has going for it, is its gorgeous cover. I won't lie, the cover is beautiful. But that's the only thing that I actually can find to praise about this travesty. Just stay away. I don't think I can make myself read Jandy Nelson's other book(s) even though they were widely acclaimed.