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"I'll give you the sun" by Jandy Nelson || book review




Goodreads page:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23573418-i-ll-give-you-the-sun




My rating: 5/5





Plot:
The story follows the lives of a set of twins,Noah and Jude.It keeps switching between timelines as the chapters and narratives change,Noah's chapters take place in the past,when the two of them were 13-14 years old,whereas Jude's are when the two of them are 16.The two of them used to be close (epic understatement)but they drift apart and the book is basically the story of that and of them coming back together.
(It's pretty hard to give more details about the story,since talking about part of it will spoil the other part and I feel like I am the best at ruining that,so I'll say nothing more).



Thoughts on the book:
Just to get it out of the way,I LOVED THIS.
The writing style is just amazing.I feel like I say this most of the time with a lot of books without actually giving reasons,but,truth be told,I don't even really know what makes me think that,it just has that je ne sais quoi,it's easy to get and it just gets you and to you.That makes no sense.
Also,obviously,the story is told in dual perspective,which is done so beautifully.The voices of the two narrators are so distinct and it's so easy to figure out which of the two is actually talking,that was a nice detail.Not only is it so amazing to see how different they are as narrators,but it's an incredible exprience to see how different each of them (as well as the other characters) is from chapter to chapter,how much they can change in the couple of years in between the POVs.
I jumped into it knowing that it was just a good ol' contemporary,but I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that there was just a hint of magical realism (i.e: Jude's crazy human swallowing hair in Noah's chapters and the ghost presences in Jude's).I was not expecting it and it was such a nice little touch.Speaking of magic and all that,the touch on religion from Jude's chapters was also pretty darn intriguing,her grandma chose to call her book a Bible although I'm pretty sure some really passionate Christians would see that as sacrilege (some people are just touchy man,idk,it's their belief after all) and the two of them calling God "Clark Gable" instead of "God" was a nice inside joke and I just found that really cute as well.
I loved the relationship dynamics in the book,all of them,really.Both romances/love stories (well,I guess there's more than two,but still) were really cute and got me rooting for them to happen,the family dynamics blew me away,be it between parents and children or just siblings or between the other sort of family that just happens,they were insanely real and well shaped and I couldn't be more pleased with how those were presented.
I don't really know if I was a big fan of the whole theme of destiny that's a huge factor in the book,but as long as it's the truth the characters choose to believe in,who am I to say a word against it?
The other main theme of the book that just blew me away was art.There are so many art forms and artists in this that I was like "yes,yesss" throughout all of it.Painting,sculpting,taking photos,it was all so amazing and incredible,the whole process of creating art was phenomenally presented and the way it differed from character to character was beautiful.

 little note: Sophia with a "ph" isn't actually a common name in Romania.Also,not all Romanians have heavy crazy accents.


Random quotes that Gabby really liked for some reason:

  • "Life is contradiction." 
  • "Maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people. [...] Maybe we're accumulating these new selves all the time."
  • "Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story."
  • "Who knows if destiny is just how you tell yourself the story of your life?" 

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