[REVIEW] I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Summary: Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

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Rating: ★★★½

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General Thoughts: This book was very beautiful, and the writing was my favorite part. In general, I preferred Noah to Jude.

Plot: It was certainly an original plot. Jude's story was very uninteresting for me, compared to Noah's, and her point of view was a bit too spiritual and Christian for me, especially with the grandmother's ghost. I also thought it connected together in very cool ways. The sideplot with the Sweetwine parents was interesting and also sad. One particular scene I loved was when Noah and his dad went out to dinner together, and the scene that came right after that.

That being said, I thought that the pacing was a bit off. We got the first week of Noah and Brian when they first met, but then the rest was told in about two pages plus that last party scene, and so we didn't get to see the relationship develop. I think that it could have been improved by switching POVs more often between Jude and Noah.

Writing: As I said before, the writing was my favorite part. There were many beautiful and quotable lines. The voices of Noah and Jude were very distinct and unique.

Characters and Romance: I really loved and related to Noah, more than I did to Jude. As I mentioned before, it would have been nice if Noah and Brian had had more time for development, but it was still a very good pairing. I also felt really uncomfortable with the romance between Jude and Oscar, because of the age gap. The book started to go on a path of "okay, you're too young, let's wait a few years and meet again" but it then went on a path of "I don't care, we can make this work now because I love you" which I didn't like.

Diversity: It was nice to see the diversity relationship-wise, but also, everyone was white. There wasn't even a token POC in the story. Also, there was some slut-shaming in Noah's POV towards 14 y/o girls. They were, in fact, mean binches, but Noah wasn't shaming them for that; he was shaming them for having relationships and dressing how they wanted to.

Do I Recommend?: Yes, if you don't mind metaphors.