I’ll Give You The Sun – Halfway Point!

So before I start, are you guys enjoying these Halfway Point Reviews? Or would you rather me wait until I’ve finished the book before reviewing it? Drop me a comment and let me know!

“Jude and her twin Noah are close until a tragedy drives them apart. Now they are barely speaking – and both falling for boys they can’t have. Love’s complicated.”

So, I pride myself greatly on the fact that I read jandy Nelson’s ‘The Sky Is Everywhere‘ in the same week that it was released, before everybody hyped over it, and it’s the first book I ever finished and remembered thinking ‘wow, this is my favourite book ever’. I had no idea what it was about when I picked it up, all I knew was that I HAD to read it, and that’s exactly what happened with ‘I’ll Give You The Sun‘. I was completely clueless when I picked up the book, and I still had no idea what it was about when I started to read it this morning, but 12 hours later I’m halfway through and I’m in love!

“When people fall in love, they burst into flames.”

I feel like ‘I’ll Give You The Sun‘ is one of those books I’m going to learn something from
that’s going to stay with me for the rest of my life. The book itself is a work of art; where Noah creates pictures with charcoal, Jandy Nelson creates pictures with words. As with ‘The Sky Is Everywhere‘, the detail and the design of each page is stunning and unique, and it’s one of the things I love so much about Jandy’s work. 

I love that the book isn’t split into chapters, rather just a section of the twin’s lives, alternating between Noah’s at 13, and Jude’s at 16. For me, I tend to find that not having chapters makes a book easier to read, and I find myself flying through the pages because I can’t seem to find a logical place to stop! So far I’ve only read two of Noah’s sections, and one of Jude’s, but I’m finding myself enjoying Noah’s a lot more.

Noah and Brian are just fabulous and I wish I read more books that featured LGBT relationships. 

“‘I love you’, I say to him. Only it comes out, ‘hey’.
‘So damn much,’ he says back. Only it comes out, ‘Dude.'”

To me, in the beginning of the book Noah seemed embarrassed that he had feelings for boys but I think through exploring these feelings with Brian he’s starting to accept them and accept who he is. I adore the scene where they’re at the cinema, “I don’t worry that when I get back to my seat, it all starts again, but this time our legs find each other immediately and he grabs my hand beneath the armrest and we electrocute and die”, because how accurate is that? Don’t we all feel as though we’ve been electrocuted when the person we like holds our hand?! So far this has been the only real mutual confession of feelings for each other that I’ve seen in the book, and the idea that they both just know how they feel about each other without having to say it really makes me smile, because that wordless confirmation is one of the greatest things I think there is that exists in the world.

“If a boy gives a girl an orange, her love for him will multiply.
(Jury’s out. No boy has ever given me an orange.)”

I’m finding it a lot harder to connect with Jude than I am with Noah, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. It possibly may be because of the way she treats her mom, or the
way her jealously of Noah gets the better of her, but I’m not sure. I do think as a female character, teenage girls in general would be able to relate to her, as every girl goes through that phase of rebelling a little, wanting to wear make up, go to parties, get people’s attention… Maybe as the book progresses and I read more of her sections I might warm to her slightly more, and I hope I do, because so far she’s the only character I’m not keen on, which is such a shame! However, the moments shared between Noah and Jude where they do get on is admirable, and the closeness of the pair really shines through.

“In every set of twins, there is one angel, one devil.”

The writing style of ‘I’ll Give You The Sun‘ really took me a bit of getting used to, as it’s almost written in a train of thought, so a fair bit of it almost seemed like rambling, but that being said, after a couple of pages I became accustomed to it and I find it makes the book such an easy read! So far I’m absolutely, 100% LOVING ‘I’ll Give You The Sun‘, just like I knew I would, despite not having the slightest clue what it’s about, Jandy Nelson’s just one of those writers if you know what I mean.

My Rating So Far: 

★★★★☆

Keep On Reading!