I'll Give You The Sun By Jandy Nelson | Book Review

Book Details:

Author: Jandy Nelson

Ages: YA

Rating: 6/10

Number of Pages: 429

Plot: When tragedy strikes, the once inseparable twins Jude and Noah Sweetwine have been driven apart, living in two very different and separate worlds. Written across two different time scales, Noah’s narrative follows his exploration of his artistic skills and his dreams of attending the local art school, but will his mother’s secret tear all his dreams apart? Set three years after their family tragedy, Jude’s narrative follows her struggles in art school as well as the distinct separation between her and her twin. Following their dealings with love, school and, most importantly, their crumbling relationship, I’ll Give You The Sun, offers a unique idea to the contemporary YA genre. In a story that interestingly addresses the effects of loss and family, Nelson creates two loveable characters that the reader wants to support from the very first page. 

Review: This book has been sitting on my shelf at home for ages collecting dust and as I am not a huge fan of contemporary romance it has never really appealed to me. However, after reading some quite heavy going stuff during my term at university I thought I would give this light-hearted text a go. I remembered watching a view reviews of the book on Youtube when it first came out, so I was quite optimistic going into it. Whilst I’ll Give You The Sun has not changed my opinion on YA contemporaries, I still prefer the more adventure-filled stuff, the book did have some redeeming qualities that make it clear why it was so popular when the book was first released.

The first aspect that really stood out for me was the unique structuring of the narrative or should I say multiple narratives. I have always been a fan of a book, or series of books, that explores more than one narrative viewpoint as it not only adds to the story but makes the book more immersive. Nelson, however, takes this idea of a split narrative further by adding a different time scale for which the narrators speak from. The notion of having Jude narrating three years after the family tragedy, in my opinion, really exacerbated the distance that had been created between Jude and Noah. For me, it was interesting to see the change in that character of Noah between his own chapters three years before and Jude’s – Nelson was able to show just how much he had changed without making it unbelievable and ridiculous.

“Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story.”

What I found really difficult to get to grips with this novel, however, was just the nature of the language that Nelson writes in. I must admit, when I’m doing my reading for my modules at university I am a fan of the Shakespearean over-use of metaphors and flowery language that seems to litter the history of English Literature. Despite this, I find that sometimes in YA fiction there is an unnecessary use of flowery language that makes the work quite laborious to read. From previous experiences, it is usually the books that have a less unique and underdeveloped plot that tend to disguise this with the typically over-romanticised and flowery language that Nelson occasionally uses throughout this text. I, therefore, found it bizarre when Nelson would go into these quite long flowery paragraphs as the premise, and especially the structure, offer a quite unique and unusual story. Whether Nelson uses this flowery language to distinguish between Jude and Noah or for some other reason, for me it felt unnecessary and a bit clunky.

Whilst the ideas of loss and grief made the narrative intriguing for me when I started reading, this was soon overshadowed by the presence of romance. From other books that I have read, even recently in my modules, themes can work cohesively often working together to create a wider message for the reader. With this text, however, I feel as if the incorporation of romantic relationships masked the more beautiful depictions of grief, loss and even the deteriorating relationship between Jude and Noah. From other reviews, I have read since finishing the book, it was this aspect of romance that made the book so loved by the vast majority. For me, it did quite the opposite – the narrative became quite cliché.