I'll Give You The Sun / Jandy Nelson

4/5

I was really stuck between 3.5 stars and 4 stars. I'll Give You the Sun was a good book, so I chose 4.   

What I really didn't like about the book was the writing. Nelson uses so many unnecessary metaphors that she gets caught up in, that oftentimes it's hard to even understand what's going on. It is very unnecessary and very annoying. I don't know if she did it ironically to symbolize that all artists are a little cuckoo, but that was a pretty major flaw that would have had me putting the book down within the first three pages (yes, the metaphors are extremely prominent within just the first three pages)if I hadn't heard trusted friends praise it religiously. I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. 

Although the style was a pretty big turnoff, there were other aspects of the book that were so good they actually managed to cancel that out! 1) I like the format. The novel is about twins, but it follows one twin, Noah, when he is thirteen, and the other twin, Jude, when she is sixteen. I like this because 2) I get to slowly piece together everything that happened. We get to see how what happened in the past caused exactly what's happening in the present. Things are revealed bit by bit, and once all the pieces clicked together in my brain, my jaw had dropped and I had to take a little break while I just stared out the window in glee. Nelson ties all these little storylines and strands together, showing how every small action affects the surrounding characters. 3) The characters were well developed. I personally didn't like some of them, but I understood them-- a sign that a character is very well-written. I didn't like them but I felt connected and invested, so I had to finish their story. And OK, at the end, maybe one of their relationships was a little too perfect and rather unrealistic (it was kind of a load of hooey, filled with more metaphors, that was too similar to cliche chicklit) but by then I just wanted them to be happy and I wanted it to be over, so I could definitely buy it. I mean, I could definitely see how that character could view the relationship in the mushy, lovey-dovey kind of light. 

Summing up, this book made me feel. It drew me in. I was invested invested. It's a coming of age novel, packed with emotion, so if that's your thing, I highly recommend you check it out. Just bear through the extreme metaphors and personification-- it IS worth it.