a review (to recommend or not?)

I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN

I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson

Goodreads' rating: 4.13

Short description:

At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah, are inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.

Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor.

The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world.

my thoughts

I've read this book a month ago and I'm still not over it. I'm being myself for almost 18 years now and I feel like I somehow forgot how to think like myself and act like myself.

I'd say to be like Noah and Jude is one helluva experience. When I read the book, I am Noah; I am Jude. I am a genius. I am creative, imaginative and artistic. I am sensitive and insensitive. I am kind and bad. I am two opposite things.

At first, I was skeptical to read it because it's too wordy for me. I thought there's no way a fourteen-year-old would narrate like this. Ze thinks like an adult. The terms are too deep and complicated for a fourteen-year-old.

I talked too soon. The way the characters talk and think are just how they are. I love when books are proving me wrong. They are artists that talk like artists. It's quite hard to read at first because there are bunch of vocabularies you don't know yet. But I promise you, you'll get used to it.

I learned a lot. "A lot" doesn't even justify the amount of things I learned. I changed. I saw the world in a different light. This book gives me a new perspective.

I would absolutely recommend this with my fragile beating heart. Although I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. It might be overwhelming. But if you're feeling adventurous go for it!

- english
- not from Wattpad
- beautifully written
- straight up came from Louvre (art gallery in France)
- romance (but not focus to it)
- twins
- family problems
- lgbtq+
- (self portrait: a person in love with life)
- art art art art art art art art art
- artists think like artists
- creative narration
- grief, hope, grudge, anger, love, loyalty
- crazy experience
- I wish I can describe more accurately how amazing this book is
- Printz Award Winner and Stonewall Honor book
- (from the book) What is bad for the heart is good for art. The terrible irony of our lives as artists.
- I would read it again and again 'til I memorize it.
- 5/5

SPOILER QUOTES (please skip these spoiler quotes if you haven't read it)

Meeting your soul mate is like walking into a house you've been in before - you will recognize the furniture, the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelves, the contents of drawers: You could find your way around in the dark if you had to.

"I love you," I say to him, only it comes out, "Hey."
"So damn much," he says back, only it comes out, "Dude."
He still won't meet my eyes. (My favourite quote)

"Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people," I say. "Maybe we're accumulating these new selves all the time." Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things.

In one split second I saw everything I could be, everything I want to be. And all that I'm not.

Sometimes you think you know things, know things very deeply, only to realize you don't know a damn thing. (so freaking accurate)

A painting is both exactly the same and entirely different every single time you look at it.

It occurs to me that Jude does this too, changes who she is depending on who she's with. They're like toads changing their skin color. How come I'm always just me?

The right-handed twin tells the truth, the left-handed twin tells lies
(Noah and I are both left-handed.)

"Noah, he look exactly like her, it hurt me to look at him, but you. You look nothing, nothing like her, but are so, so much like her. Everyone is afraid of me. Not your mother. Not you. You both just jump right in."

"This is what I think," he says. "I think maybe Dianna, she break your bowls, so you come find a stone carver."

I had to have him. I would've given up the real sun, so giving him an imaginary one was nothing. (Snap! Snap!)

I shrug. "Don't do social events. Don't wear the dresses."
"You used to."
I don't say, "And you used to make art and like boys and talk to horses and pull the moon through the window for my birthday present."