I'll Give You the Sun
Ratings168
Average rating4.1
I always include major spoilers (hidden), to help with my memory issues. Read them at your peril!
Story switches backwards and forwards in time over a period of about 3 years. Secrets and traumas are gradually revealed. The ending is happy all around, and feels rather artificial and forced after all the drama and suffering.
Twin brother and sister sometimes close, sometimes jealous and estranged, both want to get into art school. Jude does, Noah doesn't . Their parents, married from when their mother was very young separate. Their mother is having an affair with the sculptor that Jude will eventually unknowingly work with. Her mother is killed in a car accident.
I swear if people in stories would just adopt some basic communication skills, so many problems could be avoided. But I guess that wouldn't make for a juicy story.
This was sweet, the type of book I would've loved as a pre-teen. It touched upon some difficult topics without being unrealistic, and the characters were well developed and had decent dialogue.
What's five stars minus one Sun? Four stars, yep!
I'll give you the sun was an amazing, funny, entertaining book that really has no right to be as good as it is! There are so many things here that would make me truly dislike almost any other book but somehow I can ignore them no problem.
The sole problem I have with I'll Give You the Sun, and the reason for that one missing star, is how focused it is on Jude and the ending to the LGBT romance of Noah and Brian. At first it seems as a 50/50 type deal with one half being told from Jude's perspective 3 years ahead of Noah who would be given the other half of the book. Except that's not the case. The book is all about Jude and sidelines Noah a lot, like to a point that Noah felt as a side character rather than a valid POV.
I did like the two POVs being 3 years apart, that was interesting at worst and awesome at best. Why that meant we're not allowed to have typical, industry standard chapters is beyond me. It made me stop reading after “chapter” one and pick it up later to finish within two days as there's maybe 5 “chapters” in total with some over 100 pages long. Not enough to substract a star but it annoyed me as I like to end at a chapterbreak rather than in the middle.
It took me a long time to read this book. I've had it in my shelf for years and could bring myself read it as I first bought it, so I had to force myself to do it now. I didn't like the first half of the book. I felt like there was nothing going on, the characters were flat and there was no emotion. However, this changed a little once I got to the middle of the book. I became slightly more interested in what was going on, but quickly figured out where it was leading (yes, I figured out the whole shenanigans early on) and still thought it was dull and lacked action/emotion. All in all, this book was a no for me. Even though I liked the metaphors and the plot had potential, it could have bee told in a much interesting way and less pages.
“His soul might be a sun. I've never met anyone who had the sun for a soul.”
Wow, I wouldn't want to belong to this family. They're all incredibly messed up and in dire need of therapy. Both Noah and Jude were so horrible to each other that I found it very hard to empathize with them when they were hurting. All those secrets, all those lies and misunderstandings, I just don't see how one could do all that to someone they truly care about.
However, I did like Noah's POV much better that Jude's, probably due to Brian's appearance. Noah and Brian's relationship was the best part of the book. I couldn't possibly care less for Jude, especially Jude and Oscar.
The writing wasn't bad but there wasn't much of a plot, we're mostly dealing with bursts of emotion. The drama was incessant. And it felt forced. Basically most of the problems were caused by the severe lack of communication between the characters which doesn't work well simply because there wasn't a good reason for trying to hide so much from one another. This is a plot device I dislike profoundly.
két ilyen ellenszenves szutykot, te jó ég... és akkor a pocsék stílusról talán inkább ne is. jó, hát végigolvastam, mert kíváncsi voltam, mégis mit akar kihozni ebből az írónő. meglepni nem tudott.
I'm not exactly sure what I feel about this book. I liked the story and completed it almost in a single sitting. The characters were also done well and I could really empathize with their situations both at 13 and 16...
But I think I just didn't like the writing a lot. It is very metaphorical and it felt a bit disruptive and spoiled my complete enjoyment of the book.
Anyone who doesn't mind the writing style should definitely try out this one. It's an emotional tearjerker!!!
Would not have finished if it wasn't on the BOB list. The trying was so hard here: too precious, secondary characters were bad cliches, the main characters acted like assholes with no real redemption arc other than apologies years later, and the worst offender, “gay” is used as a personality trait. Have heard her first book is better, but I'm disinclined to try it after this.
So beautiful I didn't want it to end. Absolutely my favourite book of the year so far. I'll be very surprised if something beats it.
I honestly have no words for the beauty and emotion of this book. I think I read most of it with tears pricking the backs of my eyelids.
Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance Wow. Wow. Wow.
(That doesn't tell you much, does it? Let's see if I can tell you a little bit of what this story is about....)
Two twins, Jude and Noah, are alternately incredibly close and then completely estranged. They have difficult relationships with their parents and friends and relatives who have passed on.
(Okay, that isn't really helpful, is it? But it's the best I can do, I think.)
Brilliant writing and characters that are so mesmerizing you can't set the book down. That's at least part of the reason this book has won a page full of awards including School Library Journal's Best Book of the Year and Cybils Award finalist and TAYSHAS Reading List Top Ten of the Year.
I tell you what: In the vernacular of Jude and Noah, I'll give you the sun for this book. And the earth. And the moon. Yes, it's that good.
Ok, I will admit I didn't like this at first. But once I got into it - and after about a week break to get a non-damaged audiobook - I really liked it.
A good book about young love. A great book about family and art. As the narrative alternates back and forth between the perspectives of twins Noah and Jude, I found myself often getting bored with the Noah sections, probably because those sections were heavier into the young love, which is an aspect of YA lit I'm not as interested in (because I don't have feelings and never was young and in love). The Jude sections do a much better job of balancing the passions of young love with the devotion to family (both living and dead) and the need to produce art that reflects that passion and devotion.
A good book about young love. A great book about family and art. As the narrative alternates back and forth between the perspectives of twins Noah and Jude, I found myself often getting bored with the Noah sections, probably because those sections were heavier into the young love, which is an aspect of YA lit I'm not as interested in (because I don't have feelings and never was young and in love). The Jude sections do a much better job of balancing the passions of young love with the devotion to family (both living and dead) and the need to produce art that reflects that passion and devotion.
I adored this book so much!!
everything about it from the blurb to the cover to the story and the way its written .
noah and oscar are definitely some of my favourites from ya contemporary
books :)
one of my new contemporary favs !!
the plot twists took me by surprise every time they came around and couldn't put it down once i picked it up !
it en-captured everything i love about books in less than 500 pages.
Thankfully, not devastating at all like I was expecting. A cute story and I'm happy that everything worked out happily and didn't end at all depressingly. I liked this book, I liked Noah and Jude and Oscar and Brian. I found some of it a little too cheesy for my taste, like all the poetic and artsy descriptions and stuff that Noah and Jude would say. But overall, it was entertaining and well-written.
I wanted to finish this book on September 17th and accomplished the feat with only 1 minute to spare. Given that, it is now past midnight and I am half asleep, so trying to collect all my thoughts about this book is near impossible.
I'll Give You The Sun was a beautiful, unique,, artistic story about two twins and what happened between them to tear their relationship apart, and it was probably one of the best contemporary books I have read this year (so far). However, I did have some problems with this book such as the length of the chapters between Jude & Noah's parts, making it difficult to remember what happened during the last episode of Jude ot Noah
