A review by sadaudio
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The characters were incredibly in this.  There were times that you love them and times that you hate them and everyone, even the minor characters, are so complex that your opinions change every second.  There's Noah, who lied to his family for years about his mother's death - and Jude, who sabotaged her brother's chance at pursuing his dream.  They're both caught in a cycle of jealousy and love for one another that keeps them from actually knowing each other the way they used to.  Reading this, I was constantly cycling through emotions, feeling whatever the characters were going through.  (And, on a side note, both Noah and Jude deserve so much better from their parents.  I'm glad their dad got a chance to improve, but I'm still bitter!)  The relationships between characters were so well developed and emotional, both the platonic and romantic ones.  Noah and Jude had their cycle and each had such complex relationships with their parents, and it was one of the biggest highlights of the story for me.  You could really empathize with everything they were feeling even as it flipped from one side to another.  Noah and Brian really broke my heart, considering everything they went through, but even when they messed up badly you could simultaneously be angry and understand.  With Jude and Oscar, it was a lot similar - from the very beginning you could tell they were meant to be together, and things just kept getting better for them.  They were making each other so much happier, and it was really sweet.

As for the negatives:  The biggest thing for me was Jude and Oscar's age difference.  It was beautifully done and would have been perfect if they'd been the same age, but the three years between them is still quite big considering Jude's only 16.  Granted, Oscar didn't know she was so young until the end, but still.  The way it was addressed very minimally and only at the very end was kind of weird, and felt like it was only an afterthought put in at the last minute.  Aside from that, the other thing that bugged me was the resolution of Noah and Brian's story.  I feel like we just got a "yeah they're still here and they're okay" but no real depth in that chapter, and it would've been nice to have answers and know what happened when Brian came back.  All in all, I think that last chapter could've been redone and the book would've been just about perfect.

The other thing that bothered me at first was the writing style, but I think in the end I really like it.  It's very heavily metaphorical and not in a pretentious way, but instead in an almost childish way - people and things explode, and they trade parts of the universe between them, and people are associated with all sorts of nonhuman things like colors and animals and earth.  I didn't like it at first, because it took my out of the narrative a bit and felt unnecessary.  As I got further in, though, I started to think it's sort of the opposite.  I don't think this story could have been told without it - it's fundamental to the characters.  Their family has all sorts of ideas that seem strange at first - keeping an onion in your pocket, for one - but it's a huge part of what shapes them, and the writing style is a way of showing this - it affirms the theme that the people we love make up a part of who we are.  

My favorite thing above all, though, was the way everything tied back together.  I made all these theories as I was reading and got so excited as things developed.  It was SO satisfying when I was right.  Like Oscar being both the guy Noah painted at CSA and the guy Jude met at the church? There were so many little clues leading up to it that were really well done.  Same for Guillermo being the one the twins' mom was having an affair with, and Oscar being the one the parrot kept asking for - I really liked all these things. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this!