I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun
by Jandy Nelson
Release date: September 16, 2014
From Goodreads:

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell 
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once. 

Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere has been one of those books that don't quite leave my mind when  I'm thinking of books that have stayed with me. Sometimes when people debut with such memorable books, most follow-up works don't quite match up. Sometimes that happens. And sometimes that doesn't. Sometimes it only gets better.

Jandy Nelson is a magician. I want to write that across the skies. JANDY NELSON IS A MAGICIAN.

I'll Give You the Sun  is the kind of book that made me want to climb out of earth and bring the sun for her, because SoMuchBrilliance. This book is a stunner of a read. The writing is gorgeous, so gorgeous I felt like I was drowning in it. Although, yes, I do admit it might not be the kind of writing that everybody will like. If you didn't like the prose-style of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, erhm, you should maybe just read a sampler of this to see if it's your thing and go ahead, because if you're going by this review, HOLY YES, I WANTED TO EAT THE BOOK. (This happened with The Sky is Everywhere as well, but it happened double-times with this)

So much of the feels. So much of it that feels isn't even the right word. So much of the feels and this is why:

• Siblings. Can there pleaaaaaase be more books about siblings? And siblings who aren't trying to kill each other and aren't just hanging around the background scenes just so they could be there but real-life, living, breathing siblings that have that pull which is the thing about siblings anyway (which is also why I loved Imaginary Girls so much *breathes heavily*). Noah and Jude are more like NoahAndJude and Jandy Nelson doesn't just tell you, she shows you how. It's brilliant how she managed the dual perspective throughout the book, giving the two of them such distinct voices that you don't have to go check the chapter head to see whose portion you're reading, yet you just know that these two are two sides of the same coin. Throw brother and sister and love and art and jealousy and guilt and love and more love and you will get NoahAndJude.
• Family. The family you want to run away from and return to. The family that isn't just the people that are alive but the ones who've died and are still there because you decide if you want to keep them there or let them go. Yup, Jandy Nelson nails that. (PS. For ghosts and other such things that you-don't-really-see-happening-around-you-because-you-don't-notice, I'll Give You the Sun often reads like magic realism and even though it's not the specified genre, I'm starting to think, maybe it is.)
• Art. 'What is bad for the heart is good for art' is something one of the characters says in the book (I won't say who because I don't want to give away anything), and that is more or less the basis of all great art in this book. It captures the essence of the artist so well, I had to stop for breath (which was difficult, considering that I read most of the book on the metro, on the way to and back from work, and the metro is at that time so crowded that it hardly leaves you space to stand, let alone, stand and read). You get how the description of such art comes from the soul, because the author apparently wrote this book over three years, shutting herself in darkened rooms, with just the light from the laptop giving her company, because things like that come from, I don't know, somewhere within, and when you read or see the book or the sculpture or the painting, you can feel where it comes from.
• Love. Oh man. The Beatles probably wrote All You Need Is Love for Jandy Nelson to write this book. Love spills from the spine of this book. There is not a single person who hasn't been affected by love here. All kinds of love. ALL KINDS. 
• Romance. I could have clubbed this with Love but there's so much of Love already, I realised this kind of needed highlighting of its own. And What Happens With Noah is probably my favourite Romantic Story of the Year.
• The Ones Who've Died and are Still Around, Like Really, Because (you remember how Sirius Black said that The Ones That Love Us Never Really leave Us) They Don't Have To Be Ghosts, you see. 
• Metaphors. I like metaphors, okay? Don't judge.
• Title. I officially think this is the Coolest Title of the Year.
• I got lost in this book. Like, literally. I can't tell you the number of times I've walked into the wrong metro because of this book. Oh yes.

Just read the book, okay? I don't know what else to say. I'm bursting with words and I feel like I'm coming up short and stupid and I just want everyone in this world to read this book because it's that good. Yes, that good.