I'll Give You the Sun (Nelson)

Book Reviews
Bold, even breathtaking. You get the sense [the] characters are bursting through the words, breaking free of normal metaphors and constructions, jubilantly trying to rise up from the prison of language.... The book celebrates art’s capacity to heal, but it also shows us how we excavate meaning from the art we cherish, and how we find reflections of ourselves within it.... I’ll Give You The Sun is a dazzling mirror
Lauren Oliver - New York Times Book Review


I'll Give You the Sun is a daydream...otherworldly and mesmerizing.... Nelson's evocative language envelops one's imagination...an exquisite surrender to wonder and possibilities.
Boston Globe


[Nelson] has an electrifying facility with description, especially how her characters feel at a given moment...[Jude], Noah, and the fine cast of subsidiary characters...are most memorable for how they poignantly illustrate the most basic of human emotions—love, grief, shame, remorse, joy.
Chicago Tribune


This book is about many things: grief, sexuality, creativity, bravery, identity, guilt. But mostly it's about love. Be prepared with more tissues than you needed for The Fault in Our Stars, a chunky notebook to scribble down all the quotes and a handful of witty responses when people ask why you're chuckling to yourself in the corner. Because this book will make you realise how beautiful words can be.
Guardian (UK)


[These] viewpoints—Noah’s at 13 and 14, Jude's at 16—intersect in surprising ways, and eventually come together in a satisfying, if bittersweet, conclusion.... Young adults will learn they're not alone in navigating the emotional highs and lows of finding their identity; older readers will have moments of wistful recognition. I, for one, devoured this book.
Montreal Gazette


I'll Give You the Sun gives the word "intense" new meaning...a novel that makes you want to go out and skydive, but if you can read a novel like this now and then, you don't need to.
Newsday


This book is many things at once, all of them engrossing. It's a book where teenagers think in almost indulgently poetic language while still sounding genuinely adolescent. It's two separate but equally intoxicating love stories.... Most of all, it's the mystery of what happened to tear Noah and Jude apart, and what—if anything—can bring them back together again. (Guide to 2014's Great Reads)
NPR


Simply unforgettable.... If you’re looking for a book that’s deep and powerful and beautiful, look no further. You must read I’ll Give You The Sun (Top 12 Young Adult Books of 2014).
Lisa Parkin - Huffington Post


Both structurally virtuosic...and emotionally wrenching. That alone is a rare combination in literature, YA or otherwise. But then add in the characters.... This book is a rebuttal to anyone suggesting YA, because it tells stories of young people, is somehow of lesser stuff. I’ll Give You The Sun is literature. Full stop. In my opinion, it’s not just the best YA book of the year, but one of the best books of the year.
Gayle Forman - Parade


A blazing prismatic explosion of color.... I'll Give You the Sun is that rare, immersive teen novel: To read it is a coming-of-age experience in itself.
Entertainment Weekly


Ingeniously told from the alternating perspectives of its spunky twin protagonists, this (technically) young adult noel jubilantly holds its own against the fall's grown-up offerings, with dead-on insights about surviving youth—and family.
O Magazine


You'd think that we were plugging The Fault in Our Stars, but even that comparison might sell short I'll Give You the Sun.... [It's] planted firmly in the positive, making for a gravity-defying, life-affirming experience.
San Francisco Magazine


(Starred review.) Twins Noah and Jude are inseparable until misunderstandings, jealousies, and a major loss rip them apart.... Nelson’s novel brims with emotion (grief, longing, and love in particular) as Noah, Jude, and the broken individuals in their lives find ways to heal (14–up).
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) (Gr 9 Up) Resplendent.... Readers will forgive convenient coincidences because of the characters' in-depth development and the swoon-worthy romances. The novel's evocative exploration of sexuality, grief, and sibling relationships will ring true with teens. —Shelley Diaz
School Library Journal


An intricate and absorbing work of art emerges from the details of the interlaced sections. Few novels about twins capture so well the rewards and challenges...or the way in which people who have loved us remain in our minds after their deaths.
VOYA


(Starred review.) In an electric style evoking the highly visual imaginations of the young narrators, Nelson captures the fraught, antagonistic, yet deeply loving relationship Jude and Noah share.
Booklist


The novel is structurally brilliant, moving back and forth across timelines to reveal each teen's respective exhilaration and anguish.... Nelson's prose scintillates... dizzyingly visual.... Here's a narrative experience readers won't soon forget.
Kirkus Reviews