Audiobook review: I'll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Standalone
Unabridged
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 9/16/14
Narrator: Julia Whelan, Jesse Bernstein
Length: 12 hrs. 57 min.
Source: Sync Audiobook

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.

My thoughts:

I have been wanting to read this for quite a while and I had gotten the audiobook from Sync a couple of years ago but never tried it. I'm sorry I waited. Like so many, I found myself engrossed in what happened to the two twins and everyone who surrounds them.

I did take 1/2 a star off for the beginning. It was slow and I wasn't sure I really wanted to get into it, but by the time I hit Jude's part I was getting invested and shortly thereafter I was all in.

The book also deals with grief and I think that is one of the reasons I put it off. However, I really liked how they dealt with the heartbreak. It was sad, however it wasn't devastating even if the characters thought they would never heal and be broken forever. Although grief is the journey both kids make there is a HEA which might be a bit too easy as pieces fall into place. However, at the same time, I appreciated how easily it all fell together. In this way you felt good after the book ended and uplifted.

I also love how you are immersed in the way both kids saw the world. Full of metaphor and art. It was a way of understanding or controlling everything they experienced. The thoughts and feelings became art as well as the art they produced. All of it became catalysts in their healing.

I enjoyed the audio and did like the split between the two narrators. I think their accents were consistent and it really separated the voices between the twins.

I give the book 4 1/2 stars. After a slow start this is a great book full of metaphor, art and above all healing the heart. I highly recommend he book and I need to try the author's other work.

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