I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN

Nelson, J. (2015). I'll give you the sun. New York: Speak.

This book contains two protagonists, twins Noah and Jude Sweetwine. The book begins when they are 13 and switches between their point of views. At the opening of the book they are as thick as thieves and view the world with bright-eyed optimism. Fast forward three years and things are vastly different. There is barely any communication between the siblings and their lives are not at all what they’d planned.

What has happened is that each blames themselves for their mother’s death. Noah, does so because his mother walks in when he and the next door neighbor Brian are having an intimate moment. Only his sister knows that he is gay, so he is greatly- although wrongfully- ashamed about his sexual orientation. (There is also the fact that no one, most especially a teenager wants a parent to walk in on them and their sexual partner.) The next day he sees his mother cheating on his father. She eventually tells him that she is leaving her husband to be with her lover. While this is happening Jude is having her first sexual encounter, but it is not consensual. She later learns that her mother dies in a car accident at the same time she was “having sex” and she blames herself.

This novel is definitely character driven. In Noah we have a shy and imaginative soul, who even when he does a complete about-face is still fundamentally the same person. Jude transformation is a bit more profound because her lively spirt is broken, but no fear it is still there.

Nelson has penned a brilliant story that captures how difficult it is to be a teenager. She is able to expertly paints the struggle teens have to show the world- and themselves- who they truly are. Both protagonists are artist and she uses this as a way for them to express who they are and what they are feeling.