The way this book is written, in two different time streams from two different characters' points of view, was so brilliant. The sister Jude’s chapters were written when the twins were 16, and the brother Noah’s chapters were written when they were 13. This created a very interesting dynamic. We learned things that had happened and things that were happening, but there was a space of time where events were kept from the reader until the end of the book. It created a very different kind of tension, one that I’ve never experienced before and I thought it was absolutely genius.
The characters in this book are incredibly precious to me. Noah Sweetwine is probably one of the most beautiful and passionate and heartbreaking characters I’ve ever gotten to read about. He made my heart ache and I felt for him the entire book. His chapters were very beautifully written, mostly due to the fact that he’s an artist and everything is amplified to him. Noah will always have a very special place in my heart. Jude is also a very wonderfully beautiful character. She makes a lot of development throughout the book and there’s nothing I love more than great character development. She made a lot of mistakes in her life and seeing her try to deal with the consequences was heartbreaking but also really made you cheer for her. Regardless of what she did, all I wanted was for her to be okay. There are a couple secondary characters in this book that are very vibrant and memorable, but no one was more important than Noah and Jude.
The thing that really sticks out about this book was how it made me feel. Boy, did it make me feel a lot of things. I felt every emotion that the characters went through. I cried when they cried (and even when they weren’t because, let’s face it, I cry at most things). I loved when they loved. I was angry when they were angry. The way that their emotions were written and described were so painfully real and believable that my heart ached throughout the majority of the book. Probably from page 2 on. No book has made me feel such a range of emotions and feel them so intensely within 370 pages like I’ll Give You the Sun did. It was such an incredibly beautiful experience.
5 out of 5 stars? I’d give this book 3000 stars if I could. I’d give it the sun.
