Review | I'll Give you the Sun

Oh my goodness! I've just this minute finished I'll give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson and have got to blog about it. I think this might be my favourite book of 2015! It's a goodun!

If you haven't read it, I'll give you a little summary. The novel is basically about two artsy and once inseparable twins, Noah and Jude, who drift apart after the death of their mother. The novel shifts between the perspective of both twins at two different moments in time. Noah wants to kiss the boy next door, while Jude has sworn not to kiss any boys at all. This is a story of first love, family loss and betrayal, but both twins have only half the story.

I cannot praise this book enough. I devoured every single morsel of this book.

I decided to read I'll give you the Sun after I read Fangirl because I wanted to see who portrayed twins in the best way. It was intriguing that both writers dealt with twins and unconditional love, but also separation and heartbreak. If I'm honest, I thought Nelson dealt with the relationship of twins in a much more poetic and beautiful way than Rowell and I just felt for the twins more.

First of all, the language in this novel is seriously gorgeous. Yes, their may be too many metaphors here and there, but it's extremely heart wrenching at times.

I'd say that Noah was my favourite character in the novel. I think homosexuality is a really important topic to deal with in fiction and the way she dealt openly with Noah and Brian's relationship made it seem so real, like she didn't avoid the subject and homosexual romance, but real, honest homosexual love.

I don't think Noah and Jude could have done any more to ruin each others lives. They both were really just as bad as each other and the jealousy they have between each other is so true with twins, brothers and sisters. I can definitely relate to that!

Colour. Colour. Colour. This book is so unique in it's look. I loved the splatters of paint in Noah's section of the book and the way the dark pages signalled dark times. It really went with Noah and Jude's personalities. This was different to anything I've seen in a young adult book before.

I don't think the novel would have been the same if it hadn't of flicked back and forward in time. Seeing the difference between Noah as a 13 year old and then as a 16 year old was so upsetting in so many ways and it kept me reading to find out what had gone wrong.

Without revealing too much, the one thing I wasn't too thrilled about was the ending. The happy ending. I like happy endings, don't get me wrong. But, I also like to be surprised. I like to feel like their could be more complications for the characters, that their stories are going to continue. I mean, I want the characters to be happy, I just sometimes feel like, in life, not everything ends completely perfect. And this did, everything was complete. Everything resolved neatly. I would have preferred if some things had of been left a bit more open.

Other than that, I was pleasantly surprised how much I actually enjoyed this novel. It had me almost in tears at one point which is hard to do, so I'll applaud the author for that. I can tell that a lot of thought has gone into making this novel and that the characters really mean a lot to her. That's the best thing, really.

Thanks for reading. Have a super-duper Christmas!

*****

 

"Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story."

“I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out, “Hey.”
“So damn much,” he says back, only it comes out, “Dude.”

“It's never occurred to me that the stars are still up there shining even in the daytime when we can't see them.”

"When people fall in love, they burst into flames."



Review | Fangirl

Everyone keeps banging on about Carry On by Rainbow Rowell - I've heard a lot of great things...and there's me who hadn't even read Fangirl. Until Now. I managed to actually finish reading it on Tuesday evening - finally! So this is a rather late review...

I started reading this back in October. It's taken me a long time to get through it what with all the stuff I've had to read for Uni and all the essays I've had to write at the minute. But, it's done and it was so worth it. I read Eleanor and Park in September and loved it. I gave it FIVE big fat stars in this post right here. So, obviously, I had high hopes for Fangirl....and it really did not disappoint.

Fangirl:

Fangirl is everything it says in the title. It is a book all about fangirling and the fandom community. Cath's whole life is a dream world. She is in love with the Simon Snow book series. Growing up, Cath and her twin sister, Wren, consume their whole lives writing Simon Snow fan fiction, eventually acquiring thousands of views on their posts. Only, when they leave for college, while Cath is still addicted to the world of Simon Snow, Wren wants to move on and decides she doesn't want to share a dorm room with Cath. Cath has to share a room with a forthright roommate, Reagen, and is constantly in the presence of Reagan's ever-smiling boyfriend, Levi. Cath must juggle her online fan fiction world, with her creative writing course, with her social life and family life. But the main question is: can she leave Simon Snow behind?

I related with Cath's character SOO much. Aside from the fan fiction world which I have never been a part of, I have so much in common with her. I am extremely shy, I'm in my first year at uni, I love the imaginary world more than the real one and have unbreakable feelings for my sister. So yeah, it was easy for me to relate to her.

And, of course, Levi. Levi. Oh. My. I think I liked him more than Cath if I'm honest. He was just a nice guy, right? There are so many too-good-to-be-true characters in fiction (which obviously we adore - I mean come on!), but it's also nice to have a guy who's just 'normal'. I thought he was so sweet and his relationship with Cath, particularly the times when Cath would read him fan fiction, were the cutest parts in the book.

Whether this is a negative, I'm not sure. But my main problem with the book overall was its predictability. I mean, the characters were not predictable, but certain scenarios were. It was pretty obvious that Cath and Levi were going to get together - I figured that out on the first page. But, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think Rowell would have been able to make it any less obvious if I'm honest.

I love the way Rowell dealt with Fangirl culture. I thought it was very real, the way people get so absorbed in another world is something I can definitely relate to, and I feel Rowell portrays this beautifully.

There were funny highs and sad lows. Overall, this was a really nice YA book with really likeable characters as I expected from Rowell. (I stayed up some nights unable to put it down, telling myself I could handle the sleep deprivation, so I'd say it was pretty good).

I can't say I enjoyed it more than Eleanor and Park because I just found that TOO good - I love that book so much - but, don't get me wrong, Fangirl would still be something I'd read all over again!

****

"Real life was something happening in her peripheral vision."

"I choose you over everyone."

"The more I care about someone, the more sure I am they're going to get tired of me and take off."

"I'm rooting for you."

Review | Near to the Wild Heart

Oh my goodness. How many essays?! I have an essay due Friday, and THREE, yes THREE, due next Friday and so I've been a little bit laggy with the blog posts. But, I'm here now writing this up, knowing that I'll kick myself if I don't (probably not literally though cos I'm a woss).

Ok, so this week I've been reading Clarice Lispector's Near to the Wild Heart. I'm reading it alongside Catcher in the Rye which I'm re-reading for my essay on Friday. I wouldn't usually write reviews on books I've read at Uni, or ones that aren't contemporary, but this one I felt like I really should. To me, it is one of those novels that has just completely slipped from under peoples noses and should be celebrated and considered a classic!

This isn't so much a review, as me just sharing my thoughts on this incredibly well-written novel.

Here we go.

Near to the Wild Heart is told from the perspective of Joana and skips back and forth between various moments in her life: in particular, her childhood, where she lives with her father, until she is sent to her Aunt's when he dies, and when she steals a book from a shop and is sent to a boarding school, and also her adulthood, stuck in a dead-end marriage to a man who cheats on her and gets another woman pregnant while battling with her amorality and thoughts of what life truly is.

It is not that the story is mind-blowingly good, but the language Lispector uses that really is worthy of more acclaim. Every line was quotable, truly something else. The language was beautiful at times and gave Joana a really eccentric, quirky character (who you seriously would not want to mess with!)

Lispector claimed that she intentionally wrote a bad book. A lot of other people in my seminar agreed with her. But, I don't see it. I think that the book is the complete opposite. It is difficult to understand at times and Joana's character seems completely inhuman throughout, but their can be no denying the fact that this novel isn't badly written at all. For me, I love words, and so, reading something like this is just brilliant.

The novel reminded me very much of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath which is one of my faves and it should be up their with names like Plath, Joyce and Kafka.

The novel is not for everyone. I'm not suggesting you go out of your way to buy it either. Of course, I'd prefer reading The Catcher in the Rye to this - its far simpler and Holden Caulfield is far more relatable. However, if you are looking for something a bit different, with language that is just incredible, I'd say to grab a copy.

****

 

 

 

  

"She expected nothing. She was in herself, the end itself."

"She wanted even more: to be reborn always...where every tiny act had a meaning, where the air was breathed as if for the first time."

"The globe moved and she was standing on it."

"She remembered: I am the light wave that has no other field but the sea."