Book Review: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

(Goodreads)

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.

Sometimes it's hard to gather my thoughts when I feel like I've been thrown into a hurricane, spun around a couple thousand times, and spat out in the span of three seconds. That's more or less the equivalent of reading this ~400 page book in three days.

I seem to be on a roll reading books that alternate chapters between either characters or time periods (Beside Myself, Finding Amelia, Hide). I'll Give You the Sun actually gave me both! Noah tells the past and Jude tells the present and in every chapter you find out a little bit of what happens in between. One thing that I loved and hated at the same time was how long each chapter was. I could feel myself getting so immersed into the story when the chapter would end at what seemed like the best part. I definitely had a lot of urges to skip the next chapter (mostly Jude's) so I could peek at what was next.

Jude and Noah are some of the best siblings I've read in a while. And it's not because they're perfect, or anywhere near that at all. Jude and Noah show the ugly side of sibling jealousy; the backstabbing, the lies, the ugly tendencies you can't hide. Their luggage of flaws definitely made them feel real and relatable.

Noah, without a doubt, made me feel like I was in high school, falling in love for the first time. Jandy Nelson did an amazing job at capturing those fluttering feelings that honestly, made my heart skip a couple of beats. His unique way of seeing the world definitely captured the mind of a young artist who can't stop thinking about what to create next.

Jude took a while to grow on me. Like Noah, she's artistic but in a non-obvious way. And to be quite honest, she's a bit of a mess when we first meet her. It was hard to not to groan at how much of a teenager she was being and it isn't until later that I could really understand why she was being like that. However, it's incredibly beautiful to see her unique way of coping with her circumstances (spoiler alert: her mother's death).

Without a doubt, I'd read this book again (and I'm looking forward to the film adaptation, can they please get Antonio Banderas to play G?). There's nothing extraordinary that happens, but the writing magnifies it in a way that makes you feel like you're reading something remarkable.

Memorable Quotes 

Noah

"It's like being kissed by a feather, no, smoother, a petal. Too soft. We're petal people. I think about the earthquake kiss in the alcove and want to cry again. This time because I am sad. And scared. And because my skin has never fit this badly before." (134) 

Jude

"I kept thinking, it's okay, I can handle this. I can. It's okay, okay, okay. But it wasn't and I couldn't. I didn't know you could get buried in your own silence." (47)

Book Review: Hide by Mathew Griffin

Hide by Mathew Griffin

(Goodreads)

Set in a declining textile town in North Carolina, Hide is the love story of Wendell Wilson, a taxidermist, and Frank Clifton, a veteran of World War II. They meet after the war, in a time when such love holds real danger. But, severing nearly all ties with the rest of the world, they carve out a home for themselves on the outskirts of town and for decades the routine of self-reliant domesticity--Wendell's cooking, Frank's care for a yard no one sees, and the vicarious drama of courtroom TV--seems to protect them.  

But when Wendell finds Frank lying motionless outside at the age of eighty-three, their carefully crafted life together begins to unravel. As Frank's physical strength deteriorates and his memory dissolves, Wendell struggles in vain to keep him healthy and to hold onto the man he once knew until, faced with giving care beyond his capacity, he must come to terms with the consequences of half a century in seclusion, the sacrifices they made for each other, and the different lives they might have lived--and most especially the impending, inexorable loss of the one they had.

Thanks to Bloomsbury USA at NetGalley for providing me with this eARC! 

I have to be honest: I feel hesitant about posting this review. Why? For two reasons, the first being that I wasn't able to finish this book and the second being that I feel bad for not liking this novel.

As with any other book I entered Mathew Griffin's debut novel with an open mind. The premise seemed interesting and I was ready to give my heart to Frank and Wendell, whose love had kept them together for a bit over five decades. However, I was about fifty pages in and I felt no connection to any aspect of the book.

Frank seemed like the most stubborn old person with no redeeming qualities. The story is told from Wendell's point of view and I struggled to find why he loved Frank, most of the time it was just Wendell looking after Frank and doing things for him that he was too stubborn to do. This novel uses two different perspectives in the form of alternating chapters to tell the current situation and how the two met. I thought I'd find a connection when I read about how they fell in love but instead I was disappointed, I didn't feel like there was a story to tell.

There's a lot of descriptions of mundane everyday things. The kind of things that grandparents drone on about but you listen to because you love them and you care about what they want to share with you. But because I was never given a reason to love and care about Frank and Wendell, these descriptions bored me (a scene that comes to mind is Wendell describing how he had to wash a knife twice because the first time the food didn't come off it all the way).

At the end of chapter 7 (around page 70), I realized I couldn't finish this novel. The only thing I liked about this novel was the gorgeous cover art. I really do wish I could have enjoyed it as much as others seem to.

Book Review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

(Goodreads)

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful-- irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.  

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. 

So I have to stop diving into books without having any idea what they're about. I mean, yes, at one point I had an idea what The Song of Achilles was about, after all, I had enough interest to add it to my never ending list of books to read...but I essentially went in blind, which seems to be a pattern of mine these days. Also, I want to be honest and say that I did take a break from reading this book for about two-three weeks in order to read Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah and Push by Sapphire; so please keep that in mind as you read this review.

With that said, I was about a hundred pages in when I stopped and thought, wait...is this...a romance? And my answer to that would have been in the summary if I had stopped to read it a second time. Yes! This is a romance and an incredibly poetic one at that. Madeline Miller did an incredible job at building up a romance between Patroclus and Achilles, the pacing was just right. It was unexpected for me, as I read through pages and pages of blossoming friendship and brotherhood that slowly and steadily grew into something more.

Since the title is The Song of Achilles, I expected it to mostly follow Achilles's story. However, Miller did a great job in building up two characters exclusively from Patroclus' point of view. I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did given my history with Greek mythology (long story short, I was a Classics minor for about two semesters, headaches and tears included). The only thing I didn't enjoy about this book were the fight scenes, which I tried to follow at first and then became a blur.

Achilles and Patroclus induced a lot of fluttering moments in my heart along with with a couple of painful stabs. I will definitely reread this in the future.

Memorable Quote (*MAJOR SPOILERS*)

Highlight to see:

"He snatches for this sword to slash his throat. It is only when his hand comes up empty that he remembers: he gave the sword to me. Then Antilochus is seizing his wrists, and the men are all talking. All he can see is the bloodstained cloth. With a roar he throws Antilochus from him, knocks down Menelaus. He falls on the body. The knowledge rushes up in him, choking off breath. A scream comes, tearing its way out. And then another, and another. He seizes his hair in his hands and yanks it from his head. Golden strands fall onto the bloody corpse. Patroclus, he says, Patroclus. Patroclus. Over and over until it is sound only [...] He holds me so tightly I can feel the faint beat of his chest, like wings of a moth. An echo, the last bit of spirit still tethered to my body. A torment." (336-337)

.5