"A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell
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." (Goodreads)
My Review:
★★★★★
This book. When I first started reading it, I didn't expect to get so emotionally invested in this book. But I did. So now I'm here.
Noah: Telling the story from age 13-14.
Jude: Telling the story from age 16.
This book is all about putting yourself together again after you've fallen apart. Jude tells the 'back together' part, Noah tells the 'falling apart' part. After their mother dies, the twins essentially switch personalities. Jude, while eccentric, was popular, while 'Bubble' Noah was the freak of the school. By age 16, Jude is the eccentric loner, while Noah is involved in sports and is essentially friends with all of Jude's old friends. While they were inseparable when they were younger, NoahandJude have split into Noah and Jude. Which, by the end, isn't such a bad thing. Jude proved that with an electric saw.
This novel was beautifully done. Each twin has a very distinctive voice. Differentiating between voices is something I've seen poorly done in the past, so I approached with caution. (I'm not even going to deny I'm talking about Allegiant) But Nelson does a wonderful job with these twins.
The whole book is a puzzle trying to help the reader put it back together. I called who 'Dearest' was relatively early on, and was pleasantly validated. When the truths all unfold at the end, it makes for a very satisfying — if not bittersweet — ending.
Overall, it was wonderful. There were times I was rooting for one twin over the other, but then it switched on me. At first, I loved Noah more because he was more sympathetic. But then we got deeper into Jude's POV, and I felt such sympathy for her, and then Noah started lashing out as his world crumbled... I don't know which I prefer, and it really doesn't matter, now does it?
EDIT: OH AND OSCAR HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THAT MESS? I think Oscar is a very convoluted, if not fucked-up, character. He's so tormented and he can be such an asshole... It's wonderful to see him try to turn it around for Jude. And G. is great, too. Poor guy.
Everyone in this book has something shitty happen to them. There really are no villain— okay, I lied. Fry can fry for all I care. And Zephyr... Meh. He doesn't score high on my 'approval' rating, but he's better than Fry. That dick.
