With powerful language and complex characters, Jandy Nelson (The Sky Is Everywhere) delivers a story of twin siblings coming of age that's both resonant and rewarding.
Noah and Jude are as close as twins can get. Jude is always rescuing her awkward brother from bullying or worse. Noah is happy to have his art, his mom and his sister's devotion. He can live with his father's disapproval and his lack of social life. Jude is the teenage golden girl--carefree surfer, secret sculptor of sand figures and the object of most boys' desire. Fast forward three years: a terrible tragedy has alienated the siblings, and they are both lost and heartbroken. Until they can find some way back to each other, neither can be whole.
Nelson's novel offers readers the pain of adolescence through Jude's and Noah's authentic alternating voices. She plumbs the depths of self-doubt and self-loathing in the credible voices of both a teenage boy and a teenage girl--no easy feat. With a sprinkling of magical realism, this lyrical novel portrays loss and loneliness from several perspectives--adults as well as teenagers, gay as well as straight. --Nan Shipley, literary scout