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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Young Adult. Magical Realism. Family. Pretty Writing.
Rating: 4.5/5
Pages: 528
Started: 21 September 2024
Finished: 29 September 2024
Summary:
Dizzy Fall sees words in color, spends her days researching life on the internet, and is no longer speaking to her ex-best-friend Lizard. Wynton Fall plays violin like breathing, and is always on the lookout for more drugs, more music, more trouble, but he still has to wear sunglasses whenever he plays in order to hide the tears that always seem to fall when he picks up his violin. Miles Fall, perfect Miles, only ever really talks to a dog named Sandro, and can't seem to be able to tell anyone else that he's gay, or that he's depressed. The Fall family of Paradise Falls seems to be falling apart.
Then a mysterious girl, a magical girl, arrives to Paradise Falls. First she saves Dizzy's life, then Miles', then Wynton's--although he still ends up in a coma in the hospital. This sends the other two Fall siblings on a journey to find their father, whose trumpet might be able to bring Wynton back, although neither sibling is prepared for the realizations this journey will unearth about their long, rich, complicated family history.
Thoughts:
This is such a beautiful book. At Jandy Nelson's book launch, she compared it to One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I don't think that comparison does this book justice. The story never drags; there are parallels but never frustrating repetitions; the crossovers and connections between characters are just easy enough to spot to be comfortable and just surprising enough to be satisfying. All of the characters seem to glow, both a figurative and a diegetic glowing. Everyone is so vibrant and interesting and magical, which perfectly matches the writing of the story. The magical realism blends into literal events, and all the stories and characters wind around and into each other gloriously. All of the intergenerational relationships and griefs wove into this family saga that I still cannot stop thinking about.
Because it's necessary: I do not think this book was quite as strong as I'll Give You The Sun. Because the scope of the story was wider, it was more difficult to connect with and care about the characters. But there were so many scenes and phrases that felt like IGYTS-isms, which made me very happy, and I think this book is clear proof that I'll Give You The Sun was not a one-off book; Jandy Nelson is a deeply talented author (& I met her at the book launch!! Which I actually still cannot believe), and I cannot wait both to re-read this book, and to see how amazing her next book ends up being.