A lot of things make me cry. A great book, a sad movie, and occasionally, a really moving commercial*. I have a long list and I’m really honest about being particularly susceptible. But I’m also really honest when I know I’m being manipulated in a cheap or shallow way.

The last lines of I’ll Give You the Sun made me ugly cry and it was glorious catharsis. No tricks or unearned tears here. I won’t spoil the direct quote because you really should experience it in context, but I will say that in those sentences Jandy Nelson pulls all of the book’s themes together; those last words contain the entire novel.

Towards the end of the book, Jude talks about how people are just an accumulation of past selves. Noah finishes the idea when he says the new selves stand on the shoulders of the past person and he calls them “wobbly people poles.” It’s a delightfully goofy teen idea but oh so true. Walt Whitman said it more eloquently when he wrote “I contain multitudes,” but the sentiment is the same. Nelson demonstrates this over and over again in I’ll Give You the Sun with characters who contradict themselves, make baffling decisions, and hurt each other. But they learn and grow; they use art to heal and keep adding to themselves. Their bond as twins makes it fitting that Jude and Noah come by this theory together.

Alternating between Noah at thirteen, and Jude at sixteen, the narration separates the twins not only by voice but by time. Nelson uses first person present for both, so the reader is only able to experience the relatively brief periods of time that each perspective covers. It’s actually brilliantly structured, because Jude and Noah’s stories follow parallel dramatic structure and inform each other. As Noah’s summer unfolds and more is revealed about the death of their mother, Jude begins to make discoveries that will either foreshadow or connect to Noah’s half of the novel. This linked duality underlines the painful rift between two people who can never really be divided from each other.

Nelson takes this even further by playing with the idea that every individual is the protagonist of their own story. She suggests that sometimes certain people are just meant to be in the same story, and that they’ll find their way into each other’s lives in unusual or unexpected ways. Nelson’s interested in how actions and decisions echo in our relationships, driving people together and apart. This plays out nicely in Zephyr, a tertiary character who is a significant figure in both Noah and Jude’s lives. His choices directly affect the main narrative even though he’s not a fully developed character. He doesn’t need to be; he’s an important player regardless, because they are all connected.

Overall, the characters feel like authentic people, with the right amount of eccentric qualities to make them interesting fictional people. The parents are particularly compelling. There are hints at a complicated history between them that would be interesting even outside of the main narrative. Because the novel is told through their voices, Noah and Jude are the most developed. Noah has an extra spark perhaps, because he lacks Jude’s more overt quirkiness, with her biblical quotes and ghost grandmother. If there’s a character who’s overwritten it’s Oscar who’s a bit too much of a teen girl’s fantasy come true. “Some guys are born to lean,” Jude wisely observes. She’s right, of course (exhibit A: Jordan Catalano), but this guy has an awesome lean, wears a leather jacket, rides a motorcycle, has artistic ambitions, and is working very hard to rise above his troubled past. When you actually list his qualities you may want to roll your eyes, but in context he works because Nelson uses him in small doses and these details are revealed over the course of the novel.

I’ll Give You the Sun has four stars and is on four year-end “best” lists. It’s publication in mid-September is recent enough that the buzz around it is still growing (although I think I was hearing positive things this past spring and the film rights were acquired in July). While the stars and lists are encouraging signs, history shows us that they don’t make any title a sure thing. I’ll Give You the Sun is one of my personal favorites of the year though; it’s also one of the best.

*Seriously, just pulling YouTube link was incredibly dangerous. I can’t even momentarily glimpse that commercial anymore—instant tears.