“I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out “Hey.” – “So damn much,” he says back, only it comes out “Dude.”

This novel uses vivid imagery and poetic language, embedded in a story full of love and loss. Jude and Noah were incredibly close growing up, they are twins after all. Both of them strive to become artists, applying to the same competitive art school. A knot of tragic events rips them apart, leaving both of them incomplete and wracked with guilt. Noah struggles with his sexuality and mental health, while Jude feels responsible for her mother’s death. Can communication rebuild their relationship?

Reading excerpts of the novel could be helpful in a classroom discussion about family values, sexuality or mental health. Due to the story being told from two perspectives, students could be split into groups, in which one half reads an excerpt from Jude’s perspectives and the other half from Noah’s perspective. These perspectives can then be analyzed and compared in the classroom.

Novel · United States · 2014