The download date was unfortunately missed, I would be happy to re-review it if it became available again. I have awarded stars for the book cover and description as they both appeal to me. I would be more than happy to re-read and review if a download becomes available. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter). Thank you.

I'm prefacing this by saying that I love Jandy Nelson and both of her previous books are basically flawless so this book had a lot to live up to.

I adored our characters immediately - this strange, bonkers, weird family. I love that they have things in common and yet don't know because their communication is awful. Dizzy and Miles both have synesthesia and objectively insane beliefs - Dizzy can see ghosts and Miles can talk to a dog in his head and they are both far too old to believe in magic and yet. They're very whimsical. Wynton is less so, but he believes he can hear his father's trumpet music in the distance at times and he cries every time he plays violin. Insane. I loved them all.

The book, unsurprisingly if you know the author, immediately sets about trying to break your heart.
I appreciated getting the whimsy of the siblings beliefs before we launched into Cassidy's tragic backstory. It would've been too sad otherwise. But I also loved Cassidy, and I especially loved that Dizzy genuinely believes Cassidy is an angel while she's just a girl sneaking into Wynton's room to tell him her life story.

I just genuinely enjoyed how this story is told by jumping around from character to character. It's also very pretty, with the decoration around the page edges whilst we're telling the story of the great-grandfather character. And we also get the mum's POV through her letters to other people. It just feels like so much love has gone into this book.

I laughed, I cried, I was engrossed in the plot. It was a beautiful soap opera of a family drama.

“I’ll Give You the Sun” which came out a decade ago was so pivotal in my love for reading as a 14 year old girl. So when I saw Jandy Nelson was gracing us with another book after so damn long, you best believe I was first in line. And boy was it worth the wait!

Janet just perfectly knows who to breathe life into character and weave together seamless prose with distinct voices for each character that you can’t help but love them all! Dizzy, Miles, Cassidy, Wynton and the rest of the family ensemble were just so pure and wonderful to read, so endearing and delightful that I didn’t care whose POV we were in. I was just completely enthralled and consumed with such unique and lifelike characters. The premise of the story was so unique and fun full of rich charm and heartbreaking moments, but I don’t expect anything else from Jandy. She just perfectly encompasses what I think YA books are all about— comfort and heartbreak, identity and discovery, human connection and love.

I can’t do this book justice. Jandy is BACK!!

After waiting for seven years, I was finally able to read the e-arc for When the World Tips Over. I’ll Give You the Sun is my favourite book ever so I was super excited to read this, to say the least. This whimsical book, filled with magic, love, heartbreak and alllll the juicy family drama, did not disappoint. I was captivated and I could not stop reading! In this book, Nelson fully leans into the magical realism genre we saw glimpses of in her previous work. The story follows the Fall family, consisting of siblings Wynton, Miles and Dizzy, after some terrible events shake up their lives. I can’t really tell you too much about the plot, but roadtrips, realizations and magical connections between people ensue. These characters are all so weird and lovely and each character carries their own rich personal history. You cannot help but root for them all, even when they act like idiots. The story was structured and paced so well, I was hooked from the start and it did not let me go.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m so sorry. I got an ARC of this book but am not able to read it because the PDF’s letters were too tiny. I tried to read it multiple times on multiple devices (phone-NetGalley app, Kobo ereader). A Kindle version would be very much appreciated.

A new novel from Jandy Nelson was very welcome, but this is totally different from previous novels. The title makes perfect sense, although probably not until the second half of the book when more of the story has been told and you still don’t know what is happening!
Dizzy loves her eldest brother and her Uncle, but both have been banished from the family home, leaving her Mother and older brother, the latter who appears not to care about his little sister. Dizzy is synaesthetic so isn’t surprised when she sees an angel with rainbow hair.
Wynton too sees this girl and is totally smitten, although the siblings don’t connect it is the same person. But perfect Miles is hiding secrets and so it appears is their Mother who writes in her diary almost every night.
When the siblings combine to save the life of one of them, the secrets slowly unravel so all discover the truth in order to move on with their lives.
An author who writes a compelling and emotional read this is well worth the investment of time.

Jandy did it again, after almost 10 years since I'll Give You the Sun, she wrote another masterpiece.

(small spoilers ahead!!)

It was just ... wow. Definitely felt like a typical book of her with all these family dynamics and complicated relationships. The writing was also really good. This quickly became a comfort book in the first 50 or so pages. The only aspect I have to criticize is that it wasn't really clear at some points if there would be incest. You kinda know they can't be siblings but still, it was a little bit confusing that they share siblings in the end. The story had a cute happy ending, and some parts were so hesrtwarming but also sad that I shed a tear or two (which normally never happens because of a story).
Although this version I read with 521 pages was far from finished with probably many edits to come, I still loved every single word in it.

5 ☆ stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review :)