The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

Synopsis

“Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?”

-Synopsis from Goodreads

Review

The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon is a book that really surprised me.

While I don’t know exactly what I was expecting going in, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

I’ll say up front that I gave it four out of five stars on Goodreads. It kept my attention, I enjoyed the characters and the dialogue, and I always love books that are set in New York City.

However (and this is a big one) I think that if the story were told in a different narrative style than it was, I would have been less interested in finishing it.

On the surface, the love-story-in-a-day concept does not really appeal to me. I see a lot of those books out there but have never felt compelled to read one because it just isn’t my jam. But with The Sun is Also A Star we get varying perspectives from different characters, in-depth analyses of recurring themes, people and places, and all of that together brought a uniqueness to the story that worked, at least for me.

I do think I would have enjoyed this book more if i were the intended audience and because of this, I can’t see myself reading any more Nicola Yoon books in the future. Although clearly this book has connected with a lot of readers judging by its popularity and subsequent movie adaptation. I had planned to make this a book and movie review post, but I won’t have a chance to watch the movie this week and wanted to go ahead and post the review.

I also wanted to shout out the diverse characters and the fact that the plot deals with really tough issues beyond just the typical teenage angst that so many books seem to focus on; Natasha’s dealing with immigration and facing possible deportation are very real and not something I have seen a lot of teen books delve into.

And finally, five stars for that amazing cover!