The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had really high hopes for this book since I absolutely loved “Everything Everything”. Nicola Yoon has incredible writing and I love that she writes in such a unique manner. In order to allow me to properly fangirl over this book, I’m going to state everything I disliked now and discuss the positives later. Firstly reading on the Kindle app was incredibly difficult as the characters’ viewpoints were all mixed up. Something was wrong with the formatting which made for several very confusing moments. I also don’t understand why the book is called “The Sun is Also a Star” since that’s a line only used once in the novel. Lastly I wished the ending was more complete. Like “Everything Everything”, the ending feels more like a beginning and I WANT TO KNOW MORE!
Now for the positives: I love love love LOVE this cover. It’s so pretty and colourful and honestly it’s the first thing that drew me to this book (the author was second).
“The Sun is Also a Star” tells the story of Natasha and Daniel who meet and fall in love on Natasha’s last day in America. Natasha and her family are being deported, a fact she doesn’t share with Daniel. Daniel is supposed to be on his way to an interview for Yale when he decides that Natasha is his future. Daniel and Natasha are complete opposites. He’s a dreamer while she’s practical and certainly doesn’t believe in love. And if their totally different personalities and Natasha leaving weren’t enough obstacles for their budding relationship, Natasha is Jamaican while Daniel is Korean. While this isn’t a problem for them, this might be a problem for their families.
What I really enjoyed about this book was the many different viewpoints. Usually I struggle to keep track of more than four characters but it was easy to follow everyone in this book. While this is a story primarily about Natasha and Daniel, there are scenes that show the lives that Natasha and Daniel impact on without even trying.
This book had a ending that I felt was really natural and I was like “aww this is beautiful”. The epilogue was what kicked me in the gut and left me speechless. This book was beautiful and really made an impact on me (so much so that when I went to sleep, it was all I could I think of even while asleep). I love Natasha’s character and I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s backstory. I wish the ending was a bit more complete though as I wasn’t ready to let go of these characters.