The Sun is Also a Star - Review

The Sun Is Also a Star

By: Nicola Yoon

Publication: November 1st 2016 by Delacorte Press

348 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Borrowed from the e-library

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Goodreads description--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?

I enjoyed Everything, Everything so I knew I'd want to read more from Nicola Yoon. I'd seen some good ratings for The Sun is Also a Star so when I went looking through the e-library for a contemporary read and saw it was available I went ahead and checked it out.

I have to say that typically I don't enjoy books that jump around in chronology or between too many narrators. Even up until the 20% mark this was still bothering me with all of the jumping around. Of course even more so than many other books, Nicole Yoon had a specific purpose in writing this way.

Even though I typically have a 48 hour rule to write my book reviews within this window of time from finishing the book, it's been more than two weeks since I finished The Sun is Also a Star. Having young children doesn't exactly lend to having the opportunity to sit and think methodically and then type up a review post within that allotted time these days. Hopefully when Baby Boy starts napping in his crib by himself this will be a little easier. That being said, I've already forgotten a lot of details to The Sun is Also a Star, but I'll do my best.

If you struggle with insta-love/insta-relationships then you'll struggle with The Sun is Also a Star. Daniel finds himself quite attracted to Natasha essentially from the moment he sees her. Natasha is more skeptical due to her families immigration status rather than actually holding back because of Daniel. Most of the story takes place within the span of one day. Their limited time together both holds them back and encourages the two to pursue things further than either would under normal circumstances. I personally don't usually take issue with books that span only a day, but for some reason Natasha and Daniel's story did have me seeing a bit more of the impractical than some other stories that have tackled the same feat.

The theme of The Sun is Also a Star seems to be that everything happens for a reason and all things are connected. Again, I don't typically take issue with these particular themes, but I did feel a little bit of the cheesy in the story because of this. I went back and forth on whether I thought the story would have been deeper if things simply ended with the storyline of the security guard or as things actually ended. I decided that the ending of the book was to real winner if only because of the amount of time spent with the two characters at the center of the story. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to give anything away even though I did feel things were a bit predictable.

Ultimately, The Sun is Also a Star was an easy read. The jump in chronology as well as the periodic random narrator weren't my favorite parts, but they did serve the overall purpose of theme and story. I can't say that I was blown away, and I didn't like this book as much as Everything, Everything. However, The Sun is Also a Star was still enjoyable and gets 3 Stars from me. Have you read The Sun is Also a Star? What did you think? Let me know.