The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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?
Our history is too compressed. We’re trying to fit a lifetime into a day.
I’m that cynical hopeless romantic who doesn’t believe in insta-love. And believe me this book screams INSTA-LOVE but guess what, I didn’t mind! (Well, I did at first…you know just a little) This book is so much more than the romance, though it’s the central focus of the plot, it’s also about life, chances, and how everything connects—fate.
The Sun Is Also a Star takes place in less than a day, the story line unfolds in a span of 12 hours. With this amount of time (or even less) Daniel, the hopeless romantic poet, needs to make Natasha, the Science-loving cynical girl, fall in love with him scientifically.
Natasha is finding a way to not be deported to Jamaica with her family, she will not accept to go back there when her life is in New York. Along the way she meets this Korean boy, Daniel, who is supposedly on his way to prepare for his college admission interview that would lead him to the American dream that his parents want. Their meeting is just the beginning of something they both didn’t expect, through a series a coincidences and chances the lives of these two will be forever changed.
I loved reading both of their POVs, alternating between Natasha’s factual yet touching thoughts and Daniel’s dreamy ones was such a delight. I admired Natasha’s character so much, she was strong and vulnerable at the same time. Daniel at first glance is like the perfect book boyfriend for me, he writes poetry in this moleskin notebook that he carries everywhere, but I was quite annoyed with his attraction to Natasha. It was spontaneous yet SO strong that he literally became this lovesick puppy who followed her around. It just became a bit stalker-ish for me, especially if it happened in real life. But aside from that and the insta-love, I adored everything else with this book.
If the person who’s meant to love you forever can suddenly stop, then what is there to believe in?
So in between the alternating chapters, we also get these bits of side-stories from the people they encounter and their family members. As a person who enjoys people watching and wondering about the lives of random people, I absolutely loved those parts. It showed these chains of coincidences that ultimately leads to affecting someone’s life big time. It explored this concept of how we can affect random strangers lives without knowing it, how interconnected we really are. I truly loved that.
And with that being said, it’s apparent that this book did not only focused on the romance but tackled in a lot of concepts like being an immigrant, different cultures, racism, following the american dream, and suicide. The diversity and representations were on point in this one. The family aspect was so…rich, its complexity was equally frustrating and wonderful for both of the families. It gave the story and characters an incredible depth and connection.
As asual, I loved Nicola Yoon’s writing style. Her words are so beautifully written and their flow is so captivating, that I just couldn’t stopped reading. I think I have bookmarked and highlighted almost half of the book because everything gave me feels and I just needed to quote them.
All day I’ve been thinking that we were meant to be. That all the people and places, all the coincidences were pushing us to be together forever. But maybe that’s not true. What if this thing between us was only meant to last the day? What if we are each other’s in-between people, a way station on the road to someplace else? What if we are just a digression in someone else’s history?
The romance was formed through insta-love, and I find it appropriate that the rest of the story kept up by being unapologetically swoony and romantic. You know, if you’re going to write a love story about two teens who just met then it better be believable or at least good. And this was one of the best, the chemistry between Natasha and Daniel was just AHHHHH–HEARTSALLOVER! ❤
The whole book seriously played like a romantic comedy in my mind, every scene was so vivid. And I’m very happy that this will become a movie because OHMYGOD the production and scenes would be perfect. Even the overall plot feels like a perfect movie.
The ending and epilogue really got me, I was so emotionally invested that I didn’t just shed a tear or two but I ugly cried my way out the end. THE EPILOGUE WAS EVERYTHING, in my opinion.
The Sun Is Also a Star is a stunning book inside out. It’s one of those contemporaries that will stick to me. It’s one of my favorites, and I recommend this to everyone because it’s that kind of book that will leave you thinking about the characters and contemplating about stuff days after you read it. It’s absolutely diverse, beautifully written, and incredibly heartfelt.
Sometimes your world shakes so hard, it’s difficult to imagine that everyone else isn’t feeling it too.
Thank you so much Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an eRC of this book.
That’s all, thank you so much for reading. If you want to read more book reviews from this blog, just click here. And you could also find my reviews in Goodreads.
Great review. I also loved this book… A LOT😍
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Thank you! Glad to hear that 😻💕
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Excellent review. I’m reading this book for two different readathons in January.
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Thanks Ashley! Yayy, hope you’ll enjoy it as well. 💕
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Thank you! I enjoyed Everything Everything, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this one!
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Wonderful review! I am so happy to hear you enjoyed this book so much., and especially that the instalove didn’t bother you too much. I’m not a fan of that trope, but I’m glad you could look past this and love the book! I have it on my TBR, can’t wait 🙂
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Thanks Marie! Yes, I think the insta-love was needed and unavoidable for the whole plot. Yayy, I can’t wait for you to read it! Hope you’ll enjoy it too 💕😄
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Loved the book. And I really enjoyed your review. I was a bit annoyed at the insta-love thing but the whole story happens in less that 24 hours so that doesn’t leave room for non-insta-love 😭
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Thank you Nadwa! ✨ I agree, it was necessary for the whole plot and once you get pass it, it’s very easy to love the book. 😊💕
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Wonderful review/ this is definitely on my TBR list.
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Thank you so much! Yay 😄✨
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Amazing review! I haven’t read the book yet but definitely need to 🙂
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Thanks! Hope you’ll enjoy it too 💕
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Thank you!!
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I was a little skeptical about this book because it just showed it was insta-love fom the blurb, but I’ve heard so many good things about it. From your review, I think the best way to approach this book is just to let the insta-love flow and enjoy all the other details 😛 It sounds very nice and all the topics it touches make me want to read it! Very nice review.
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I was too! But the plot really needed some insta-love for it to work. That’s a really good way to look at it, hope you’ll enjoy reading it too. Thank you Esther! 😊✨
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I’m glad you like this one, Louise! I didn’t love the insta-love but you were absolutely right that it played out like a rom-com, and I actually love rom-coms. 😛
I agree that the more serious themes – the immigrant experience, the American dream, the cultural difference – were tackled very beautifully. I didn’t cry, but I related quite a lot to these things and I loved how Yoon wrote it all. Great review. ❤
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Thank you Reg! I’m so glad to hear that you also liked this book. 🙂
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Oh wow! Your review has made me even more eager to read the book. I’m glad I was able to charm my husband into buying me this book. Lol.
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Thank you so much! Omg yay, hope you’ll enjoy reading it too. ❤
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I’ve read this book too and I absolutely loved it! It was the first book I read by Nicola Yoon, but now I need to check out her other works! ❤ And I'm so happy about the movie news too ^^
Great review! I completely agree with you – but the insta love bothered me a bit haha
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Yayyy! You should definitely read Everything, Everything because it was also beautifully written. Ikr, I can’t wait to see the movie but I hope we won’t be disappointed by the adaptation. Thank you so much, Marta! ❤
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I’m so glad to hear you liked this one. I’ve read several reviews from people who are also not a fan of instalove, I’m with you on that, and it’s great to hear that it didn’t put anyone off of this book. It’s been on my TBR for a while and I even own a copy so I need to get to reading it haha. I love how family plays a huge part in it and that it’s really diverse. Hopefully I get around to it soon. Great review! 😊
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The insta-love was necessary for the whole plot to work so it’s the best to just ignore it. Hopefully, you’ll get to read this soon and that you’ll enjoy it too! Thank you, Melissa! ❤
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Awesome review! Two thumbs up, fine holiday fun!! 👍👍
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Thank you! ❤
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You got me even more excited to read it, as you don’t usually like insta-loves and this, as you say, screams it at you. But so did Everything Everything, but the story goes beyond that.
The dual POV seems like a great idea for this book and I’m eager to meet both characters. Also, I didn’t know it took place in so little time; that seems interesting.
Great review 🙂
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