Hallo Leser!! (Hello Readers!)
Today I'm here with you to review The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. Now this review will be completely spoiler-free so you don't need to worry. As this book's movie-adaptation will be releasing on Netflix soon, I thought I would review this book for those interested in reading the book before watching the movie.
So lets get into it-
This book is a YA contemporary novel that follows the story of two teenagers, Natasha and Daniel who both live in New York City. It follows the perspective of Natasha, and we see that she is an illegal immigrant who has been living in America since she was eight-years old, but she is being deported to Jamaica and she is doing everything in her power to stop that from happening. We also follow Daniel's perspective, and he is just a Korean-American boy trying to live up to his parent's expectations. His parents want him to be a doctor and he has an interview with Yale University, but he has very different dreams of his own. He is a poet and he loves writing. He isn't even sure if he wants to go to college or not. He is a complete dreamer.....he believes in fate, destiny and true love. On the very opposite side, Natasha is a realist. She is very passionate about science and is a practical-thinker. She doesn't believe in God or fate or destiny, but rather in science.
The story takes place over the span of one day, which is the very same day that Natasha's family is to be deported and Daniel has his interview for Yale. They end up running into each other and Daniel feels a sudden connection with Natasha. He convinces her that he will make her fall in love with him by the end of the day. So that about covers the general summary of the book.
And now I'm gonna talk a little about my thoughts on it. So first up I wanna talk about the writing and the way that this book was formatted because it was very unique and unlike any other thing I've read before. The writing was very beautiful...........It was simple and statistic yet it had this magical feel to it. There were so many quotes here that were so meaningful and hit me so hard, and the format of the book is so interesting- like we get some chapters from Natasha and Daniel's perspective, but there are also some chapters from the point of view of other side characters and in third person, which is soo cool.. For example, there was a chapter from Natasha's father's POV, but it was in the form of a play because he is an actor. We also get some chapters here from the perspective of characters that you would think are completely irrelevant to the story, like we get a chapter from the POV of a security guard that they meet in some random point of the story which tells us a little bit of his backstory. This happens repeatedly with several minor characters and it adds a whole other dimension to the plot of the story. It was so intriguing to me because I've never read anything like this before and I absolutely loved it!!
So now moving on to more of the plot and the characters- from the general plot and the fact that the whole story takes place over the span of one day, you'd expect the romance of the story to be kind of insta-love, but it is actually one of the most organically developed romances I've ever read about.
This book is pretty long, and again, it only takes place throughout one day, but we get so to see so much of their relationship developed, and so much of their lives because these characters are so well-developed and it genuinely feels like you've known them all your lives by the end of the book. I'm honestly in awe of how Nicola Yoon can convey so much in the mere amount of just 340 pages. Natasha and Daniel are truly the most relatable characters I've ever read about, Natasha is headstrong, determined and she knows what she wants and she will do anything to get it..............I can't even begin to describe how much I can relate to them on a personal level, and I haven't been able to truly connect with a character in so, so long. So it was incredible for me to be able to read about her character and find someone that I can relate to.
There was so much to Daniel's character that people will be able to relate to. The pressure from your parents and the society to be perfect and achieve certain things because that's what is expected of you...........dreaming big and wanting something different for yourself and trying to break out of those walls is just such a relatable concept in general.
I don't want to go too much into their relationship as I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say that what I truly, truly love about them is that even though they have so different opinions and beliefs about life, neither of them try to change the other person, and nor do they try and change for that person. Like I said before, Natasha is a very practical and scientific-minded person vs Daniel who is a very much a dreamer, but the two of them hold those beliefs till the end of the novel, and even though they do grow with one another, they don't compromise on who they are as people just to please the other person. I just thought that it was such an important aspect of their relationship as the book focuses on how different the two them are in the way that they see the world, and I was so happy to see that they were able to be themselves and still grow as people, both individually and together.
Can we also take note of the fact that the not only do we get two amazing people of colour as protagonists of this book, but they also get to discuss their experiences as people of colour and how they can relate and differ at the same time.
We also get to see their bond with their families and how those relationships have affected their personal beliefs and perception of themselves.
There is also so much discussion here about what it means to be a person of colour as well as an American and how conflicting it can be at times. Seeing that topic discussed in here, and seeing the characters deal with that was something that made me so, so happy because it's something that's rarely ever talked about !! And just in general, this book talks about so many important topics like ethnicity, race, immigration, nationality and religion...................It was so incredible to read about that in here as they are woven into the book beautifully and it talks about them so eloquently. All the topics were just a natural part of the story and a natural part of life. I've never seen a book with such a wonderful plot that gets to discuss these issues.
So I think its pretty much obvious now that I highly recommend reading this. Let me know in the comments down below what you thought of this review. Was I able to convince you? If you've read the book, what did you think of it? Did you love it as much as I did?? Check out the Netflix trailer for this book on YouTube....What did you think of the absolutely gorgeous cover??
Until next time,
Yours Literary,
Fantasy Maniac #FM
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