The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

The Sun is Also a Star
by Nicola Yoon

Genre: YA contemporary romance

My Rating: ★★★★

Description:

Natasha is a believer in facts. Logic. Things concrete and tangible. Once, she was a dreamer. But now, with her family twelve hours from being deported to Jamaica, she has no room in her life for dreams. And especially not for love.
Daniel is the obedient son. He doesn't want to become a doctor, but that's what his parents want, and so he keeps his dreams of being a poet out of the picture. But when he meets Natasha, everything changes.
Will twelve hours change the course of both their lives forever?

Overall Thoughts

The Sun is Also a Star was a wild ride for me. In the beginning of the book, it was a four star. Near the middle, I got irritated and decided that I should give it a three point five. And now, it's listed on my Goodreads that I rated it five stars (though in complete honesty, I gave it 4.5). But yeah. It was an interesting book, and I'm ultimately glad I read it.
Thematically, this book is stunning. It's showing how people's lives intersect, how one small action can change everything, and I loved that theme. The theme of destiny/fate was not as well done, in my opinion -- the first theme definitely overshadowed it.

The Characters

The characters were interesting. I instantly liked Natasha, and I found her point of view the most interesting to read. It took me a long time (like 75% of the book) to warm up to Daniel... some of his motivations were random, and I couldn't really sympathize with his stereotypical "teenage boy-ness"... if that makes any sense. I did grow to like him during the last act of the story (the end pretty much decided my eventual rating), and I also liked that he was a poet. I also liked how random side characters in the story -- people Natasha and Daniel walk past on the street, or talk to in an office, or hear over a loudspeaker -- get their own backstories from the point of view of an omniscient narrator known as the Universe. I really enjoyed seeing how all of these different people's stories linked together.

Plot/Pacing

The plot was well paced and engaging. The entire story takes place over the course of twelve hours, which I feel could become boring or awkwardly paced if written badly. But Yoon pulled it off very well, skipping over the boring bits and not including so much that it seems unrealistic to take place within a single day. 

I did have a bit of a problem with the romance in the beginning. It is insta-love, after all... and some of the scenes near the beginning of the romance plot seemed a little forced, mostly on the part of Daniel, whose motivations in these scenes were hard to understand. But again, by the last 40% or so of the book, I really liked it. 

Content

Recommended for ages 15 and up. 

Kissing. Daniel thinks about going further with Natasha physically (which annoyed me, as they've only known each other for half a day at this point.) Sexual jokes/innuendo. 

Language is strong, including at least seven counts of the f-bomb, as well as other possibly offensive language. 

Mention of suicide. Discussion of racism, and includes racist characters. The actions and words of these characters are shown to be wrong.