The Sun Is Also a Star

(I am using this book for my "Book About Immigrants or Refugees" Category of Extreme Book Nerd.)

Admittedly, YA fiction is my jam. But it is also my hit and miss jam. Some young adult fiction is quite good; others just suck. Thankfully, "The Sun is Also a Star" fits into the former category. I thought this story of two teenagers, Daniel and Natasha, was very well done.

Both Daniel and Natasha are a product of their families and their cultures. Natasha is an undocumented Jamaican girl; Daniel is a second generation Korean immigrant. Natasha hates the circumstances of her life: she is about to be deported to a country she doesn't remember all because her parents made mistakes. Daniel hates the circumstances of his life: he is attending an show more interview for admittance to Yale...only because his parents insist on this. The two teenagers meet and over the course of a day, for that is all they have, their lives are changed.

This book does a beautiful job of showing how lives touch multiple individuals. Even if you don't see it, there are ripple effects. So many of the minor characters in this book have their own narrative thanks to either Natasha or Daniel. (Natasha's random act of kindness to a suicidal governmental employee was my favorite.) This book also does a beautiful job at showing how culture shapes people for good AND for bad. I appreciated a book where neither main character was Caucasian or of European descent. (Normally one character is).

Thankfully, the book did not end in a perfectly tied bow. The ending is beautiful and ambiguous. I like the reader being able to imagine how yet another chance encounter shakes up the characters' lives. For a YA novel, there was not a ton of teenage angst, which was very refreshing. "The Sun is Also a Star" also doesn't try to get too political (also refreshing.) It's a novel that is very timely in society today. I'm not even going to get involved in the immigration debate. Instead, I want to focus on the other aspect of this book: you never know what part you will play in a person's story. So live each day as if it's all you got--just like Natasha thought was the case. show less

Were Daniel and Natasha brought together by the universe's plan for them, by God, by destiny? Does it make a difference that he's Korean American and she's Jamaican American or that Natasha is guided by science and Daniel by a poetic heart—or by the tiny fact that they meet on the day she and her family are to be deported? How does one small action affect another? I love that not only their story is told, but the stories of the people they, even however briefly, encounter. There's also a fair bit of interesting science, historical, and etymological facts interspersed throughout. Great book for teens and adults.

The Sun is Also a Star is the second novel by Nicola Yoon and I loved it every bit as much as the first. There was just something about this book that got to me. And, in retrospect, this is surprising, because a big part of it centers around something I usually hate. Instalove. Instalove that takes place in a span of 24 hours. But somehow, in this story and with these characters, it worked.

Natasha and Daniel are two very different people. Natasha is wise beyond her years and highly intelligent. She's a practical soul that believes in science and facts, not love and fate. She's also an illegal immigrant that feels more at home in the US than in Jamaica, the country of her birth. And she is just hours from being deported when she meets show more Daniel. Daniel is the polar opposite to Natasha. He is just as wise for his years, but he believes in fate and destiny. He's a poet and has a dreamer's soul. But he is first generation American in a Korean family. And his family has very strict expectations for his future. It's a future he doesn't want, but until Natasha, it is the only one he thought he had. Yet the differences between them fall away over the course of a single day.

But The Sun is Also a Star is more than a book about love, even first love. It's a book about family and choices and fate. It's about finding your own way in the world, your own place. Natasha is fighting to stay in the US, unhappy that she losing everything she loves and a future that is bright because of someone else's mistake. Her journey is about family and forgiveness, even acceptance. But Daniel's journey is different. His is about living his own life in his own way, despite his family. And meeting each other is a chance moment that changes both of them forever.

On the surface, this book is a sweet romantic story. But it is also a book that makes you think. It makes you think about your own life and your own choices. The choices that led you to where you are right now and the choices still ahead of you. It makes you think about those random moments that can totally change the course of your life. It's about all the ways family can make a difference in your life, good or bad.

Overall: This is a book that deserves to be taken at more than the surface. It is a book that deserves to be thought about, to be considered. I definitely recommend it! show less

This book is gorgeous. It takes place over the course of one day and follows how little things can change the course of an entire life. I fell in love with the book, with Daniel and Natasha. I wanted at the same time to read faster to make sure everything turns out okay, and to read slower to savor it all.

Yoon has a way for crafting breathtaking sentences full of beauty and wisdom. I was noting quotes I wanted to cherish throughout the book.

This is so much more than just a YA romance. It is also a book about dreams, and science, and passion, and interconnectedness. How we all touch each other's lives without even realizing it. How the smallest things can make a huge difference.

It is also a book about the immigrant experience. About show more trying to find and hold on to cultural identity in a foreign country. About the hopes and fears the immigrant has.

This book made me cry. It made me laugh. It made me want to buy and read everything Nicola Yoon has written or will write in the future. Just stunning. show less

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 show more lie before us. Which one will come true? show less

Charming story about two seventeen-year-olds who meet on a day of import for each of them. Natasha and her family are about to be deported back to Jamaica, and she is trying her best to get a last-minute reprieve. Daniel is a son of Korean immigrants who want him to become a doctor, and who have scheduled an interview to pursue admission to Yale, but his passion is poetry. The family-related scenes contained vivid depictions of the influences of parents and siblings on these young lives.

Themes include some heavy topics such as immigration, race, cultural history, family dynamics, love, coincidences, fate, the meaning of life, and the impact of choices. The writing is engaging, graceful and philosophical, even poetic at times. The show more author is adept at inserting humor to offset some of the heavier content. I felt the spirited dialogue interspersed with humor skillfully captured today’s intellectual teen struggling at the cusp of adulthood.

Although their budding romance is a crucial plot point, I thought it was more about the way we see the world. Each character is written with a distinct voice. Natasha represents the scientific mind and Daniel the spiritual mind. Natasha has been damaged by previous relationships, and has sworn off love, focusing on explaining life through science and coincidence. Daniel is a romantic. He believes in love and that life is imbued with meaning and purpose. Their point-counterpoint discussions are entertaining and thought-provoking. The book is filled with examples of how even small incidents can alter the course of a life, and how the choices of strangers can positively or negatively impact the lives of others (often unbeknownst to the person being impacted). These observations were driven home by the chapters on some of the peripheral characters.

I recommend this delightful book to those who enjoy young adult fiction with an added dose of philosophy and science.

Meaningful quotes:

Natasha:
• “I am a realist. It’s better to see life as it is, not as you wish it to be.”
• “People spend their whole lives looking for love. Poems and songs and entire novels are written about it. But how can you trust something that can end as suddenly as it begins?”
• “People just want to believe. Otherwise they would have to admit that life is just a random series of good and bad things that happen until one day you die.”

Daniel:
• “[Love] exists whether you believe in it or not.”
• “We are born to dream and make the things we dream about.”
• “I think we’re all connected, everyone on earth.” show less

Natasha is about to be deported from New York to Jamaica with her family tonight. Daniel has an interview for Yale, so that he can go to medical school and become a doctor as his Korean-American parents expect. Their paths cross in the morning and they spend most of the rest of the day together, as Natasha goes from one lawyer's office to another and Daniel reschedules his interview. Natasha is a realist who loves science; Daniel is a romantic who loves poetry. He finds a study about couples falling in love, and they choose questions from the questionnaire to ask each other throughout the day.

THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR is a YA romance, but it is also more than that: there is the element of suspense (will Natasha's family be deported, or show more will they get to stay?), and the social issue of immigration (timely right now).

Very short chapters alternate between Natasha and Daniel, with others - about history, physics, other characters - sprinkled in. Such short segments made this a quick and compelling read - one chapter flowed into the next and it was hard to put down.

Quotes

For most immigrants, moving to the new country is an act of faith. Even if you've heard stories of safety, opportunity, and prosperity, it's still a leap to remove yourself from your own language, people, and country. Your own history. What if the stories weren't true? What if you couldn't adapt? What if you weren't wanted in the new country? (15)

Where did all those feelings go? People spend their whole lives looking for love. Poems and songs and entire novels are written about it. But how can you trust something that can end as suddenly as it begins? (Natasha, 58)

I wonder if she realizes how passionate she is about not being passionate. (Daniel, 100)

"We are born to dream and make the things we dream about." (Daniel, 101)

It's hard trying to hold on to a place that doesn't want you. (Natasha, 109)

Usually I fall on the side of knowing the truth, even if the truth is bad. It's not the easiest way of being. Sometimes the truth can hurt more than you expect. (Natasha, 114)

"I'm glad you think this is funny," he says.
"Come on," I say. "Tragedy is funny."
"Are we in a tragedy?" he asks, smiling broadly now.
"Of course. Isn't that what life is? We all die at the end." (144)

It's hard to come from someplace or someone you're not proud of. (144)

Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself. I like who I am with her. (Daniel, 150)

"What a difference a day makes." (Daniel, 330)

"This day can't be all there is," Daniel says once, and then twice.
Natasha doesn't say what she suspects. That meant to be doesn't have to mean forever. (334)

They have a sense that the length of a day is mutable, and you can never see the end from the beginning. They have a sense that love changes all things all the time.
That's what love is for. (334) show less