The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon

Hey all! 

I just finished an ARC of The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon! 

Note: I received a physical ARC from Jillian Vandall, someone working in the promotion of The Sun is Also a Star! Thanks so much! This does not change my opinion on the book. 

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? 

This book, first of all, gave me a new favorite word: 

Multiverse

Have you guys ever heard of the term Multiverse? It’s the idea that for every choice you make, you go into a universe in which you made that choice. If, for example, you made the other choice, you would be in the other universe. It’s like a chain reaction: one decision leads to which universe you end up in. I’ve always loved this idea: I’m constantly thinking ‘What would have happened if I didn’t say ____, or if I actually took this class rather than another”. It’s always intrigued me... plus the word is awesome. 

Now, this book does cover the idea of multiverses, but no, the main characters don’t go from one universe to another to change their choices, it’s so much sweeter and more simple than that. 

The Sun is Also a Star is about Daniel and Natasha. Daniel is Korean-American. His parents moved to New York from Korea to have a better life for them and their children. Daniel is a poet, a dreamer and a somewhat hopeless romantic, yet his parents are expecting him to be the best at everything he does, and to go to Yale to be a doctor. His older brother is an absolute jerk. 

Natasha is Jamaican-American. Somewhat like Daniel, her parents moved to the US for a job opportunity when Natasha was eight. She wants to stay, but the plan is that she’ll be deported in the evening. She loves math and science and all things logical and pragmatic, as well as 90s bands. She’s a character who is willing to go the extra step to get what she wants - and that is not to be deported back to Jamaica. 

Ok. I have to be real with you. If you’re one of those people who don’t like insta-love, you might be thrown off by the first few chapters. I’m not going to hide anything, it’s quite insta-lovey. It does cover quite a bit of the book, but, in the art and style of Nicola Yoon, it’s absolutely shipable and adorable. There was this whole ‘meant to be’ idea between them, that Daniel talks about quite a bit, and that the theme of the book eludes to as well. I can’t, it’s so so so sweet!  :3

But that’s not a reason to put the book down - the whole book is about the idea of multiverses, and how everyone’s actions affect other people in ways one might not expect. 

So you have Natasha and Daniel, an adorable pairing that click instantly. But you also have lots of minor characters - the brothers, their parents, and people like secretaries and lawyers and security guards.  What I loved about this book was that whenever Daniel and/or Natasha interacted with someone, we would get a short chapter from their point of view, or about them, about how Datasha affected their own life, good or bad. We also get how one of the side characters affects them, and why. I don’t want to give away too much, but it really shows how everyone is linked in somewhat or another. For me, that’s what the book was about. Not so much the cutesy Datasha, but really the links from person to person. 

The ending though! I wasn’t expecting that and, without giving anything away, it was so sad! But the epilogue was amazing and made it all super worth it! 

Just like Everything Everything, it’s a super light and easy read, that is compulsively readable. The chapters are short so are easy to just flip through, and it’s just super refreshing! I loved the rhythm of the book, and the overall feel of how it was written! 

The only thing that was a bit meh is the fact that Daniel was quite obsessed with Natasha right away, which was slightly creepy to be fair. But it just was all so cute in the end! 

Overall, I’m giving this a 5/5 feathers! It was so adorable and made me think quite a bit! 

The Sun is Also a Star comes on in November 2016! Make sure to get a copy! :D