Review : The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Pages : 348
Genre : YA Contemporary
Stand alone
My Rating : 4/5
About the Book :
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?
My Thoughts :
About a year ago I read and enjoyed Nicola Yoon’s debut novel, Everything, Everything. I liked her voice and knew I would want to read more from her.
I’m happy to say that her most recent novel, The Sun is Also a Star, has many of the same qualities. The tone is light and fresh and the story extremely easy to slip into. It was a quick and fun read, with a very cinematic pace. Both Natasha and Daniel are extremely likable and easy to relate to. They are entertaining and fun, but they also both have some really heartfelt moments. Their connection is shiny and bright and heartwarming in the best of ways.
The Sun is Also a Star isn’t just about a cute romance: it’s also about race, identity, family, choices and fate. They’re important topics, even more so these days, and I felt that Nicola Yoon wrote about them with great care, without making it feel like a lesson. And while I have no experience being an immigrant, her approach felt truthful to me, human rather than centered around drama.
I also really enjoyed the format of the book. Between Daniel and Natasha’s chapters, we get snippets of narration from secondary characters, definitions, pieces of history. This made the story feel wider, bigger than just Daniel or Natasha’s romance.
And that romance was probably where I lost a bit of interest. I’ll admit, the insta-love was a bit too intense for my personal taste. While their connection was obvious, it was much too fast, too big. But I have no doubt other readers will love the book for it, rather than despite it. 🙂
Overall, this was very enjoyable, and I happily recommend this one to fans of YA romances and contemporary novels in need of a short, hopeful read!
Since I listened to this one, it took me a little while to figure out what was going on in the book but, once I did, I loved it. I loved Everything, Everything too.
Oh, this makes me curious about the audiobook! I imagine that could be a bit more confusing, yes!
I can’t imagine listening to this one as Kathy did above, but really enjoyed it in print. Usually I find breaks in the narration to have snippets from others very annoying, but I really liked it in this one and thought it was well done.
Yes, I have a hard time imagining this one as an audiobook, but the format was a lot of fun! It was just enough, I thought.