Book Review: The Sun is Also a Star
-Originally posted on May 28, 2019-
Helloo everyone, I am back with another book review! I actually finished another book this year, and fast! This one I picked up and finished within the week (perks of being allowed to read books at work). So, without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Alright, so today’s review is The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon. If you feel like you’ve heard that title a lot recently, you probably have. The movie adaptation just released to theatres starring Blackish star Yara Shahidi and Riverdale’s Charles Melton. The trailer looked cool but I knew I wanted to read the book first so I had to grab it. It was on-sale at Chapters for $10 so I scooped it up right away.
First off, Nicola Yoon’s story-telling is wonderful. The way she crafts a story has all of the perfect cliff-hangers and aww moments. My favourite thing about this story is how she transitions between point of view without confusing anyone and subsequently fills in information that we don’t have. While Daniel and Natasha are the main characters and most of the story changes between their points of views, Yoon also fills in extra details from other characters. Whether it’s a quick chapter with the etymology of a word, or the history of a parent, passer-by or even someone apparently non-existent, each works to further the story.
When I first started the story, I was very intrigued by the plot and the characters. The plot is essentially the idea of two people meeting randomly one-day, each with a different goal and beliefs and fall in love. Daniel, a Korean-American high-schooler with over-bearing parents, a brother at Harvard and the expectations of becoming a doctor. He doesn’t want to be a doctor, he wants to be a poet. On his way to his interview at Yale, he meets Natasha. Natasha is an undocumented immigrant from Jamaica who doesn’t believe in love, only in science. The day that she and Daniel meet, she is on her way to attempt to stop her family from getting deported. You know, your traditional meet-cute situation. Not.
I was really interested in Natasha’s story. Her character and her motivations are quite complex. Daniel’s story to me wasn’t quite as interesting, but he got better as the book went along.
I ran into the only issue I had with the story around the half-way mark. I’m not the biggest fan of romance novels. I’m fine with it if it moves the plot along, and I can get behind a really good will-they-or-won’t-they relationship. However, at about the middle of this book, it gets really really mushy. I remember saying to my co-workers that if I read anymore about how they were meant to be and that it would work out for them and then they kissed etc… I was going to throw the book at a wall.
Still, I forced myself to make it through the book and I’m so glad I did. This book may have had one of the best endings I have EVER read. Period. The ending made me smile so hard that I literally squealed out-loud at work. If you only make it through to get to the ending, do it. It is so worth it.
So, with that book read, I have to find a time to see the movie and see how it compares. Have you read the book or seen the movie? What did you think?
