The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon Book Review

Though I feel like I speak about books ALL the time on my blog, it's actually been a little while since my last proper review, or at least that's how it feels, so I couldn't think of a better book than The Sun Is Also A Star to come back with!

'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 all about 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 review

So first of all, I think we need to talk about the cover of this book. ISN'T IT STUNNING?! I am absolutely obsessed with it. Though The Sun Is Also A Star and Everything, Everything, both by Nicola Yoon are Young Adult books, I think they appeal to all ages. I can totally see why this would stand out to teenagers but it's also one I think anyone my age could pick up and enjoy.

I'd seen the film adaptation of this a few weeks ago, as I mentioned in my latest mini film reviews post and I adored it. Instantly I wanted to read the book and compare the two. Straight away, as I'd seen the film, I could picture each scene so clearly but I think I would have been able to regardless. I adore Nicola's writing style, it's effortless, creates tension and is never over complicated, which I think could be easy to do when you're talking about science a good chunk of the time, and that is certainly not one of my strong points. I just find it so easy to get lost in her stories and it never takes me long to feel like I'm part of it.

Sticking with Nicola's writing style, this has a multiple person narrative which sometimes I find can be a bit tricky to get right, but she has nailed it. We hear from Natasha and Daniel the majority of the time, and I love that we get his side too as like I've said in a few book reviews before, we often don't get the man's side of the story but a lot of the time they can be just as soppy and romantic and THAT'S WHAT I WANNA SEE. We do also hear from several other minor characters too which I wasn't expecting but it added a whole new perspective to the story. There's Natasha's attorney Jeremy Fitzgerald who on the same day Natasha and Daniel meet, decides to finally confess his love to his PA Hannah. We get a few chapters from Hannah too and hear her side of this love story. And we even get chapters from Natasha's dad, who is the one that has caused the family's possible deportation in the first place. I looked forward to all of these little chapters as it was like multiple stories in one, but it never distracted from the main plot. I've never read a book that's done this before, but it worked.

There was so much about this book that stood out to me for all of the right reasons. It feels very current with Natasha's struggle to stay in America, I learnt a lot about Korean culture aswell as Jamaican history, and it really made me question fate and whether it does exist. There's a lot of discussion around Destiny and Multiverses too and if Natasha and Daniel were truly meant to meet on that one day, and I just love how Nicola has taken a simple boy meets girl story and turned it into something so incredibly unique. It never seemed like a story I could be sure would have a happy ending (though I'm a hopeless romantic, it's what I always hope for) so there was definitely unpredictability about it and it did seem like maybe this was going to be a love story about two people who may never end up together, and actually that's okay.

I don't really have any criticism about this book. I fell in love with the characters, it's so different to other books I've read so far this year and I 100% can't wait to read more from Nicola Yoon in the future. Now I've read both the book and seen the film, I can definitely tell they had to cut quite a few parts out for the movie and there were definite changes but I think it's made the translation to screen pretty well. I'll definitely be picking it up in future to watch again and I'm sure I'll be reading this again one day, just so I can get lost in Natasha and Daniel's story all over again.

Have you read The Sun Is Also A Star or anything else by Nicola Yoon?

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