The Sun Is Also a Star in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Nov 18, 2019 Shannon rated it really liked it

My teenager had to read this book for school. She enjoyed it enough that she read it in a day or two and then passed it on to me. It's a delightful book with short chapters, multiple points of view and a sweet love story. It's also a glimpse of the lives of an immigrant and the son of immigrants. Their stories are a subtle reminder that not all immigrant tales are the same.

I loved the way this book showed time and again how one small event can have large ramifications. I loved the simple but bea ...more

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Feb 11, 2017 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-read-harder

Read Harder 2017: All Point-of-View Characters are People of Color

4.5 stars

So my dear friend Shannon will laugh at me, but I am really enjoying this challenge because it is forcing me to read more fiction!! I enjoy exploring the Goodreads Book Riot Read Harder 2017 groups for recommendations, and that is how I found this book. I don't usually voluntarily choose teenage romance, but the reviews for this are phenomenal. And it fits the bill for this category in the Read Harder Challenge as Natash ...more

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Mar 28, 2019 Rachael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library, need-more-stars

I wanted to give this one star for the ending. Then the epilogue slightly redeemed the book, and I decided to stick with my original plan of rating it 5 stars since I loved everything else.

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Dec 05, 2016 Jenny rated it it was amazing

During this last post-election month, I feel like my emotions are out of control and too close to the surface. Case in point, I was doing a first listen of my copy of the Hamilton Mix-Tape the other morning while making breakfast and basically was misty eyed during the whole first half. Songs about immigrants and rising up and writing your way out of bad circumstances hit close to home (and I’m a middle-aged white lady so I can only imagine how this CD resonates with other folks in my community) During this last post-election month, I feel like my emotions are out of control and too close to the surface. Case in point, I was doing a first listen of my copy of the Hamilton Mix-Tape the other morning while making breakfast and basically was misty eyed during the whole first half. Songs about immigrants and rising up and writing your way out of bad circumstances hit close to home (and I’m a middle-aged white lady so I can only imagine how this CD resonates with other folks in my community).

What does all this have to do with The Sun is Also a Star? Everything. This young adult story of first love and poor timing by Nicola Yoon would have hit me hard as a teen but it hits me hard now as an adult, full of fear and hope in equal measure. It’s the story of Daniel and Natasha, both immigrants to New York, who meet by chance and by chance, I mean a million small decisions and accidents lead to their first interaction. Daniel is the second son of Korean immigrants and parental expectations weigh heavily on him. He is supposed to go to Yale and become a doctor though he dreams of becoming a poet. Natasha, originally from Jamaica, has lived in New York City for over a decade with her family. Though Natasha’s family originally came to accompany her dad while he established a theatre career, things did not work out as planned. Their visas expired, Natasha’s father’s career never happened, and now many years later, they are being deported. Natasha cannot believe she is being sent back to a country she feels she hardly knows.

On Natasha’s last day in the United States, she meets Daniel. He is on his way to an admissions interview with a representative from Yale; she is going to the USCIS (United States Citizen and Immigration Services) building in Manhattan to try to make a last-ditch effort to help her family stay in the U.S. I’ll leave the details of how they first cross paths for you to enjoy when you read this but it’s both mysterious and believable and because this is a love story told over the course of a day, they don’t continue to miss each other in A Next Stop Wonderland way.

Natasha and Daniel take turns telling the story but Yoon also interweaves other perspectives and histories—that show other stories of connection and disconnection spinning around them. This is a novel of love but it’s also about immigration, hopes and dashed dreams, family, isolation, the power of connection and kindness, and how the happiness of one couple can be rooted in the pain of another.

Needless to say, the end of the book made me cry, and I was better for it.
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Mar 31, 2018 Amanda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Beautiful

What a beautiful, eloquent story this is. I loved the alternating viewpoints, but ,more importantly, i loved what it says about love, family and being true to yourself

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Apr 29, 2017 Erika rated it it was amazing

I absolutely loved this book. It was a beautiful story of immigrants, of love, of connection, of individual battle. I just, i loved this. It will make you feel things you don't expect. ...more

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