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

Jan 05, 2017 Rincey rated it really liked it

Probably closer to a 3.5 stars than 4

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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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Dec 26, 2016 Molly rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-lit, on-the-classroom-shelf, 4-stars, i-want-to-like-you, realistic-fiction, read-in-2016, book-of-the-month

There's a great quote from JK Rowling: "Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences." Girlfriend makes a solid point. I'm always back and forth on whether or not I believe in fate, or what's "meant to happen," but damn does this book sure want me to believe. On the one hand it's a little annoying, because these are kids and kind of the whole point of being a teenager is that you don't HAVE to decide your entire life right away. It's sort of what Daniel's There's a great quote from JK Rowling: "Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences." Girlfriend makes a solid point. I'm always back and forth on whether or not I believe in fate, or what's "meant to happen," but damn does this book sure want me to believe. On the one hand it's a little annoying, because these are kids and kind of the whole point of being a teenager is that you don't HAVE to decide your entire life right away. It's sort of what Daniel's trying to prove to Natasha. But...just as much as it's ok for him not to choose the path of becoming a doctor, isn't it equally believable that they won't choose the mutual path of together forever-ness? He mocks Natasha for knowing the career she wants, but repeatedly insists that he's falling in love with her. It's a tad hypocritical.

The style is what redeemed this for me. We aren't hearing solely from Natasha and Daniel. There are interspersed chapters about other characters, both tertiary and relatives (though these are all written in 3rd person). It gives me a bit of a "love actually is all around" vibe that melts my cold dead heart. It's probably only working because it's Christmas (and at Christmas, you tell the truth).

The other redeeming factor is the diversity of the main characters. These aren't two spoiled white kids. Natasha is an illegal immigrant, whose family is about to be forced to return to Jamaica, while Daniel is the son of Korean immigrants who has always felt second-best to his brother. Never mind the fact that said golden child just got kicked out of Harvard. I really liked both characters' voices. They each have these little personality tics that kept them from blending together (always a risk, especially when your characters are often doing things together). I found Daniel more amusing, but honestly I would have gladly read an entire book about Natasha's experiences being in the country illegally. It's no fault of her own; she was only 8 when her mother decided to follow her father to the states. And her brother was born here, so he's a citizen. It raises so many questions and conflicts that there just isn't time to delve into in this novel. But it's interesting, and I particularly loved her rant to the immigration lawyer who tried to mansplain that she would love it in Jamaica.

This is just really, annoyingly, heart warmingly cute. It got too schmoopy for my tastes towards the very end...I guess I just have a hard time wrapping my mind around this notion of not only immediately loving someone you've known for 24 hours, but also believing that you two are meant to be together forever. Does not compute. (view spoiler) ...more

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Jan 02, 2018 Maya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018

Cute love story where big coincidence is everything. Though certain things about the plot weren’t my favorite, I enjoyed the underlying themes and the characters.

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