The Sun is Also a Star Review

Distiller: Doni Faber
Rating: 4/5 Stars





The Sun Is Also A Star
by Nicola Yoon
Delacrote Press
November 1, 2016
(348 pages)

Nicola Yoon came out with her second book, The Sun is Also a Star, on Nov. 1 and of course I snapped it up, after loving Everything, Everything. The love interest is just as compelling and the ending is better.

What would you do if you had just one day with the person you love? Would you still want it? For Natasha and Daniel, that is what they get. Natasha is going to be deported that night. Daniel is sure they are meant to be forever.

Their day is full. In between getting to know each other, Natasha is fighting to get her family's deportation overturned. Daniel is supposed to get interviewed to gain entrance to Yale.

Natasha's passion is science. Daniel's is poetry. Natasha is skeptical. Daniel is a hopeful romantic. She is Jamaican. He is American-Korean. Their families don't understand they are meant for each other.

Their conversation is built around the 36 questions that are designed to make people fall in love with each other. You ask each other a series of increasingly personal questions and then stare into each others' eyes for four minutes. Questions such as what is your most embarrassing moment or whose death would be most disturbing create vulnerability which is supposed to lead to intimacy.

One of the things I really liked about this book is that interspersed between Natasha's and Daniel's perspectives are the perspectives of minor characters they interact with. I also really liked the thematic interrogation of whether serendipity implies meaning or if it is mere random coincidence. Should we let our lives be directed by blowing in the wind or try to take control of them when so much is beyond our control?