The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon Karen Coats Yoon, Nicola The Sun Is Also a Star. Delacorte, 2016 [384p] Library ed. ISBN 978-0-553-49669-7 $21.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-553-49668-0 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-553-49670-3 $18.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 7-10 Natasha is determined to convince immigration authorities that her family shouldn’t be deported back to Jamaica, and she’s only got twelve hours left to do it. Daniel is reluctantly following his Korean parents’ wishes that he attend an Ivy and become a doctor, despite the fact that he is a poet at heart. When he sees Natasha on the street and then saves her life when she is almost hit by a drunk driver, he knows that she is his One, and that he must do everything he can to convince her that fate has brought them together. Natasha doesn’t believe in fate, but she is undeniably drawn to this goofy open-hearted boy, and they spend the day falling in love. Interspersed with their separate impressions are brief vignettes about words, concepts, and characters who prove relevant to the way their day unfolds. Readers learn about multiverses and African-American and Korean hair, for instance, as well as the history and future of Daniel’s cruel racist brother. The point of all of these digressions is to emphasize the connectedness of what seems random, to highlight and reinforce Daniel’s faith that everything happens for a reason that will ultimately lead to the world lining up as it should. He is unabashedly romantic and heartbreakingly sweet, while Natasha is grimly pragmatic and passionate to sustain her nonbelief in anything but observable data. As they come together, they each absorb from the other what they themselves lack, eventually accepting that even if their destiny together isn’t a forever one, it was certainly fated that their meeting would change them as individuals . . . and then there’s the epilogue. In this wistful sigh of a romance, Yoon manages a love story that is smart without being cynical, heartwarming without being cloying, and schmaltzy in all the best ways. Click for larger view View full resolution [End Page 103] Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois