Review : The Sun is Also a Star

 

Summary

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 about all 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?

 

   This is one of the worst cases of insta-love, they’ve fallen in love in less than a day and started contemplating how their babies would look like. This book was full of happy coincidences that made the fact that the two characters were meant to be, obvious. The only thing I appreciate about this book is the diversity, if there wasn’t for the fact that I wanted to read more about their family dinamics and their traditions, I would have DNFed this one because the romance, the central subject of this book, is very weak.

The romance was very unrealistic and the book sets  unrealistic standards for romance too, especially since the public targeted are young adults. It makes love seem so easy, as if you don’t have to do anything much for your relationship to work. Just believe in the chance of it and the universe will take over from here. And that’s very wrong because relationships take time, deep connections are built in weeks, years, not seconds, minutes.

If you don’t mind the insta-love trope, I think you’ll love The Sun is Also a Star because the writing is very beautiful, even unique, and the diversity is amazing. The female protagonist is a jamaican girl and the male protagonist is a korean boy. I love interracial relationships, but what I would have loved even more is a well-built romance between these two, instead of a rushed connection.

I wished there would have been more positive interactions between the main characters and their families, instead it seemed like their love was so forbidden and their family members were villains. All the other characters besides the protagonists were very one-dimensional and usually bad. I would have liked more supportive parents, I’m here for supportive parents in young adult literature!!

Also, there was this thing that bothered me a lot. The male character, Daniel, who is the dreamer, told Natasha, who is the pragmatic, that her potential job is not really alright because it’s a safe option (or something along those lines). And that she should choose something that she likes. She wanted to be a data analyser. What’s wrong with this? What’s wrong with wanting a safe job, anyway? We live in a very unsafe society, especially for women, so why can’t she go with something safe?

On a happier note, this book is really pretty, I love the cover, that artwork is perfect.