Review: The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Challenges: 
Diversity Bingo 2017: Own voices

In this book we follow two perspectives. We have Natasha, a young girl who is set to be deported to Jamaica with her family. Then we have Daniel, the son of immigrant parents from Korea. Natasha is desperately trying to stop her family from getting deported to a country she barely remembers, while Daniel is struggling to reconcile his family’s expectations with the life he wants to lead. 

They meet, and with Natasha’s flight set to leave that same evening their relationship instantly comes with a timer that is running out quickly. Daniel wants to prove that love can happen in that time span, while Natasha is adamant that it cannot. For the sake of science she decides to give it a go, though. So while Natasha is meeting lawyers and Daniel is prepping for a Harvard interview they set about falling in love, scientifically. 

I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. We had not only Natasha and Daniel’s perspectives, but we also got sort of random information bits about different things with relevance to the story, including the people but also stuff like the universe and black hair care. 

As for diversity I really think this book delivered. Natasha is Jamaican-American and Daniel is Korean-American, and we got to see the tension that could bring about in a relationship, and the different cultural backgrounds that gave these young Americans. Nicola Yoon herself is Jamaican-American, so that fulfills the “own voices” criteria. 


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