The following review contains spoilers
To be completely honest with you, I wasn't the biggest fan of "The Sun Is Also A Star." While it did tackle some important topics such as harmful stereotypes and depression, that doesn't change that the book was lacking an important plot. Warning: This is a mostly negative review and I'm sorry.
"The Sun Is Also a Star" is an incredibly romantic tale of the extreme skeptic Natasha and the hopeless romantic Daniel. Their romantic tale starts when Daniel creepily stalks Natasha while she's on her way to try to stop her family's deportation from America back to Jamaica. Only, it's not creepy stalking because it's destiny or something like that. And while Daniel stalks her, he's supposed to be preparing for his interview with Yale. Only, he doesn't really want to go to Yale because it's where his parents want him to go to become a doctor and he wants to be a poet. This might just be me, but if you had the capacity to make it into Yale and your parents would willingly pay for it, you really shouldn't be complaining. Whatever.
Daniel quickly falls in love with Natasha (because it's destiny) after he convinces her to have coffee with him and Natasha doesn't because she doesn't believe in love or something. She had one boyfriend in the past who she never really liked, so that means love isn't real. Anyways, after the two "part ways", Daniel continues to stalk Natasha. This ends up being a good thing because he saves her from being hit by a car. Now that Daniel has saved her life, Natasha starts falling in love with Daniel.
The rest of the book is full of gushy romance, misunderstandings, public arguments, and more romance. They basically go through everything an adult couple goes through within the first few months of a relationship in less than 24 hours. It is sort of amazing.
One part of this book that really bugged me was the 10 year break near the end of the book. I really don't like it when there are years of blank space in a story. Especially when I want to see how the character's developed in those 10 years. Did Daniel end up going to Yale? How did Natasha come back to America after being deported? I really need to know!
As someone who really doesn't like a book just for the romance. I also don't believe you can just fall in love with someone in a days time. Although I didn't like the main character's plot line, there were some really cool feats in this novel. One of my favorite things about this book was how it didn't just take place in Natasha and Daniel's point of view. Throughout the book, we'll get random glimpses into other people's lives. For example, we see into the life of the lonely security guard who checks through Natasha's items before she enters an immigration facility. We also get to see the stories of Daniel's parents and their struggle of being first generation Korean-American citizens, and also seeing into the extremely interesting story of Natasha's father's acting career.
If you're the kind of person who really loves romance and love-at-first-sights, then I would tell you to read this. It's very romance-y and also has a very diverse cast. Diversity in a book is something I have trouble finding, so I was really happy to read this book. Again, sorry for the mostly negative review. That shouldn't turn you off from picking up a book and reading today.
