BookPage Teen Top Pick, November 2016
“Meant to be doesn’t have to mean forever.” That’s the sentiment that runs through nearly every page of Nicola Yoon’s new novel about a chance meeting between two strangers, which delivers repercussions not only in their lives, but also in the lives of perhaps countless others.
When Natasha was 8, her family moved to New York City from Jamaica. More than anything, she longs to stay in this country, go to college and study science. Daniel, on the other hand, isn’t sure whether he wants to go to college at all. The son of Korean immigrants, he feels immense pressure to go to an Ivy League school and study medicine, but all he wants to do is make sense of the world by writing poetry.
When the two meet and start to talk, both feel an undeniable connection, even if Natasha is skeptical about Daniel’s insistence that their meeting is destined, even if she feels compelled to push him away because she’s an undocumented immigrant and her dad’s recent arrest for a DUI has resulted in the family’s deportation. Imminently. As in, that night.
The Sun Is Also a Star, with its condensed chronology, NYC setting and rapid-fire love story, may remind some readers of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, but here the stakes are higher. Suspense builds, not only surrounding Daniel and Natasha’s romance, but also concerning their individual futures, which, like everything else in this satisfying story, are shaped by the power of love.
RELATED CONTENT: Read a Behind the Book essay by Nicola Yoon on The Sun Is Also a Star.
This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
