The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

From Goodreads:

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? 

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Happy Saturday everyone!  Today I will be reviewing The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon.

Earlier in the year I was contacted by EStories and asked if I would be interested in reviewing audiobooks for them, so this review will be a bit different as I will review the audiobook narration and the story itself.  But before I get to that I would like to tell you all a little bit about EStories.

EStories is an audiobook website with tons of choices.  They have a very easy to use app that you can download to any phone and take your books on the go.  They have a few different plan options that you can subscribe to and ensure you always have an audiobook lined up to go. . I absolutely love audiobooks; it is such an amazing way of getting through your TBR when you don’t have time to sit down and read.  I listen to them while I clean, cook, and during my commute.  If you were ever interested in audiobooks, I would definitely check out the EStories.com website.

The Sun Is Also a Star was the audiobook I selected to review for EStories. This is my second Nicola Yoon read; I read Everything Everything as an ARC before it was released and I absolutely loved it.  I knew I would have to pick up Yoon’s second novel as soon as I could because I was blown away by her writing abilities. I really liked The Sun Is Also a Star and would recommend it to all who like YA contemporaries.  My favorite thing about it is that it has a diverse cast of characters and I believe we need more diversity in YA.  The characters were very well written and easy to love.  The novel is written from alternating points of view and the entire story takes place in one day.  In addition to the two main characters, Natasha and Daniel, we also get side stories for all the people they interact with.  I really loved all the peripheral character stories because it made me stop and think about people around me and how there is so much more than what meets the eye.  

Natasha is Jamaican and she, along with her family, is being deported the same night. Daniel is a Korean-American struggling to fit the mold his Korean parents expect him to.  Even though the story takes place in one day, I feel like we get to know both Natasha and Daniel very well.  There are so many different issues presented in this wonderfully written novel: family issues, immigration, racism, stereotypes, and so much more.  My only complaint is that because the novel is so short and fast paced there wasn’t enough time to properly address the many different issues introduced.  I would have liked to take more time and not just gloss over extremely important things such as racism and stereotypes.

The audiobook itself was great.  The narrators did a wonderful job with the characters.  Their performance was spot on and I thoroughly enjoyed their narration, intonation, and interpretation of the characters.  

All in all, I really enjoyed this book.  The story was unique in its composition and Yoon did a great job bringing diversity and several important issues to the forefront of her story.  She is an excellent storyteller and I know that I will pick up whatever she decides to write next.