Review of Walter Award: The Sun Is Also a Star

 

Summary:
Daniel and Natasha wake up as strangers on a summer morning in New York City. This is a day that could send each of their lives into new directions that neither of them wants to go. In a last minute effort, Natasha has only hours left to prevent her family’s deportation to Jamaica. Daniel dreads the alumni interview that will solidify his future and pave his way to a career in medicine, as his Korean family expects. Told alternately from Daniel and Natasha's perspective, the reader is left to witness Natasha's race against the clock and Daniel's struggle with family expectations, as well as the love between the two that eventually grows between the two.

Criteria:
This book fit the basic criteria of what was required: it was a Walter Award recipient, published in the last 10 years, and I had not previously read it. I had additional reasons to choose this specific book that included how much I liked Nicola Yoon's first novel, Everything, Everything. It also was awarded the 2017 Printz Award, and had many positive reviews including from BookList, Horn Book Guide, and New York Times. 

Response:
This was a wild ride of emotions but after a while the primary emotion was listlessness and eager for the ending.

I liked the back and forth of perspectives in hearing from both Natasha and Daniel, but it began to feel like the longest day ever. There was a lot of discussion and philosophical what-ifs about love and can it really happen. It felt like it bogged the story down, but perhaps that was just my own impatience with wanting to find what happened with the story. I also didn't love the ending, but that is mostly just a difference in opinion and perspective about how I wanted it to end and where Yoon took the ending.

“I don't believe in love." "It's not a religion," he says. "It exists whether you believe in it or not.”

This book doesn't quite fit with my own personal view of the world and teenagers. Granted, both of these teens had lived much more life than I had at 18, with Natasha immigrating with her family when she was young, and Daniel helping his family stay afloat by helping with the family business. And they were both dealing with current high-stakes situations for their future. But it felt like the leap into "because I'm attracted to this human today we must be life soul mates and the universe will make it work" was a huge leap. 

I started off enjoying this and with very high hopes, as mentioned, due to my experience with the author's first book. Perhaps I'm the wrong demographic or was hoping more for action over dialog and ponderings about love, but this story just started to feel really long and rehashing how Daniel and Natasha view love.  There are some really beautiful thoughts and ideals about love in the book. I would not actively say the book is bad, but does go about 75 pages longer than I wanted it to.

“Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.”

Yoon, Nicola. The Sun Is Also a Star. Corgi Books, 2016.

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