Romance: The Sun is Also a Star

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Evaluation of the book:

The pages of The Sun is Also a Star are filled with excellent prose that uses understatement and other literary devices to accurately express what each character experiences without bogging the reader down with unnecessary details. “I BLOW on my coffee, SIP it, STIR it, playing the part of an actual human teenage boy having an actual beverage called coffee” (p. 70). Simply by using capital letters, Yoon expresses the awkwardness that Daniel feels on his first date with Natasha.

In addition to the pristine prose, Yoon uses alternating first person points of view to help Daniel and Natasha’s personalities shine. For example, in Daniel’s chapters there is a lot of parenthetical asides. Daniel adds these asides to his normal thinking; this points to his creative and poetic nature, interpreting the world around him. In Natasha’s chapters, however, the reader finds a lot of “observable facts.” These asides show that Natasha is pragmatic and more scientific in her outlook on life.

In between chapters told from Daniel’s and Natasha’s points of view, Yoon adds short chapters describing peripheral characters and situations. These short additions add depth to the story and, in the end, come together to show that everyone is connected, no matter how obscure that connection.

Response:

I loved this book. It’s a well-written, fun, and poignant image of young love and immigration difficulties. Yoon has a strong sense of what being a teenager in love is like and that sense shines through her writing. Like Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the characters in this book observe some pretty real stuff in a pretty real way: “Watching them makes me unreasonably happy. I guess the cliche is true. People in love want everyone else to be in love” (p. 250). This story touches on so many important issues - parent-child relationships, immigration, cultural distinctions, racism, depression and suicide, extra-marital affairs, family, etc. - and yet somehow manages to do it without being in-your-face. The Sun is Also a Star has left a lasting reaction in me; I find myself pondering its little details and extraneous asides even days after I’ve finished it. Yoon wove together a beautiful tapestry of people’s lives and managed to weave mine right into it!

Conclusion:

Not only is the writing impeccable in The Sun is Also a Star, but the story is fun, fast paced, and adorable. The messages and lessons contained in its pages are deep and complicated, but the story makes them easy to ponder. I’d recommend that any teenager read this book, whether they relate personally to the difficulties expressed on these pages or not.


APA Style Reference:

Yoon, N. (2016). The sun is also a star. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.