For my choice reading, I read The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. I had heard many good things about this book, and finally decided to pick it up. It follows the characters of Daniel and Natasha as they go on their adventures, cross paths, and fall in love. We get to see scenes from the point of view of both characters, along with some excerpts and insights that tell us a little bit more about what is going on in the book.
I absolutely loved this book. This was the fastest I’ve read a book since I picked up the first Harry Potter book in 7th grade. Originally, I was kind of on the fence about the writing style, with multiple points of view and excerpts that weren’t really a part of the story, but I loved it. Seeing different points of view really helped me to understand both sides of the story, which just added more to my reading experience.
The mood created in The Sun is Also a Star also adds to the enjoyment of the book. Because we see the book from different perspectives, we get different moods throughout the chapters. When we see the events from Natasha’s point of view, we get a more “sciencey” point of view, as illustrated when she says “I don’t like temporary, nonprovable things, and romantic love is both temporary and nonprovable” (pg. 75). On the flip side, when we see the events from Daniel’s point of view, we get to see how he is hopelessly falling in love with Natasha. We frequently witness this, because he is always talking about her.
I think that this book also has undertones that aren’t romance that would make for a good story themselves. We see diversity in the characters, as Natasha is African American and Daniel is Korean-American. The characters both have struggles with their families, which creates a subplot that you want to keep reading.
There are so many lessons that can be learned from this book. You can learn about family, friends, and love from two very different outlooks.