text: I will admit: I was a little hesitant to read this book given the fact that I really didn’t enjoy Nicola Yoon’s other book, Everything, Everything. Also, Young Adult contemporary novels can be very hit or miss for me. I’m outside of their demographic now (which is probably why more and more of them are becoming misses) and I often find myself judging them through the lens of an adult; thinking about how I would do things differently or how a simple conversation would solve 90% of any given protagonist’s problems. Knowing that, I went into the book trying to remember it is from the point of view of two young teenagers at extremely volatile points in their lives.
  The Sun is Also a Star follows Natasha and Daniel through a single day in New York City. It’s an emotional one for Natasha – her family is being deported from the United States. Ever the hard worker (and logical to a fault) – she’s on a mission to seek legal council and find a way to stay in the country. Daniel, on the other hand, is a air-headed poet who decides he is in love with Natasha after meeting her briefly. He proceeds to follow her around all day as she tries to find a way to keep her family in the country that she has lived in for most of her life.
  The narrative of this book told from both Natasha and Daniel’s perspectives. Additionally, there are small vignettes throughout the book about supporting characters in the novel. These small stories help explain exactly how these characters came to be in the situation they are in now. One such vignette explains how a simple gesture from Natasha eventually saved a woman’s life. Having these little stories and explanations as asides really added a level of depth and a feeling of everything being interconnected that is too often missing from contemporary fiction.
  As far as Natasha and Daniel go, I wasn’t a big fan of the fact that they basically ran head first into a relationship without knowing anything about the other. It’s rushed, instant love like this that gives YA books a bad reputation. I would have much preferred to have more of a focus put on the gravity of the situation that Natasha was going through and also spend more time exploring Daniel’s relationship with his family.