A review by daumari
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

3.0

Guess I should watch the movie now to see if it's more or less saccharine, huh? 2.5 stars, rounding it up to 3. This is a YA romance of coincidences, where we wonder if the smallest event will turn patterns down the road (for want of a nail etc.) It felt a little weird to pop in and out of minor character's perspectives as we went, but I don't hate it outright. I do think it's not as cute that Daniel just kind of... follows Natasha around as she stresses about her very real time limit for the day. I can't decide if having the core of her challenge be that she's an undocumented immigrant grounds the romance from becoming to twee, or if it's too flippant a take on a serious topic (leaning more towards the former, though, as it never leaves Natasha's mind whereas if this were uh, a different YA book we'd have maybe one chapter about it and the rest would be fluff). There are some insights in the perspectives of parents who want to dream, first gen parents who know suffering and don't want their kids to suffer, and the validity of both of these (which the book thinks is true for both).

Suicidal ideation by a minor character about 5 pages in made me pause and consider whether I should keep going, but because I'm a completionist, I figured it would come back in some way.