Half of a Yellow Sun

4.5 stars. Everyone told me this book would wreck me, and it did, but not in an obvious tearjerker way. Half of a Yellow Sun starts with the mundane but swells into action with uprisings, war, and turmoil that affects the characters you've developed attachments to during the mundane chapters. The book has a cinematic quality to it that makes sense, knowing it was later adapted for film.