The Sun Is Also a Star

“Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.”

Another one of those times when I feel I've read a different book than everyone else. People on BookTube have been raving and recommending this constantly for a few months and I was quite intrigued by it. This is by no means a terrible book, but I didn't enjoy it as everybody else. After finishing it and feeling quite let down that it didn't live up to the hype. I can see that idea behind the story comes from a good place but this author's writing was compelling enough for me.

It felt like the book was meant to be deep, it certainly attempted to dealt with very important topics like immigration and specific tensions that arise in immigrant families between parents and children, between siblings. It also brought up some big questions like Is there such thing as fate? etc. However, in the end, it was quite superficial, it barely scratched the surface of those issues, therefore it felt like they were used just to diversify the setting for a basically standard, cliché romance story. Clearly this was not the intention, but the writing is not strong enough to prove otherwise.

I don't have a gripe with standard YA, I read it for fun, for its ability to take me away from my problems, I don't expect it to have a lot of substance (I only get truly annoyed when the content is offensive and potentially harmful to impressionable readers) and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does go into deeper waters. What rubbed me the wrong way was that the people reviewing this book kept saying how profound it was, how it's so much more than a romance. But it is just an average romance with an interesting setting, at least for me it is.

The book tried to do too much in too little time. It features these two characters who supposedly fall in love in the span of a day and it tries to make a case that it's believable. For me it just wasn't. Probably because 1. I don't believe in love at first sight1; at least not in the way it was done it this book; I believe in sparks at first sight but I can hardly see a relationship develop in 24 hours. 2. I couldn't connect to the characters, I didn't like them enough to be very invested in the story and suspend my disbelief. Theoretically, I should've been head over heels with both Natasha and Daniel.
> Natasha's meant to be this girl who's passionate about science and reason, who doesn't believe in fate and superstitions, who feels music on a very deep level. I was supposed to relate to that because I'm the same way, in many aspects, yet I didn't. She didn't feel genuine enough to me, but more of a stereotype.

> Then we have Daniel, who's Korean American which I was very excited about because one of the other things I do for hours other than reading is watch Korean Dramas. Thanks to them I became very passionate about learning as much as I could about contemporary South Korean culture so obviously I was happy to see this representation in a popular book. Yet I didn't like Daniel very much either. He was sweet and all but his naivete was too much for me. He also felt like a stereotype, the one of the artist, who's overly sensitive and completely lacks pragmatism, who doesn't have any hobbies other than being an incurable romantic. I can relate to being idealistic, yet I couldn't relate to Daniel. The fact that Yoon went for the “I want to be a poet but my parents want me to be a doctor” trope was also annoying. I don't have anything against poets but it's been done before too many times. Why could't he want to be a teacher? Or a social worker? Or graphic novel artist? A personal trainer? A painter? Whatever. His parents would have opposed to anything that wouldn't bring him both prestige and money. So why a poet? Maybe I would've bought it if the author had showed me why he wanted to be one. Other than the fact that he had a Moleskine with him at all times we don't know anything about why a 17-old wants to turn this into a lifetime job and not keep it as a hobby.

Their connection also wasn't that convincing. Many times, I feel like a dichotomy, there's a constant battle between the dreamer and the rational thinker in me. I don't have a clear preference towards any of these traits. This probably applies to most people. So maybe this is why these characters didn't work for me. I also didn't feel any chemistry between them. I understand how they could've been very attracted to each other, but when they got to “I love you” I thought it was ridiculous. I kept comparing that day's evolution with the one in the Before Sunrise movie. Now that was an insta-connection I could buy.

The DEUS EX MACHINA was also something that dwindled my enjoyment. They were constantly bringing it up and which was frankly tiresome. It's one of those tropes I've rarely got patience for, especially when it's so in your face. Unlike Natasha, it's gonna take more than 12 hours to change my mind. The little Wikipedia snippets about concepts like the grandfather paradox were disruptive. I honestly don't understand the point in including them. That's just poor writing. And the ending was so silly it almost erased the good things. Not that plot was realistic in any way until then, but that ending made even harder to take seriously. We're supposed to believe they just happen to be on the same plane 10 years later and that Irene was also there. It's so over the top.

It does sound from this review like my experience with this book was completely negative, but that's not the case. Overall, nothing was a true faux-pas. The writing is not entirely uninspired, the plot and the characters, were somewhat engaging. I particularly liked her parents' story. There were also some humorous and genuine moments. There's potential in this author, but for me this book is undeniably over-hyped.