Diversify Yourself: “Sophomore slump” nonexistent for Nicola Yoon

Serena Bettis • December 4, 2016

One of the greatest, most incredibly diverse contemporary books I have read so far this year has been The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (and I’ve read over 70 books, so that’s really good). Lately, I’ve been growing bored of YA Romance books because, even when I pick up one of the few books whose summary actually caught my eye and got me interested, it’s either so cheesy-ridiculous or unoriginal that I worry I’ve read all the good books in the genre. My heart also breaks with the thought that maybe it’s just me and I’ve outgrown my favorite genre because my real high school life is more interesting and angsty than fictional ones made up by twentysomething authors. That was before I read The Sun is Also a Star, and truly fell in love with Yoon’s writing. Early in the year year I devoured her debut YA novel, Everything, Everything and her second book got even better.

The story starts with sixteen-year-old Natasha arguing with her mom over the fact that she still has not packed up her belongings and her family needs to be on a plane later that night. Only Natasha isn’t going on a trip, or moving to a different state. She’s being deported, back to Jamaica, a place she hasn’t been since she was eight. The point of view then changes to Daniel, who is also arguing with his mom about getting his hair cut before an important interview that he does not even want to go to. The Sun is Also a Star depicts Natasha and Daniel’s fateful meeting, and the potentially life-changing day they experience together as they jaunt around New York City with Natasha determined to change her imminent deportation and Daniel convinced that he can get Natasha to fall in love in love with him, using the scientific method.

Not only is the book written in alternating points of view, but it also uses the third person to focus in on people and intangible objects that Natasha and Daniel come across during their journey. I think that these little sections, whether they are talking about the life of Irene, the security guard at the USCIS building, or something such as irie, family, or fate, are what give this book its character. Without them, this would simply be a love story, but with them, it’s about life, the human condition, and the connections and interactions we have with people that shape our days and make us who we are. Yoon, amidst Natasha and Daniel’s musings about the universe and questions about their futures, crafts a story about people and the love between them, something that’s so much more than just another generic young adult romance.

Yoon’s writing is clever, and she writes in a way that makes the story magical without getting too metaphorical or mushy. Her pacing is fantastic, and her characters are so real, reading her books is like a breath of fresh air. I absolutely loved how firm and somewhat stubborn Natasha and Daniel were in their beliefs, but the way that, by the end of the novel, they were able to admit to themselves and each other that the day the experienced together changed them. While it didn’t have to drastically alter their desires or opinions, it made them question and consider what they truly wanted for themselves, despite the day not turning out anything like either of them imagined.

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Yoon is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, and I think everyone should give The Sun is Also a Star a try.

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About the Contributor

Serena Bettis, Editor-in-Chief

Serena Bettis, senior, is entering into her third year on the Etched in Stone staff as this year’s Editor-in-Chief. A four year journalism student, she has high hopes for Etched in Stone this school year, and wants to be able to guide the staff in achieving their goals as much as possible. While Bettis has become a much more outspoken person than she was when she started at Fossil Ridge High School, she still finds discomfort speaking in front of large groups of people (“large” being defined anywhere from 6 to 30), but is more than ready to grow in that aspect of leadership over the course of the year. Most of her journalistic goals for the year are not personal, but rather involve the entire program. She aims to further improve upon the look of the Etched in Stone website, which she spent countless hours on her junior year, enough for it to win awards before she graduates.

Aside from Etched in Stone, Bettis takes part in the school marching, jazz, and concert bands as a flute player, volunteers with Key Club, and is the Historian for the National Honor Society. She has also held a part-time job at TCBY for over a year, and now knows more than she needs to about the sugar content in frozen yogurt. In her spare time, which is often hard to come by, Bettis can be found reading for fun, lamenting about how none of the new Young Adult romance novels she used to love so much are good anymore, working on making the perfect French macaron, or binge watching her recent addiction, Game of Thrones. Music is a large part of her life, and her favorite genre is difficult to describe because she listens to many different bands. Some of her favorites include twenty one pilots, All Time Low, and Halsey, more alternative bands such as Issues and SWMRS, pop artists including Carly Rae Jepsen (“she’s so much more than “Call Me Maybe””), and Little Mix, and various songs by Spanish singers.

She is more than ready for graduation, and aspires to be attending college in Chicago by this time next year. Bettis knows that she wants to double major in journalism and foreign languages, with a potential minor in music, though she is undecided on what specific occupation she wants after college. Her best advice to someone who does not know what they are interested in is to simply join different activities and see what happens from there. “Eventually, sometime during sophomore year, journalism became the only class I wanted to go to, and even now I love it more than I used to love band, so that’s when it hit me that this was what I wanted to be involved in for most of my life,” she said. Another somewhat undecided goal of hers is to join the Peace Corps either during or after college, and she hopes that an experience in a different country with complete strangers might help her figure out what exactly she wants to do with her life.