The Sun is Also a Star is a #1 New York Times bestselling book by Nicola Yoon published in 2016. It is also quite possibly one of my favorite books ever.

This book follows Natasha and Daniel, two vastly different New York City teenagers who meet and change each other’s (and other people’s) life over the course of a single day. Natasha is a cynical pessimist who doesn’t believe in love and always expects the worst. She and her family are 12 hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Daniel is a hopeless romantic and a dreamer who struggles with his parent’s high expectations.

Through a series of unlikely events, Natasha and Daniel meet. For Daniel, it’s love at first sight. For Natasha, not so much. Daniel says he believes he can get Natasha to fall in love with him in a single day and so begins their adventure.

The number one reason for why I think this book is so amazing is the concept of intertwined lives. It is all over the book. Yoon wrote the book in third person omniscient, which means the narrator is able to see into, and therefore tell us, the readers, everyone’s thoughts and experiences. As a result, in addition to Daniel and Natasha’s story, there are short chapters about the people they meet along the day. It tells their story and their perspective. Something that was seemingly insignificant to one of the main characters could have changed a background character’s life and vice versa. The beauty of this book is that we can see those details.

As Natasha put it, “What if we are just a digression in someone else’s history?”

Everyone’s lives are so intertwined that it is difficult to pick out one specific example. In this book, a simple “thank you” saved someone’s life and another person’s drunken grief led to a meeting that sparked a new love. Ultimately, this reflects real life, to a certain degree. Everyone has their own story and path, and I think it’s beautiful that we can be a part of that path without even realizing it.

Secondly, this book is interesting because it has the concept of fate, in a different way than what I’ve seen before. It’s not a linear story with an automatic happy ever after, it has twists and turns and will-they-or-will-they-nots. It shows that one in a million doesn’t always happen and not everything works out the way one wants it to.

However, taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture reveals that fate and meant to be are still there. In the end, yes, Daniel and Natasha presumably end up together. But even so, the way they get there is so unexpected.

This book is full of so many good quotes but one that sums up the book nicely is this one: “What a difference a day makes.”