A Good Hook.

As a writer, I consider myself to be awful at starting stories. Which causes immense self-doubt when I have to submit opening chapters/pages to agents, asking them to represent me. I always want to write a note at the end of my sampler saying, "No, please just give a chance to the writing further on! It gets so much better." As a writer, that's bad. As a writer, I need to sort myself out with that because the opening chapter is my only shot at hooking both an agent and then, hopefully, readers.

I'm currently taking an online course to fill up my time and to get fine-pointed on writing. And I've just been reading about hooks, which inspired me to write this post, and to also reflect on my story. I've written two completed manuscripts, one half-finished, and I'm onto my next one, a story about a magician who works for a king, condemning criminals.

The opener of that first manuscript, when I was fifteen, went like so: "In Illeyal Woods, hunters hid and lived. In Illeyal Woods, Terrin Cast hid and waited. It was the first Friday of autumn and so Terrin waited. She waited as she had done for the past six Fridays. The reason was simply the fact she was the best and she’d been sent on this to prove that."

Here, my protagonist, Terrin Cast, has been sent on a mission to kill the prince, the heir to the country she lives in. Her kind have been banned and the chapter starts with her finding the prince and his captain; it ends with her being knocked out and caught. Pretty cliche, but it had action straight away and that was good but wasn't a good chapter. To be fair, I was only fifteen. But I haven't improved. Still, I made that story into something I loved only as a writer could love their first completed manuscript. So I wrote a second book to follow it up.

That opener went like this: "For Derrek Cast, the past months had been considerably less torturous for him than it had been for his sister, but she hadn’t been beaten, reprimanded, slept cold and outside where he was forced to be a hunter when he had little skill for it. Still, he had survived."

Again, I wrote over two-hundred pages of this second book before I decided that the whole story was wrong and I wrote about seven more drafts before realising that I didn't know how to make the story different to what I'd just spent two years writing.

Imperial Infiltration. That opens with Aritha, the younger of the two sisters that the story is centered around, in her new life, in the palace kitchen's, as a servant.

"Aritha Zenii counted as she felt the horrible stickiness of dough coat her fingers: it had been one week less than six months since she’d given herself up the Imperial Palace as a servant. She knew four other staff in the kitchen by name; everyone else only by face. She had twenty more dough rolls to prepare for the oven. In three hours, she would serve thirty plates with four courses, along with three other girls. When she slept, she’d be lucky if she got five hours sleep.

            She wasn’t sure when, exactly, her life had become narrowed to depending on counting hours or faces or careful steps. But she liked it; it was reliable and she always knew what to do and where to go and how to go about it."

Tollen's story. At the moment, I'm finishing up a draft about a magician, whose story launches right into action again, with a criminal trying to plead his case of killing a man who claims killed his wife, and he's about to receive his fate for his crimes. For now, I'm only drafting this story so I know I'll come back to edit this to make it sound nicer. But it's another story hook that I'm getting practice with. It's another one actually written down, to work with.

"Blood dripped, echoing on the polished, hard floor. The throne room seemed to hold its breath. The bedraggled man on his knees had frightened eyes, darting between those stood before him.

“Please,” he spoke up, voice ricocheting off the walls and pillars around the room. “He killed my wife.”

*

So they are my story hooks. Not the best but I don't think they're the worst either. But as I read the "hooks" page on the course I'm doing, I had a look at some books on my shelves to gain inspiration, to see how it's done well. Listed are some of favourite hooks, where it's been successfully written to spark interest.



"Even when there are no prisoners, I can still hear the screams." - The Sin-Eater's Daughter, Melinda Salisbury.

"After a year of slvery in the Salt Mines of Endovier, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point." - Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas.

"The forest had become a labyrinth of snow and ice." - A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas.

"Echo lived her life according to two rules, the first of which was simple: don't get caught." - The Girl at Midnight, Melissa Gray.

"Delilah Bard had a way of finding trouble." - A Gathering of Shadows, V.E Schwab.

"I've read many more books than you. It doesn't matter how many you've read. I've read more." - Everything, Everything, Nicola Yoon

"One summer night I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke." - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz.

"I'm not a shitty person, but I'm about to do a shitty thing." - Holding Up the Universe, Jennifer Niven.

*

These authors, for me, have done it right. They hooked me from the beginning. They incited the right questions for me to think to read on and get answers, or they made the hook relatable. Like, same Ari. Girl in Everything, Everything, I'm a good reader, how do you know you have? *reads on* OH RIGHT OKAY YES YOU WIN. I wondered what screams Twylla heard and why, in TSD. They all mattered to me to read on. Each inspired a thought process that made me frown and wonder why and I try to take all of these reactions into account when I'm writing my own. I want people to wonder why the prisoner is dripping blood, who killed his wife, why he's there pleading for his life, what crime did he commit? I want people to wonder how Aritha went from being in a family of four, to being all alone and taking the last resort. I want people, one day, to be curious enough to read on and read an entire story that I've spent time and effort and strength on and enjoy finding out each character crevice.

Why the Literary World Needs Young Adult

Fore-note: I'm never sure whether to call this genre young adult or contemporary so I switched it up now and then, used both. If I'm wrong or need correcting, please do let me know! I know some people can be opposed to the use of contemporary to describe these books.

I'm a reader whose literary interest is split directly between contemporary and fantasy young adult fiction. I don't read any other genre; I've found my comfort there, I've found my enjoyment. But whilst fantasy is all good and magical and world-building, there is realism in contemporary that's also incredibly magical. In fantasy, because of the genre, I think some protagonists are hard to relate to, they're made more like gods than humans. Key word: some. I've reviewed plenty of fantasy books where there are comparable characters.

But then in swoops contemporary. And as a reader, I need contemporary. I need to read books like ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES and WING JONES and BEAUTIFUL BROKEN THINGS. (And YOU need to as well, hence the capital format for the titles.) I need the characters in these stories because they're real, they're broken, they're happy and sad. Contemporary books are usually the ones that end up breaking my heart the most but that's because I can see elements of myself and my life in them.

Sara Barnard's Beautiful Broken Things was a book that touched me incredibly deep. I tried to convey as much to her in a very fumbling, awkward way when I met her earlier this year. 2016 was a year for me where there was this friend. At the start of last year, I let myself get incredibly close to her; she was almost like another big sister for me and I don't know why I let myself get that close to someone. It took me a long time to realise how deeply her words and "light comments" about me or my interests or choices affected me enough to be bringing down my self-confidence inch by inch. But at the same time, I thought she was lifting me up, I thought she was incredible and strong for all she'd gone through and still smiled, so I let everything bypass. I thought I ought to constantly thank her for trying to strengthen me when I felt weak. When I read Beautiful Broken Things, I saw a lot of that friend in Suzanne. A girl with a past, a girl with a constant pretense on to seem happy but had something a lot deeper and sadder beneath the surface when she trusted someone enough. I was the one who got my friend's baggage, as she actually once told me, and I feel like Caddy also got that from Suzanne. It seemed like they had something a lot stronger than a mere friendship; Caddy seemed to idolise Suzanne because of her confidence, her spontaneity and encouragement for Caddy to be more than she felt. For me, it was a very relatable book. And I needed to read that book and I didn't know just how much until I'd finished it. Some parts made me laugh: I imagined standing up for myself and so many times, I nearly did. But in reality, I didn't want to break some perfect image I thought I had in this friendship. Some parts, I felt like I was reading about me and my friend and that made me cry, quite a lot. Beautiful Broken Things was an empowering, insightful book that I had the pleasure of reading.

I'd never quite found that sort of ability to relate in any other book before. But with each contemporary book I read, there's an issue in there that I've either felt or known someone who's felt it. And I feel like there's advice in those books to help with any friend struggling with these sorts of feelings. There's a lot in the world that I don't understand or have yet to learn but contemporary opens people's eyes to mental health, to real-life teenage world, to the nastiness or power of high school, to first loves and heartbreaks.

And it's not all sad. Sometimes, it's the breathless feeling of reading about Wing Jones finding her own potential, or realising that Theodore Finch always held his own power in his hands even if he felt it was slippery, or reading the journey that Caddy went on to realise that she didn't need that Something to happen; that she was enough and that things take time. It's getting to share Eleanor and Park's first love story and knowing that nothing is ever perfect and struggles happen but something good and wonderful always comes from it. There's always some massive realisation of self-worth in young adult books and that's why I need them, why I think they need to keep being written and flourishing in the literary world.

I find contemporary books inspiring, above anything else. My wall is full of notes and scraps of paper because I read about Finch doing that and I realised that I wanted everything I write on them in front of me, like him. Sometimes, there's even forgiveness in contemporary young adult books. Night Owls by Jenn Bennett raised a particular subject within family relations that I had taken similar action to in my on life and had never quite forgiven myself for. But Night Owls helped me come to terms with those choices, it helped me forgive myself as I needed to.

The likes of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, I think, inspires fanfiction writers and readers to embrace what they love and that there are many more people out there who will like it. Cath was obsessed with Simon and Baz, and she made friends and a boyfriend from that love. And she was proud of it; she got to read her fanfiction to her boyfriend, who enjoyed listening to her and loved her even more for it. I think a lot of fanfiction has a stigma against it that it's silly or not-serious and that's untrue. Whilst I don't personally write fanfiction anymore because I no longer feel able to carry on with characters that aren't my own, it's been the start of writing for many writers. I've read about so many authors who started out writing or reading fanfiction and they became inspired for their original stories from it. That's Cath. That's set an example in Fangirl and I think Rainbow Rowell sends out a great message through her book. It's an important part of the literary world, so much that some authors have hosted fanfiction competitions to encourage writers by that method.

I've read wonderful and devastating and heart-breaking in these books. But the thing about it is that it can build you back up again with a paragraph. It's not so complex that you forget the worse parts for the better; contemporary makes everything important, in one story, so that you remember all of it.

Contemporary is needed, and especially in an age where mental health is becoming so much important to see and made aware of. Young adult books aren't just an escape anymore; they're answers and help for those who don't know how to find it otherwise. There are helplines and personal, shared stories in the back of these books for those who need it. And another thing: contemporary books don't glamorize mental health. The authors make it real and raw and as insufferable and uncomfortable as it is. They show how much toxic relationships and friendships and past can weigh on someone's mentality and they show the recovery--or are not afraid to show the worse endings to untreated mental health. They show journeys of first sexual experiences or the male protagonist realising that he likes boys. Books like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and I'll Give You the Sun show the fear and denial and hesitation of coming to terms with sexuality and then showing the happiness in their lives once they can accept and embrace the love they feel. Noah's and Brian's story touched me deeply in IGYTS because of how torn and happy Noah was, when he grew up to realise that his feelings for Brian went a lot deeper than childhood fun. Ari was protective of Dante's acceptance of liking boys and liking him and it took him a long time to know that he shouldn't be scared of ashamed of loving Dante back as he did.

In the world, LGBT and POC are topics often skimmed over, ignored, but young adult books are incredibly diverse and they raise the issues and things otherwise overlooked by everyone. They're needed for those who seek them or want to learn more about other cultures. For me, reading THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR was a history lesson as well as reading enjoyment. It explores the diversity and culture of the two protagonists, massively and widely explaining their backgrounds as well as their families' stories.

Young adult... it bases around topics like mental health, sexuality, diversity and real life situations and emotions. It faces it head-on rather than leaves it as a side-plot. These writers are brave; they're not afraid to write about these things and make them as raw as they actually are. And that's why they're important, why they're needed, why most young adults would be lost without these stories.

Writer Flaws (Working and Becoming Better)

Hi, my name is Bryony and I write books. I'm querying agents and writing two other books. I'm a great surface writer but I'm terrible at depth.

Introduction over. But that's what it feels like sometimes. Especially at this point: at the end of April, I finished an edit on Imperial Infiltration. Now I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing and it's hard. I'm surprised at hard it's actually proving to be, creating words again, creating outlines to work to (more on THIS) after working for a solid month with words already there. There's a quote something like: it's easier to work with a page of words than a blank one. And that's meant to be writing encouragement. But whilst editing has been a royal pain in my backside sometimes and made me cry reading over my story, writing is proving difficult. It is much, much harder to work with a blank page that I have to fill. That said, it's way harder for me to not write. So I'm working and so far, I'm onto Day Eight of my new project and I've gotten just over 11,000 words done. Not great. Ideally, I wanted to work on drafting quicker this time round. But it's some sort of progress so can I really complain? No. I just want so much more from myself.

Whilst trying to get back into writing, I've had frequent thoughts that I'm only a good writer on the surface, that when it comes to depth in my story, I'm actually quite bad. I don't know if it's a side-effect of struggling to write again because it's only since editing that I've had these thoughts. And I want to write depth, obviously. So I made a small list of writer flaws that I know (or think) I have so I can work on them and focus on becoming a better writer with broader stories.

1. Terrin and Derek (THC). Lucas and Emily (THC). Reya and Aritha (II). Con and Caiden (II). Sen and Sar (Untitled).

These names are the main sibling relations I have in my stories. Aside from Sen and Sar, they all have something in common: they have no peace. Usually, as well, they're torn apart due to some sort of personal decision. The elder had everything surrounding them, whether they are the heir to the throne or the better huntress or the one who wanted to fight. With Reya and Aritha, they actually nearly killed each other. See the pattern? Their situations are different but they always have the same non-peaceful relationship. That is terrible. Only delving into my fourth (unpublished) book have I learnt to write a nicer set of siblings, which is Sen and Sar. Angry siblings are always an on-going theme in my books and I need to work on that. They're always incredibly deep and dramatic, but they're always broken in some way.

2. Family! (Again). This is proving a bad reflection on my own family but everything usually just fits when I create these stories.

For non-royal characters, their parents are either dead or escapees. If they have someone, it's always a "father figure" who torments them or they hate to no end. Switching to the royals, the father, usually the king or emperor, is a tyrant. I will hold my hand up and say that I cannot write nice father characters. I struggle a lot, and I need to work on that too. I can't have every sibling wanting to kill the other and I can't have every father dead or hated because they're awful people. That's bad writing. It's not even a niche thing; it's just bad and unimaginative. I'm trying to convince myself that if I can envision fights and grand palaces and such developed storylines, then surely I can imagine a nice father character at least once.

3. Tense.

This has become a thing of stress for me lately. It's actually become apparent that I tense completely wrong, and it's made me very paranoid. There have been about five recent incidents where I've been corrected on my usage of tenses--even in my query letter when I got people to help me out, this was commented on most. There were about two or three occasions of corrections needed in that letter. It was only a page. I dread to know how many is in a 350 page novel. But that's what critique partners are for! That's what beta readers are for; dragonspells (twitter follower) and Dayna, I'm looking at you amazing people. These are the only two people (aside from agents) who've properly read any of this story. I've shared small paragraphs on Twitter, but I've not opened those up to critiquing (obviously).

4. OUTLINING.

Here's another bad secret: I never outline. I've written books and half-books and short stories but I only did my first outline for a story late last month. It felt a lot better, in all honesty. I usually delve into writing with a loose knowledge of the timeline and what will happen, a few random parts of dialogue or description scrawled in a notebook, and everything else usually came to me messily. That usually led to a lack of a reliable draft to further work with. But for the second book of the Imperial Infiltration duology, I actually outlined. For my new story, I'm outlining. So it's nice not to go into writing as blind anymore.

Somebody once told me that writing is easy. It's not. It's really not. Editing is not easy. If you think it's easy, you're quite delusional, sorry. Even published authors don't consider it easy, if their social media posts are anything to go by. There is very little about writing a novel that is easy. It requires concentration, focus, major thought, time, effort, planning. It's cancelling plans because there are goals you want to reach, it's saying no to going outside in the garden because you can't see your laptop screen in the light, or it's encouraging yourself to get out for the day to spend a few hours getting at least something down in a coffee shop just to get some fresh air. It's cramped fingers and aching arms from being in the same position for a very long time. It's getting headaches from staring intensely at a screen. Writing is not a walk in the park by any means. It's forgetting to properly hydrate yourself sometimes because you're too busy completing a chapter. But when you have a full, finished story, all those factors are worth it. Because you may have something that looks and reads nicely for all your struggling.

But now I've assessed some flaws in my writing, I know I can work on them. Perhaps there'll be a change in the story directions in the future. After Imperial Infiltration and Book Two of that, and Tollen's Story (which I haven't properly introduced), I have a few more ideas lined up. So I'll be trying to adapt some changes to those stories.

The Sun is Also a Star (Review)

Title: The Sun is Also a Star

Author: Nicola Yoon

Genre: Young Adult

Rating: 5* !!!

“… Meant to be doesn’t have to mean forever…”

As a reader, I’ve learnt this:

There are some books you read that are good, incredible, even. There are other books that coax your entire being into it and take you to a different place completely. But then there are books that are important. The Sun is Also a Star was important to me—and it should be to the world, not just of readers.

Set in New York, Nicola Yoon (after a delightfully deep and emotional debut of Everything, Everything), manages to address every concept of life within a 344-page novel, and all taking place on the same day. Not only to write about so many realistic concepts, but to set it as she did… that had to be hard. But Nicola Yoon pulled it off in a way that surrounded me entirely, starting from the how-to-make-an-apple-pie philosophy beginning, to the tearful ending.

Backtrack to December, 2016. I asked for this book as a Christmas present. I knew I wouldn’t read it straight away, no matter how excited I was for the author’s next book after completely adoring Everything, Everything. For some reason, this book sat on my shelf and I wouldn’t pick it up—something told me to wait, that there was something about this book that required special timing. So I waited. Fast-forward a few months, to a couple days ago. I was holiday-ing in Corfu, a place I’d never been before, on a relaxation break. I packed The Sun is Also a Star—finally, it felt right to read it. I’m glad that I followed that weird feeling to wait because I got to read a thoughtful and beautiful book in a beautiful setting.

Immediately after closing the book, I said to my mum, “I need to write about this book. I can’t just leave it at that. This book needs to be spread so much further and I want to contribute to that.” After spending two days falling in love with the characters, the realism of the novel, I still couldn’t shake off this story.

Daniel Jae Ho Bae is a dreamer. Natasha Kingsley is a realistic cynic. Both are immigrants; one illegal, one legal. Daniel was born in America, but his parents originated from South Korea, and moved to America for better prospects, and their knowledge and experience of being poor weighs heavily on their two sons. Because of their past, they heap pressure on Daniel and Charles (aka, Asshole) to get themselves better futures. Doctors, is what they want their sons to be. And they push.

After being a Harvard drop-out, Charles becomes the sort-of frowned-upon son, when he’s always been the one Daniel is being told to be more like. Finally, one day, Daniel’s mum says that she doesn’t want him to end up like his older brother. Despite being born in America, Daniel is very Korean, completely opposite from his brother, who tries his best to be everything American. All these aspects are very important to the plot and Daniel’s character and life. On the day it is set, Daniel has an interview to begin his journey to the Second-Best university and then become a doctor eventually. He’s dressed up smartly and promises his mum that he’ll cut his hair.

Spoiler: he doesn’t.

It becomes quickly apparent through a train (literally) of awry things happening on his journey that Daniel does not want to be a doctor and he cares very little for the interview, clearly only going to make his parents happy because he knows how strongly they feel about not being poor, wanting their children to have a better life. What Daniel—sweet, innocent (again, not quite in thought as the story progresses), dreaming Daniel—wants is to be a poet. And he’s so immersed in his poetic world that it utterly collides (both well and terribly) with Natasha’s scientific, factual one.

Natasha Kingsley is also a main character with a sibling. This time younger. Peter is the brother that she has to share a living-room-turned-split-bedroom with. A curtain partitions their two rooms, barely. Living in a poor neighbourhood, Natasha’s family are immediately revealed that the day of the story is the day they’ll be deported. But instantly, Natasha is the only one not accepting that and acts to save her family.

Progressing into the novel, it becomes clear the resentment Natasha harbours for her father and their life and the unfairness of the situation. She remembers very little of the country she has come from-- Jamaica. What she does remember though is America being her home and now she’s being told that she has to leave that home, through no fault of her own. She’s paying for the mistake her father made. Obsessed with the facts and workings of the world, Natasha has no true passion.  It’s clear that she loves science and the world she surrounds herself with; she’s full of all this clever knowledge of the world and the reasons. But that’s just it for her: everything has to have a reason and evidence behind it. Nothing can never just be.

Then she meets Daniel. Daniel, who is beautiful to her and tempting and a dreamer. And he takes her to a Korean restaurant and to a Korean karaoke room and she offers to take him to her favourite museum, and he does his best to link love to scientific experimentation, and alters her way of thinking; she allows more thought to the way he sees things. In turn, she alters his.

This story is about the impossibility of falling in love as quickly as they do—that its fate, Daniel argues. But Natasha pushes and refuses that—she’s being deported, of course she doesn’t believe that it is fate. Why would she happen to meet him, fall in love with him, all on the day that she’d never see him again after? All throughout their day together, she can physically see Daniel’s brain wandering into a deeper love for her as she talks to him about her facts and world. And bit by bit, her resistance seems to fade, as such. She realises that she does feel for him. All these realisations come to her so strongly that it’s almost overwhelming.

A very important aspect of the book is that each background character mentioned meet get their own chapter (or two) of their backstory, to explain why and how they got to be a part of the story at the time they were. A security guard assesses Natasha’s phone at the office she has an appointment for about her deportation, and Nirvana’s album cover is her phone case. The security guard takes note of it, and she listens to the album on her break. This leads to her solidifying the fact that she wants to take her own life. But then the security guard gets another chapter—and her life is changed (very importantly so, for the ending that is sure to bring tears to eyes), thanks to Natasha.

In one part, a man nearly runs Natasha over in his car. His story is explained—and then it evolves to involve another man, who turns out to be the lawyer who is handling Natasha’s case—and happens to be Daniel’s interviewer. Each part of this story is intricately and well-thought out to weave together in a perfect and plot-twisting way to tell a story that expands so much more from the streets of New York. Each character is intertwined and tells a story that shows just how much one small move from one small person can affect another. A half-thought “thank you” can inspire a woman to move past the darkness, get help. A flight time falls perfectly to get two torn-apart people on the plane, plus an air attendant who remembers goodness. A man who recklessly drove can affect the mental outlook of another man, who realises that he needs to alter his married life and finally tell the woman he truly loves that he wants only her. A boy who’s on the verge of losing the best thing in his life can give altering perspective to a man who has so many more years on him.

And a poet can change the life of a factual, aspiring scientist who is facing the worst thing in her life.

So many aspects make up this book: family, friends, love, past, futures, legal matters, aspirations, passion, culture. With the two protagonists being so diverse, culture takes a massive front seat in The Sun is Also a Star and there are so many informative explanations and history in selected chapters. Despite coming from a South Korean background, Daniel’s father owns a black hair product store. Which, evidently, links into Natasha’s and her mother’s different hair styles. Through this, Nicola Yoon gives facts on the background of how the popularity of Koreans in America came to open up these kinds of stores which thrived. Following that, there is history on black women’s hair and styles and how they changed, what was fashionable, and how Natasha’s mother disapproves of her Afro, when she herself chemically straightens her hair. Natasha expresses her interest in changing up her hair styles, despite the popular “look”.

I’m not American, I’m not very well versed on American culture. So through this book, I learnt things about Korean culture as well as American and Jamaican. I wasn’t just reading a story, I was reading history and facts and things that made me wonder and think and consider. There’s a part in the book where Daniel and Natasha go to the Korean restaurant, and she asks the waitress for a fork as she doesn’t know how to use chopsticks. The Korean waitress responds with, “Teach girlfriend how to use chopsticks,” to Daniel. She then gets her own chapter of how she’s had her family divided by culture and American-Korean disagreements within the family. Her son married a white woman, moved away from his family’s disapproval, and how she only gets to see her grandchildren on pictures through social media. All this comes back to her through an American customer not being willing to learn how to use chopsticks in her restaurant. Her chapter mentions how America wants everyone to know their ways but isn’t willing to accept a small piece of other people’s culture within the country. I had a similar experience in a Korean restaurant—I asked for a fork because I didn’t know how to use chopsticks to eat my meal. I had no clue how to eat Korean food—I didn’t know there was a way. I didn’t have a Daniel Bae to instruct me. On top of the fork thing, I mixed my rice with my main meal. Again, wrong. I was taught that rice is eaten separately, and with a spoon. I did three things wrong in that restaurant, so reading about Natasha getting it wrong too made me feel relatable. I sat wondering if I’d offended the waitress who saw me, as the waitress took offence at Natasha’s asking for a fork.

There are two opposites in this story: there are people who embrace their origins and where they’ve come from, and then there are those who try to escape it and forcefully immerse themselves in the new culture they live in. The latter includes Daniel’s brother, who gets embarrassed at Daniel calling him a respectful hyung, the title for younger brothers to address their elder brother. As well as Charles, there is Natasha’s father. He’s the one who moved them to America, to follow his dreams of becoming an actor—evidently he’s also the one who ends them up being deported back to where he wanted to escape. Yet, he just accepts it where Natasha fights for her family’s rights.

With so much disagreement and awful actions over diversity and minorities going on in the world, The Sun is Also a Star puts incredible perspective on that through love and family relations in a story way, but also so it’s clear that this is a very real book.