Are People Really 'Meant To Be'?

This book made me think hard. It challenged my comfortable perspective of the world, destiny, and love. And I really really liked it. While I can't say that I agree with all of the sentiments of the characters, I appreciated their unique viewpoints presented to me as a reader about how the universe functions, how people meet each other, and, essentially, the nature of love itself. This story spans over a single (yet eventful) day, full of what could be called coincidences, or fate, as Daniel and Natasha meet and fall in love. These two are opposites in terms of their opinions of the world, Daniel the poetic optimist, Natasha the cynical science-lover. But I relished in the perfect irony of so many of their moments. I adored the deep and thought-provoking metaphors on every page that added to the enrichment of the theme of fate. And I loved how this book ends in an open-ended way, full of hope and possibility and a magical sense of people being in the right place at the right time. This story makes you marvel at young love, question if people are really 'meant to be,' and furrow your brow when everything seems to go perfectly wrong... or maybe perfectly right. I highly recommend this novel to someone looking for a love story on the complicated side -- a dash of reality amongst the innocence of attraction. 

Some of my favorite quotes from The Sun Is Also A Star (there are so many!):

"Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself. I like who I am with her."

"We are capable of big lives. A big history. Why settle? Why choose the practical thing? The mundane thing? We are born to dream and make the things we dream about."

"I didn't know you this morning, and now I don't remember not knowing you."

"Desperation translates into every language."

"I think all the good parts of us are connected on some level. The part that shares the last double chocolate chip cookie or donates to charity or gives a dollar to a street musician or becomes a candy striper or cries at Apple commercials or says I love you or I forgive you. I think that's God. God is the connection of the very best parts of us.”

"It's not up to you to help other people fit you into a box."

“Do you think it's funny that both of our favourite memories are about the people we like the least now?" I ask.
"Maybe that's why we dislike them," she says. "The distance between who they were and who they are is so wide, we have no hope of getting them back.”

"We're kindling amid lightning strikes, a lit match and dry wood, fire danger signs and a forest waiting to be burned.”

"Having dreams never killed anybody."

"I know there’s no such thing as meant-to-be, and yet here I am wondering if maybe I’ve been wrong."

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