Series: N/A
Release Date: 1 November, 2016
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Genre: Young Adult/Literature & Fiction/Social & Family Issues/New Experiences/Emotions & Feelings/Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 9781524721398
Edition: audiobook
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Written: 13 March, 2018
Summary: Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.
Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?
One day can change the future, or at least we think it can. For Natasha, her world is crumbling apart. Her father’s stupid decision to drive drunk and to spill out the family’s secret of being illegal in the country has ruined everything she’s built for herself. Her mother has worked hard to get them the tools they need to succeed but now they’re all for naught. In her distress, she’s trying everything to get out of having to return to Jamaica including pestering the Immigration Office and taking the word of an official there that perhaps she can get an appeal to keep them in the country.
Daniel, on the other hand, has been struggling with his parents high expectations. With his older brother having been kicked out of Harvard for academic probation, Daniel is expected to save the family’s reputation by going to Yale and becoming a doctor. The problem is however that Daniel doesn’t want to be a doctor, he’s not even certain college is something he wants to do. To say that however is a death sentence, or at least a good way to be kicked out of the family.
By pure chance, the pair cross paths on this final day for Natasha in New York while Daniel is on his way to his interview. They spend the day finding closure in various places. For Natasha, that means making peace with the fact her ex-boyfriend cheated on her and is currently dating the one he cheated with. It also means making peace with her father for his decisions that have ultimately cause them to return to the island nation. For Daniel, it means accepting that his brother is an asshole and that if he wants a life with Natasha and as a poet, it might mean leaving behind his family. He also has to come to terms with his own place in the universe.
Ms. Yoon shows a better understanding this time around of complex issues that aren’t treated quite as lightly as they were in Everything, Everything. This time the drama is one that happens for parents and children almost daily within the United States. The fear of being discovered and deported. It also shows the choices that we make can affect other people, with several side interludes about various people we meet throughout the book including Natasha’s lawyer, Daniel’s father, and a security guard who suffers from depression.
Though ultimately things don’t work out and Natasha returns to Jamaica, the story does provide a couple of alternate endings for what might have happened to the security guard and Natasha and Daniel had their paths crossed later in life again. I truly enjoyed this book, it continually held me on the edge of my seat to see where the pair would go next and what other thing they would explore in New York during Natasha’s final hours.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book for the excellent storytelling.
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