Diverse Characters Mondays is my self hosted weekly meme celebrating my favorite diverse characters. This meme was created to get myself to post more frequently with a topic I am interested in. Posting memes always help me get out of a blogging slump, especially since I haven’t been posting Diversity Spotlight Thursday posts as frequently anymore.

If you’re not familiar with “diverse” characters (which I’m sure most of you are), they are basically a character who is not a white allocishet and able person (note that this is in no way a definite definition of a diverse character and feel free to comment or email me if you think I need to add/change anything). 

If anyone wants to participate, please do! If you do decide to do this, leave the link to your post down below and I’d love to check it out! Your post can be as long or as short as you like.

Natasha Kingsley

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Natasha Kingsley is an undocumented Jamaican immigrant living in New York City. Her father brought their family over to the USA from Jamaica pursuing an acting career which didn’t work out for him and he only ended up neglecting his family in the process. Her and her family is twelve hours away from deportation when the story starts. Because of this, Natasha has had to grow up fast and take up responsibility at a young age. In The Sun is Also a Star, Natasha is trying to use up her last day in America going to an immigration lawyer to try and make a case for her family.

This is the life you’re living. It’s not temporary and it’s not pretend and there’s no do-over.

Natasha is very logical when it comes to making decisions. She is intelligent, determined and knows exactly what she wants to do in life. She picks the most practical choices, the ones where she’s certain she knows the end result. That said, her personality doesn’t leave her passionless but the opposite. She’s always passionate about the decisions she takes and has no regrets.

She’s also a cynic when it comes to love and romance which makes sense because of the circumstances in which she grew up. Seeing her character develop and mature into a more caring and forgiving person was one of the best aspects of the book.

Natasha is strong, independent and fights tooth and nail until she is completely out of time. She was holding out hope for her and her family even until the day they were to be deported. That shows some extreme determination on her part.

Have you read the Sun is Also a Star? What do you think of Natasha?