“The Sun Is Also A Star“ by Nicola Yoon is a young adult romance novel about tragedy and finding oneself in an uncertain world. It begins with Daniel Bae, a Korean-American teenager whose brother, Charlie, is advised to withdraw from Harvard University. Though he is supposed to feel sorry for his brother, Daniel shrugs at the incident because of the disdain between him and his sibling. Unknown to him, other events occur, leading to his encounter with Natasha Kingsley, a young girl fighting a deportation order issued to her family. Natasha and Daniel rethink their goals and aspirations and find a connection in the chaos.
Natasha loved data analysis and wanted to apply to a good school. However, her dreams come crashing down when her father has an accident that forces the immigration services to order them to leave the country. With all the odds stacked against her, Natasha fights to stay in the United States. As she jumps from one building to another, she meets a young boy, Daniel Bae, and together, they go on a wild adventure for a day, which changes their perception of life.
“The Sun Is Also A Star” begins after the police apprehend her father for a DUI. The immigration services learn that Natasha Kingsley’s family are illegal aliens and order them to return to Jamaica. Having stayed in New York City for most of her life, Natasha fights the verdict.
She heads to the USCIS’s office and meets a woman, Irene, who she thinks does not smile. Unknown to her, Irene suffers from chronic loneliness. After begging Irene to help her, Natasha secures an appointment with Lester Barnes, who refers her to an immigration lawyer, Attorney Jeremy Fitzgerald.
“The Sun Is Also A Star” uniquely portrayed its characters’ challenges. Irene was just another guard at the USCIS office. Her life was mundane, and there was nothing special in her existence. She knew this and thought the only solution was to end her life. Nicola’s design of Irene made her more appealing than many fictional characters because she is someone people can identify with.
Daniel Bae eats with his Korean family in another part of New York. His brother, Charlie, was defecting for two semesters at Harvard, and though Daniel wanted to feel sorry, he could not help but be delighted that the prized son was decreasing his parents’ high expectations.
Daniel arranges to go for an admission interview at Yale University. He wears a suit and red tie and takes the train. However, mid-journey, the train stops. The Conductor preaches to the passengers, and someone tells him to shut up. Unknown to them, The Conductor had been in a nasty divorce that almost ruined him if not for evangelical Christianity.
The Conductor is a flawed and intricate character in “The Sun Is Also A Star.” Even though he appears shortly in the novel, Nicola shows how his life matters. That is one remarkable aspect of the story; it shows that even discarded or easily forgettable characters matter.
The rising action begins when the train starts moving, and Daniel drops at his stop. He sees a beautiful girl and follows her to a music store.
Natasha enters a music store and sees her boyfriend, Rob, with his new girlfriend. She is irritated by the scene of them kissing, but a boy from behind tells her they are likely shoplifters. Natasha turns to see a boy in a suit and red tie. After talking, she part ways with him and continues her journey to Attorney Fitzgerald’s office.
Daniel heads out of the store, and when he notices a car will hit the girl he was talking to because she is not paying attention, he rushes to save her. She falls on him, and her headphones break. Tears well up in her eyes, and being a contagious crier, Daniel almost cries. He offers to help the girl replace her headphones, but she refuses. They exchange names, and Natasha agrees to a coffee date with Daniel after he persists.
“The Sun Is Also A Star” was a novel that accounted for the minutest of details. It showed how tiny actions could have massive consequences. Daniel saving Natasha altered the events of their life, and the best part was that they never knew how crucial that moment was in their lives.
Daniel and Natasha talk, and she tells him not to fall in love with her. He then tells her about a study where scientists used a few questions to make strangers fall in love with each other and ask for only a day.
Daniel and Natasha walk to Jeremy’s office and get familiar with each other. They part ways, but Daniel stays.
Natasha enters Attorney Jeremy’s office and learns from the paralegal present, Hannah, that he had an accident. Hannah reschedules her appointment, and though she thinks she will not see Daniel again, Natasha is shocked to find him in the lobby waiting. Natasha agrees to follow Daniel to his family’s saloon, and on entering, she sees his father.
The conflict begins when a slight argument occurs between Daniel and his brother Charlie. When their father steps in, he unknowingly acts racist towards Natasha.
Besides expanding on fate’s role in people’s lives, “The Sun Is Also A Star” shows the issues people of color face. In the story, Daniel’s father never knew he was racially insensitive to Natasha, but she knew because being treated that way was a part of her experience as a black girl in New York.
Daniel apologizes profusely, but Natasha laughs. They head to a Korean restaurant, where the waitress tells Daniel to teach his girlfriend how to use chopsticks. From the restaurant, Daniel and Natasha enter a karaoke, where they have a romantic moment and kiss.
Natasha spills out her immigration dilemma, leading to a fight between her and Daniel. They part ways, and Daniel heads back to the saloon, where he fights his brother and talks to his father. Meanwhile, Natasha heads to Jeremy’s office and meets him. He offers to help her after she tells him her story. On leaving the office, she realizes she made a mistake and heads to Daniel’s family saloon, where she meets Charlie, who gives her his brother’s number.
The climax begins when Daniel enters the building for his admission interview, and everything makes sense. He realizes that his interviewer is the same Jeremy Fitzgerald. Daniel and Jeremy talk about their prospects and passions. He notices a file on the table and learns it belongs to Natasha. Daniel tells Jeremy about Natasha, but the attorney remarks on his failure to help Natasha. Unknown to everyone, he failed because he was sleeping with his paralegal and missed the appointment with the judge.
Jeremy lies to Daniel about his failure to rescue Natasha even when he knows it is because of selfish desires; this haunts him for many years as he makes other decisions that destroy other people’s lives.
The falling action begins when Daniel leaves the office and gets a call from Natasha, whom he tells the news. He then heads home with her to pack her things. Natasha makes peace with her father, Samuel Kingsley, as he apologizes for calling her his biggest regret. Daniel follows Natasha to the airport and watches her leave.
The resolution begins ten years later when Irene, who worked at the USCIS office, becomes a flight attendant. She prepares everyone in the airplane for takeoff and sees a young man in seat 7A focus on what he is writing. As the plane takes off, she notices a young woman in seat 8C and is shocked to realize who it is. When the plane reaches cruising altitude, Irene walks to the woman and says: ‘You saved my life.’
Unknown to the young woman, Irene had planned on committing suicide ten years ago, but the woman, who was a girl at the time, left a ‘Thank You’ voicemail that changed everything for her.
The turning point occurs when the young woman is shocked and remembers Irene. She then says her name, Natasha, and the young man in seat 7A turns his head in awe and exclaims. Natasha realizes that the person talking to her is Daniel.
“The Sun Is Also A Star” ends beautifully. Though the primary characters, Daniel and Natasha, had ups and downs, Nicola Yoon showed that their fates were always intertwined as they met on an airplane in the most shocking circumstances. Nicola’s incredible ending of the novel makes it one of the most heart-warming endings I have read in romance and young adult fiction literature.
