Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything was a debut of enormous charm and considerable structural bravery. The Sun Is Also a Star is more ambitious in almost every respect — bigger in its concerns, richer in its construction, and working simultaneously as a love story, an immigration story, and a meditation on whether the universe operates by logic or by feeling.

Natasha Kingsley has one day before her family is deported to Jamaica. She is a pragmatist, a believer in science and data and things that can be measured, and she is spending her last day in New York trying to find a legal intervention that can stop the deportation.

Daniel Jae Ho Bae is a Korean-American pre-med student whose parents expect him to become a doctor and who wants to be a poet. He believes in love at first sight. He sees Natasha.

They have one day.

The Structure

Yoon tells the story in short chapters that alternate between Natasha and Daniel, but she also includes chapters from the perspectives of peripheral characters — the immigration lawyer, a security guard, Daniel’s brother, a woman on the street — and these work remarkably well. They widen the story without interrupting its momentum, and they do something thematically important: they show how many lives intersect with a single day in New York without any of those lives being aware of the intersection.

The city, rendered in this structural approach, becomes a character in itself.

The Argument

The book is essentially an argument between two worldviews: Natasha’s scientific determinism (if the universe is governed by cause and effect, then love is just chemistry, which means it isn’t special) and Daniel’s romanticism (if everything is connected by invisible causality, then every encounter is meaningful, which means love is everywhere).

Yoon doesn’t resolve this argument in favour of either side. She offers something more interesting: both are right, and both are insufficient, and the experience of the book itself is the evidence.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who loved John Green’s structural playfulness and want it applied to a love story with more diverse representation and more genuine engagement with political reality: Yoon is the answer.

For readers whose families have experienced immigration — whose sense of home is complicated by legal status, by belonging to more than one country, by the precariousness of the ordinary — Natasha’s situation is one of the few YA novels that renders it with full seriousness while still being a love story.

For readers who want a romance that covers twenty-four hours and makes every one of them count: this is expertly calibrated. Yoon makes you feel the constraint of the timeline as a physical pressure without ever letting it overwhelm the characters.

Published: November 2016 · Genre: YA contemporary romance · Standalone

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Sun Is Also a Star about? Natasha Kingsley has one day before her family is deported to Jamaica. Daniel Jae Ho Bae is a Korean-American pre-med student who wants to be a poet and believes in love at first sight. They meet and have one day. The review describes the novel as ‘more ambitious than Everything, Everything in almost every respect — bigger in its concerns, richer in its construction, working simultaneously as a love story, an immigration story, and a meditation on whether the universe operates by logic or by feeling.’

What structural innovation does the novel use and how does it expand the story? Yoon tells the story in short alternating chapters between Natasha and Daniel, but also includes chapters from peripheral characters — ’the immigration lawyer, a security guard, Daniel’s brother, a woman on the street.’ The review calls these ‘remarkably effective — they widen the story without interrupting its momentum and show how many lives intersect with a single day in New York without any of those lives being aware of the intersection.’ The city becomes ‘a character in itself.’

What is the philosophical argument at the novel’s core? The book is described as ’essentially an argument between two worldviews — Natasha’s scientific determinism (love is just chemistry, which means it isn’t special) and Daniel’s romanticism (if everything is connected by invisible causality, then every encounter is meaningful).’ The review credits Yoon with not resolving the argument in either direction: ‘she offers something more interesting — both are right, and both are insufficient, and the experience of the book itself is the evidence.’

How does The Sun Is Also a Star handle the immigration thread? The review identifies it as ‘one of the few YA novels that renders the immigration experience with full seriousness while still being a love story — for readers whose families have experienced immigration, whose sense of home is complicated by legal status, by belonging to more than one country, by the precariousness of the ordinary.’ Natasha’s situation is not softened to make the romance easier; the deportation deadline is a genuine structural and emotional pressure.

How does the one-day timeline work as a constraint? The review credits Yoon with ’expertly calibrating the constraint — you feel the timeline as a physical pressure without it overwhelming the characters.’ The twenty-four-hour structure ‘makes every one of them count.’ The review positions this for readers who ’loved John Green’s structural playfulness and want it applied to a love story with more diverse representation and more genuine engagement with political reality.’

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • The Sun Is Also a Star — Wikipedia’s The Sun Is Also a Star article provides publication details and context, helping readers understand the novel’s place within Yoon’s writing career and its reception.
  • Nicola Yoon — Wikipedia’s Nicola Yoon article provides biographical and bibliographical context for the author, helping readers understand The Sun Is Also a Star within her broader writing career.