If You Could See the Sun

by Ann Liang

Book Overview

"Academic rivals portrayed to perfection... An all-time top favorite." --Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends

"Utterly unique, thought-provoking, and wonderfully written." --Gloria Chao, author of American Panda and Rent a Boyfriend

In this genre-bending, speculative YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1335005986
• ISBN13: 9781335005984
• Release Date: November 2023
• Publisher: Inkyard Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

With invisibility comes great responsibility

I enjoyed reading this book. I am really impressed with Alice Sun. No matter what problem comes up, she is able to focus on it and figure out a solution very quickly. It is easy to see why she is a top student, only sharing the honor with Henry. And despite her enmity towards him, if she needs him to work on her issue (getting tuition to stay at the school, plus the little problem of random invisibility) then she doesn't hesitate for one minute before going to him for help. And boy, when you put the two of them together, they are unstoppable. The whole bit with the app to maintain an​onym​i​ty that Henry whipped up was brilliant and Alice really worked hard to get the jobs done, despite the unreliability of her invisibility. Plus they were really cute together and this whole invisibility that Alice got gave them a great opportunity to actually get to know each other instead of Alice just thinking of Henry as a rival. And though it took a bit, Alice was able to figure out the moral line she would not cross, despite her great power. Satisfying ending too. My only issue is whether her invisibility power goes away or does she get to keep it. That was a bit unclear. But still an excellent book!

Addictive paranormal contemporary

Alice is a Chinese-American girl who whose family returned to China after several years in the US. She is the only scholarship student at her elite private international school in Beijing. Surrounded by her super rich classmates, Alice has always felt invisible and pours her energy into academic achievement. Her scholarship is only partial, and her struggling parents have let her know that they don’t have enough money for her to attend beyond the current semester. Shortly after her parents drop this bomb, Alice finds that she can become intermittently and unpredictably invisible. With the help of her academic rival, Henry, who creates the app "Beijing Ghost", she monetizes this unusual ability by performing tasks and finding out secrets. The story is fast-paced and tense, exploring themes such as economic inequality, racism, isolation and belonging. Alice is a flawed, brilliant but clueless, ambitious but relatable character and, as the stakes intensify with each task, has to make some difficult decisions about how far she will go for tuition money. It is satisfying to watch Alice find her moral center and learn to speak up for herself. If You Could See the Sun is a highly addictive, fascinating, paranormal contemporary with an exquisitely executed slow-burn rivals to lovers romance, excellent writing and a lot of depth.