Haha is it just me, or does a break from devices and working on a farm for a month unplugged sound devine? Ok, just me then.

For high school social media influencer Sunny Song, it feels like the worst summer ever and a massive overreaction from her parents to filming a live vlog that unintentionally became scandalous. But Sunny's obsession with likes, monetizing, creation content, and building up a following has been an issue within her household for a while. Thus, after her latest online faux pas, she's been shipped off to digital detox camp.

I expected to be turned off by the usual way that social media influencers are depicted – obnoxious, shallow, and fake – but I found Sunny incredibly sympathetic, and sort of working out how to navigate making relationships IRL without the benefit of filters and curated content. It helps that she's smart, kind, and somewhat introspective. And there's a general respect for other influencers and what they're doing as well. I'm glad that very few people were villainized or summarily written off.

Of course there's a cute boy at this Iowa (IOWA!) farm, and that relationship builds more organically and realistically than I expected as well.

As an #OwnVoices story, I very much enjoyed the conflict that Sunny has after rejecting learning Korean and later regretting it. I've felt that embarrassment and would often brace myself for being shamed by my elders as well, and it's not something that you think about really changing until later. I also appreciated the very light, casual racism that is addressed to show just how everyday it is – even by the most well-meaning people – but not made into a huge Trauma event in the story.

This was a charming and insightful read – although I could've used more details on butter churning and sheep shearing – and would love to read a sequel.

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous exceeded my expectations! I've been having some trouble lately with finding new YA contemporary books that give me that giddy, lovesick feeling, but this one managed to do that! I smiled so much while reading this book, and it may have given me a bit of a reminder to get off of my phone more!

I really felt for and connected with our main character Sunny, and Theo was the sweetest love interest I've read in a while! Also, the camp setting, I loved it! It was such a fun setting for this book and I honestly wished we got more of the camp activities!

~Sonny Song Will Never Be Famous~
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3/5
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I think Suzanne Park is such a fun author and I loved the cover and premise for this book so when I saw it on Netgalley I knew I had to request it. i enjoyed the other book i read by her so i’m excited to see how much her style has grown since then!
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Pros:
+We love to see an Asian American main character who is both proud of her heritage but also confused on her identity. Its relatable af
+I love how her practicing the bow and arrow is simply to be like katniss cause same
+Love the side characters!
+sensual corset untying was fun
+yes to the example of racism that many Asian Americans face! Call out those micro agressions!
+honestly theo was the best part. let’s go agro boy
+good lesson on not being obsessed with technology and social media
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Cons:
-Main character seems a little immature at first but I’m hoping that leaves room for growth
-why does there always have to be unnecessary instant girl on girl hate?? it’s so so so exhausting to read i literally hate it. i will never ever ever enjoy a book that uses this trope
-also the classic miscommunication trope makes an appearance
-i’ve never been too into social media so Sunny isn’t that relatable for me
-not much happens in this book
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Overall I didnt hâte or love this book. The girl on girl hate made it impossible to rate this any higher than a 3 for me but i could definitely see teens enjoying this book.

When Sunny’s latest online video blows up (#BrowniePorn, anyone?), her parents ship her off to a digital detox summer camp in Iowa. Having scheduled automatic posts and sneaked in a burner phone, Sunny hopes to do her time without sacrificing her wanna-be, nearly-there trajectory to lasting media fame. But surprises await her, including a summer romance and the realization that being a little bit unplugged isn’t so bad after all.

I liked the premise of this novel but, for me, it never took off. I found the characters one-dimensional and boring-- from juvenile, unthoughtful Sunny (the girl's got zero insight!) to muscle-bound Farm Boy to “Side Braids” Wendy, inexplicably Sunny’s nemesis from day one, to the “cute and clueless” residents of a retirement community brought in to “practice” petting farm animals—what? Overall, I found the story improbable. Would somebody with Sunny’s social media savvy make the rookie mistake that got her exiled to detox camp? Would a detox camp that pulls in addicts from all over the United States have as its main staffer a guy with no credentials in counseling or psychology? And there’s more, but they’d be spoilers. This story didn't deliver what it promised. I just couldn't buy it.

Sunny Song is an upcoming Instagram Influencer/YouTube star who is building her online empire. But her principal is getting complaints from other parents are her elite private school about her posts. The solution? Sunny has to spend her summer at a social media detox camp in order to remain at the school. That means 30 days on a farm in Iowa with no technology, no social media and no way to contact her friends other than old fashioned letter writing. She sneaks in a phone, but there’s no signal!

This was a quick and enjoyable read. I thought the message of how distracting social media can be, and stepping back from it to enjoy life is a really important one for today’s teens. Sunny seemed a little immature at times, but this is YA so I might just be getting old. Sunny did grow and change at the end, and I was glad to see she realized the value of life outside of social media. The character development and Sunny’s growth were really well done. The romance aspect was sweet, and I loved Theo’s character. The real gems of this one are the characters Asian heritage was woven throughout the story.


Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Now here is a book that this generation needs to read! As a person who's part of the Gen-Z tribe, I understand how addicting likes and subscribers can get. Cell phones are so addicting! I love how Park made a novel that really touches on the addictions and challenges of social media, and how it affects teenagers and young adults. I also love how the author made the character Korean, and describes the challenges that an Asian-American may face, while being a social media influencer, and having to go to a camp that is highly traditional. Despite that racist comment Theo's mother made, I really did love that social-detox camp. I learned a lot of lessons about how to use social media restrictively and in a more healthy way, and being more noticeable to the greater things in life away from the screen. I loved THEO! His old school vibes, and his whole farmer boy persona, I'm falling for him. A fascinating read!

"Online Sunny was so much better than real-life Sunny. Online Sunny could edit and delete posts when she didn't like how they came out. Real life Sunny hated actual conversations, because she could never think of something clever to say or blurted things out without thinking first."

Sunny Song is a social media influencer about to finish her junior year of high school. When a live video feed goes wrong, Sunny is sent to spend the summer in Iowa at a social media detox camp. Here, she meets Theo, the director's son, who shows her that there just might be more to life than the amount of viewers and likes she has been long since obsessing about.

This was a great YA summer read. I have read Suzanne Park's adult titles prior to this book and I loved Sunny Song just as much! Sunny is absolutely hilarious. She has a fantastic inner monologue with just the right amount of sass and attitude. Her interactions with her family, plus the people she meets at camp are hilarious. I laughed so many times.

I thought the book dealt with real issues of teens that feel pressure (not only from themselves, but their peers), to be "on" and perform for the camera 24-7. While Sunny fought the detox camp by sneaking in a phone and having a friend manage her social media while she was gone, ultimately, Sunny learned how to step away and invest in meaningful relationships. Her journey of self-discovery was really beautiful.

The one thing that I love about Suzanne as an author is her character development. She has a gift of creating strong female characters that have a sense of self despite outside factors. Suzanne's characters celebrate their Asian heritage in a beautiful way. Each of her characters has strong voices and convictions. Sunny is no exception. She knows who she is, but she is also not afraid to grow and change.

The two highlights for me was the adorable relationships Sunny had with Theo and the quirky cast of characters at the Promise City Assisted Living Center. These relationships made the book for me.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This was an absolutely adorable story! Reminded me of a technology-ridden Sarah Dessen novel. Love the YA romance and the story line! Super cute

I liked the intent of this book, and I love the authors other books, but I had trouble with this one.

The basic story is that Sunny has to be shipped off to a detox camp to get off shocial media, or she will be kicked out of her oh-so-fancy private school.

So, she is shipped off, but not before she gets her best friend to post for her while she is gone. (I guess she has never heard of service that you can do that with) and she sneaks in a burner phone so she can post about the camp.

I didn't realize that Sunny was supposed to be a senior, until she started talking about her senior year. The story is told in her voice, and she seems far to immature to be 17 or 18.

I didn't like the Instalove. And it was very much Instalove. Which is weird because she has a crush on one of her best friends back home. Not sure how you can turn that off as soon as you are shipped off to detox camp.



<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

Sunny Song is a high school junior living the good life in California. She runs her social media accounts with he help of a friend Maya and is just shy of her goal of 100K YouTube followers. After a PG-13 brownie making video goes viral at the wrong time her parents send her to a month long digital detox camp in the center of Iowa.

For the most part this is a light, fun summer read. All told from Sunny's POV she justifies her media habits but takes time to listen and to learn being sort of off the grid. There is a targeted message about using social media for real connections and not artificial likes and retweets. This is a good message for the target audience, but others might find it is preachy. There is a potential love interest in Theo and a camp BF but most of the side characters are very one dimensional. Side-braid girl hates her from day one and it is never explained. Also there is a lot of daily minutia that felt like filler to the story.

Overall I enjoyed the read and especially the positive representation of Korean/Americans. I thought the possibly unintentional racism incident was handled well and was a nice example that younger readers could understand. I did find it odd that the senior citizen couple suggests a room for a night for Sunny and Theo, but what happens there is up to the mind of the reader. This book is appropriate for middle school and up. Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for access to this arc.

I'm over 25% of the way in and am just not connecting with the main character, Sunny. As several other reviewers have mentioned, she reads as 2-3 years younger than her stated age of 17. Also, it's taken this long for her to even reach the detox camp and the journey there has been long, slow, and tedious. I think I'm probably too old for this plot to appeal to me as I find I don't care about influencers and Sunny's constant harping on this is past the point of any interest I have in the subject. Sorry but this is a DNF for me.

the concept of this book had me SO intrigued!! an up and coming social media influencer and youtuber from LA gets sent to a digital detox camp in the Midwest.

Sunny has been on the internet since she was little and her mom had a blog about her life as a mom, but Sunny has since taken over her persona and is always trying to gain more followers. this story was definitely unique! there were kind of a lot of elements happening at the same time (love interest, classes for nursing home residents, social media competition, a tiny plot point suggesting staff from the camp were using illicit drugs??

Overall this book was very entertaining and a quick read. 3.5 rounded up.

Sunny Song is a teenage influencer working to grow her social media platform. After school and on weekends she is working hard at getting videos and content together to post and reach that elusive 100k follower benchmark. She schedules all her posts, but the frequency of them has not gone unnoticed. After her LA school expresses concern and a filming mishap goes viral, her parents sign her up for a one month social media detox camp at a farm in Iowa. It's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, if you ask me, but holds the makings of a great story.
Sunny was a fabulous star for this story with so much depth to her character. Sunny was a super likable and relatable character with a great sense of humor, real teenage concerns and wants, and an overall sweet personality.
I found this to be a surprising story overall. I didn't quite know where it was going to go, but I enjoyed the themes that were included. I loved the conversation around Sunny's identity as a Korean-American and how she chooses to embrace that amongst touches of racism, whether intentional or not. It was nicely thought out and had a great ending. The character growth for Sunny alone was worth the read, and it had me reflecting on my own social media and phone use.
I really enjoyed this! It was a quick read that was really cute and fun!
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with a copy of this book!

Sunny Song is an up and coming YouTube star, but when she accidently films a PG-13 baking show in her kitchen, her parents send her to a digital detox camp for the summer.

This was a super quick and easy read, perfect for summer. I think the premise was a lot of fun, and I was intrigued with how the story was going to unfold. Sunny is an interesting character, but can be a tad annoying and self-centered at times. The love interest, Theo was cute, but a bit basic and one dimensional in my opinion. There wasn't really any development in his character. The romance was very light-hearted and I think it was pretty cute. The shenanigans that Sunny gets up to are entertaining and pretty funny at times. The biggest downfall I think I had with the book was how preachy it was in nature. It was constantly shoved at us that phones are bad and social media is evil and shouldn't be used.

Though I’m giving this book a 2.5 star rating, it does NOT mean I think it’s a bad book, nor do I think people shouldn’t read it. I just felt like it seemed very young to be young adult (I know that this does not make sense, but let me try to explain what I mean).
Sunny is supposed to be a 17-year old, about to start her senior year. But a lot of her actions felt like something a 14 or 15-year old would do, which I know isn’t a big difference but she just felt a lot younger than most YA protagonists (which maybe I’m just getting too used to characters who have had to grow up too fast, and should start getting used to characters who should be ALLOWED to be young!)
Most of the plot of this book could have been cut down to be shorter, and it wouldn’t have changed. The old folks coming to visit was just a lot of filler for me.
Overall, Sunny was somewhat bland, but I am very happy she had good character growth in reference to the plot and I’m glad she stuck up for herself!
I’m probably being too harsh, please don’t take it to mean this book isn’t worth picking up. If you’re a fan of fun, modern age stories, this could still be for you!

This book was so disappointing.

It earned the single star for the premise. An influencer at a digital detox camp? Sounds perfect for today's tech addicted teens.

Where it fell short was pretty much everything else. First of all, Sunny was not a believable teenager. Not enough angst, wit, or snakiness, and this is coming from a High School Teacher. I spend 30 hours a week with 16 year olds! I also think there was a huge missed opportunity with Sunny. She could've gone through a transformative change at the camp, but just didn't. She didn't get any more insight into her relationships with her mom, dad or sister. Absolutely no reflection there. Also, she wasn't dynamic or likable.

None of the characters were dynamic for that matter. Take Wendy, the villain. We got absolutely no reason for why Wendy hated Sunny so much, even before it was revealed that they were competitors. Did Sunny do something to Wendy? Was Wendy hurt and is taking out on everyone else? Does Wendy have absent parents, so she seeks attention and validation online? Another huge missed opportunity to talk about mental health, bullying, or the reasons why teens are so reliant on social media.

Don't get me started on Theo. Ok, I'm already started so let's get into it. Theo was also a flat character, and I couldn't get invested in their love story because I didn't care about either of them, but here's the kicker- Their story was so G rated the entire book with blushing and very chaste descriptions of Theo's body..... and then at the end THEY GO TO A PRIVATE ROOM TOGETHER AT AN OLD MAN'S REQUEST AND THE SCENE FADES TO BLACK. Wtfffff Sunny has never dated a boy before and now we are to expect that she bangs this guy she's only known for a minute AT AN ASSISTED LIVING CENTER?

Finally, an epilogue would have helped salvage this book, but it didn't have one. Did Sunny and Theo ever see each other? What the eff happened to Raphael? Did Sunny learn ANYTHING from her whole summer?

I guess my feels about this book can be summed up in 2 words: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES! The premise was so good, the execution was a flat snore fest.

In SSWNBF, Park brings her signature wit to a light and humourous look at social media addiction. In her month at digital detox camp, Sunny Song rides a hay cart, feeds a baby goat, tries out archery, fends off mean girl side-eye, and develops a crush on the camp owner's son, all while trying to surreptitiously enter an influencer contest with a contraband phone and a hunt for decent Wi-Fi reception. Though the novel touches on deeper topics like addiction and its tendency to corrode healthy activities and relationships, Park keeps the tone light, with more focus on canoes, comedy, and crushes. It's a joyful read, perfect for summer and time away from a screen.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC! I received this ARC in exchange for honest feedback.

1.5/5 stars. rounded up.

Well, I did not enjoy this book. That is the simple introduction to this review. It was not for me, and it wasn't my cup of tea particularly.

Let's go into the things I didn't like specifically.

1) The premise. I found the premise to be extremely forced and preachy. In my personal preference, I enjoy books that show me what the author wants me to take away from this book instead of force feeding it to me throughout the course of this book. From page 1, we were told by the author that social media is bad, and that while being a content creator has its perks (money), it's not a good lifestyle. Okay so as a content creator and youtuber myself, I see social media as much more nuanced than portrayed in this book. It all felt very older generation's perspective on Gen Z social media specifically. Even the way her social media addiction was shown to us as readers felt much more from the point of view of a parent trying to get through to their kid than anyone I know who is actually a content creator. Then she gets sent to a detox camp? It feels very much like someone trying to tell the younger generation that they need to get their eyes off their phone screen and touch grass. For sure there is a lot of life to be had outside social media, but I don't think it was handled very well in this book.

2) Sunny Song herself. I have never, in my entire life, found a character so insufferable. All she cared about was catching the fame she had ten years ago with a viral video. I want to sit down with her and chat youtuber to youtuber about how she should only be uploading content she's proud of. Beyond that aspect of her, she was so annoyingly not accurate to a modern day teen. I've read a lot of well written Gen Z characters, and Sunny isn't one of them. There were multiple times where we read the description of an emoji... No one I've ever met has thought an emoji. She hashtags her thoughts many times throughout the book. No one hashtags anything anymore, so beyond the fact that I think it's a bad way to show the reader that she's addicted to the internet, it's also blatantly inaccurate.

3) The humor (well, lackthereof). This book tried to be funny, but just felt tired. #CluckMe isn't funny to anyone except your middle aged aunt on Facebook. I saw the jokes, but they were so poorly written and forced that I didn't actually think a single one of them was funny. I just thought they were tired and one of the many factors holding this book back.

4) The Romance. What in instalove? Sunny really hops from a lifelong crush on a close friend to a farm boy she met 3 days ago in the span of like a page, and I'm not here for it. Show the evolution. It doesn't have to be slow burn, but there has to be more to that letting go of an old crush and trying to move on than that.

5) The Racism Scene. Up until the 60% mark, the best thing about this book was that it was showing a Korean-American teen going through life without having to deal with racism. I think that the social commentary of casual racism to our main characters of color is an important conversation to have, but I think there are books for it and it felt sorely misplaced here. It came out of nowhere and felt super forced. Why can't we just watch POC thrive? Why must we insert casual racism into every romcom and lighthearted book where it doesn't fit? The worst part of it was that it came from a pre-schooler (and in my experience pre-schoolers don't care enough to comment on the fact that there weren't Asian American pioneer women in the brochure photo), and secondly that it is essentially brushed off completely. It's a scene entirely to make the white love interest look good, and to give Sunny this moment where she can teach a child about racism when really the author just wants to point at the readers.

All in all, this book frustrated and upset me. I am thankful to be done with it.

I’m going to preface this review by saying that I am probably not the authors typical audience or even their chosen demographic. That being said, I still did enjoy the story even though it was not necessarily relatable to me.
In this ever advancing social media obsessed world, Sunny Song is a teenage influencer who is working hard to grow her online presence and platforms despite the fact that her traditional Korean parents don’t agree with her thoughts on making this her future any not going to college. One day Sunny makes her most viewed video to the dismay of her parents and they decide to send her to a detox camp in the farmlands of Iowa for the summer to get her off her phone-which for an LA girl is the worst possible thing. Sunny dreads it, especially since it means she will be miles away from her crush all summer, the summer that she had planned on making him finally go from a friend to a boyfriend.
While at camp, Sunny makes in real life friends, stars a little bit of romance and meets her fellow competitor in a social media contest being held by one of the major websites. By the end of the summer, despite all her attempts to the contrary, Sunny realizes that maybe the online life isn’t all its cracked up to be.
Thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for this Arc in exchange for my review.

Sunny Song went viral as a kid and again after forgetting to turn off her live stream while making brownies. Her principal isn't happy that she has posts go up during the school day and has several parents contact him about the brownie incident, To stay at the private school Sunny has to go to a social media detox camp over the summer. Sunny soon finds that the Midwest farm she's on is not like LA at all, and the worst part is that the phone she snuck in doesn't get a signal.

CW: racism

The concept of a social media detox drew me in. It's something that I didn't grow up with and I appreciated how Suzanne Park examined what it might be like to grow up in the public's eye. I liked that she showcased how it can be easy to focus on followers and likes. I loved the camp atmosphere and found myself wishing for a little more snippets of the activities.

This was a great YA that focused on the way that social media can detract from real life.