(3.5+) It’s usually fun when you recognize a version of yourself in a character. It’s not so fun when that character is a teenage student who is so focused on schoolwork and her future that it comes at the detriment of her social life and general happiness. Oops?

This book tackles a topic that will be relatable for many: feeling like you’re invisible in certain situations. Except things are taken a bit further for our main character, Alice, who actually starts turning invisible. As the lone scholarship student at a ritzy boarding school whose fees are going up, Alice decides to take advantage of this quirk and leverage it, charging other students hefty sums for completing specific tasks on their behalf. But, of course, she can’t take this on alone and enlists help in the form of Henry, her academic rival. Both Alice and Henry were tremendous characters; she’s ambitious and kind and can be singularly focused, he’s confident and steady but maybe a little shy. Their chemistry is aces, and the way their relationship progresses as both characters start to clear up misunderstandings and rely on each other was my favorite part of the book. (This is worth reading just for Henry’s adorable traits, such as how his ears turn pink when he’s embarrassed and how he has a photo of Alice on his desk before they team up.) The way they complement each other is precious, and I kept squealing and kicking my feet up whenever they interacted.

As a poor student among the über-wealthy, Alice presents a unique worldview and allows author Ann Liang to make a poignant critique on socioeconomic status among Southeast Asians as well as take a look at the difference between those who are Asian by ethnicity and those who live in Asia. Alice is relatable for people who have ever felt less than in social situations and who feel the need to be better at everything as a way of proving to others — and to themselves — that they belong. She’s not always the easiest character to root for, because sometimes her one-track brain (I must get the best grades, I must do something significant with my life) leads her do morally gray things. But Liang makes it clear where Alice is coming from, and it’s easy for the reader to empathize with her as she tries to find her place in a world almost designed to devalue her.

There’s one plot point that really took me out of the story, because the stakes get raised in a way that didn’t quite make sense. Alice takes on an extreme task — like potential jail-time extreme — in a way that felt aggressive even for her. And then Henry — pragmatic, realistic Henry — never questions what she’s doing or pushes back. The rest of the tasks had been so tame that this one felt like it was coming out of left field, and I didn’t love how anything related to this part of the book played out. Maybe if the rest of the stakes had been higher (as the summary sort of suggests), I wouldn’t have noticed how glaringly off this one felt.

I also wanted more of a resolution to the whole turning-invisible storyline. It’s the crux of the story, but it’s never really explored in a satisfactory way. We never find out why Alice turns invisible, how her invisibility is triggered, and whether it persists. Alice’s invisibility is pretty much abandoned 80 percent of the way through, and it left me with lingering questions.

Still, with wonderful writing, world-building, pacing and character development — plus an adorable rivals-to-lovers subplot, of course — this was an enjoyable book I read extremely quickly.

If I could tell Alice one thing, it’d be: College is better, I promise.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

- thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the eArc!

- this story was beautiful in its prose and exploration of finding where you truly belong. Liang wrote the story with decadent prose, a well-liked character, and an academic rivals to lovers that was executed perfectly.

I really loved this. The writing is beautiful and the story is so interesting. I loved the plot of Alice doing all the little crimes and mysteries. I loved the romance too, they were so sweet. Magical realism remains one of the best genres.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I immediately knew this book would truly wow me after reading one of my favorite authors, Chloe Gong’s, dazzling review of this novel. The stunning cover art initially drew me in, but I stayed for the gripping plotline, lovable characters, and intriguing magic system. This genre-blurring novel is set on the backdrop of a prestigious Chinese boarding school following the storyline of Alice Sun. Alice is one of the most intelligent students at school next to her long-time academic rival, Henry Li. When Alice’s family begins to face struggles paying the outrageous tuition bills and she discovers her mysterious power of turning invisible, she teams up with Henry to design an app. Together they turn to committing outlandish tasks for their app, Beijing Ghost, in efforts to gain enough for Alice to stay at school. This begs the question, ‘how far will a person go for money?”
First of all, ACADEMIC RIVALS TO LOVERS!!! Need I say more? Although this romance is a smaller subplot in the book, I loved these characters’ chemistry together. I loved reading their tension and watching the “will they won’t they” relationship pan out. I will note that Alice, while incredibly witty, is so oblivious to social cues. She was extremely oblivious to flirting which was so funny to me. I loved the pacing of their relationship and how realistic it seemed, instead of it being a “meet-cute” insta-love type situation. I just adore them both as individuals but together as well. I feel as if they really embraced their differences too and I LOVED how sensitive, caring, and articulate Henry’s character was. He was so sweet towards Alice, especially for a “rival”.
Aside from Alice and Henry’s palpable chemistry, I loved how devoted and driven they were towards their schoolwork. Neither of them gave up even in the face of adversity and obstacles thrown their way. Ann Liang does a wonderful job fleshing out these feel-good characters that are very lovable. I also really enjoyed the plotline, and the fast pacing really held my attention well. Certain parts of the novel were anxiety inducing and I was so concerned for the characters. This book was very good at making me feel a lot of emotions. I especially empathized with Alice’s family’s financial struggles. This book also was great at subtly commenting on differences in class status and wealth without being too glaringly obvious. I feel like these differences were utilized to contrast the wealthy characters in juxtaposition to Alice’s character who struggles to afford her tuition.
I really appreciate the attention to detail in this book especially within the title, “If You Could See the Sun” alluding to Alice Sun’s invisibility powers. I found this very clever from Liang. I also loved that this novel doesn’t put itself in a box genre-wise. This book successfully achieves merging many different genres and it makes for a very entertaining storyline. Overall, I highly enjoyed reading this novel and I would recommend it to dark academia and magical realism lovers alike. Not only is the cover absolutely enchanting, but the content within the pages lives up to it as well!

I absolutely loved this book! Alice Sun has always been in the running to be the best of the best. She's got a half scholarship to the most prestigious school. Her rival, Henry, is privileged and just as smart as her. When Alice turns invisible she doesn't know what to do! She ends up turning to her rival for help. When she finds out her parents can't afford the rest of her tuition, she decides to monopolize her new skill. Now she's selling students secrets for huge amounts of money. What can go wrong?!

I recoeved an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed reading this book! It felt so cozy and the romance was adorable! The writing was beautiful and the main character was fun to read. I would definetly read another book from this author

"If You Could See the Sun" centers on our protagonist, Alice Sun, as she navigates what could potentially be her last year at a prestigious, expensive private school in China. Not only does she feel like an outsider because of her lack of inherited familial wealth, but she also feels completely invisible to every one of her peers, constantly upstaged by her arch-academic-nemesis, Henry. Imagine her surprise when one day she actually DOES become invisible. After a little teenage angst about it, she decides to use her new-found power to start a lucrative business and earn a little cash to cover the cost of school fees. As she steps deeper into the seedy underbelly of this Beijing boarding school, she learns more about herself and the students around her.

This is a book that sounds right up my alley -- enemies-to-lovers romance, magical realism, academic rivalry. Perfection. But it fell a little flat in its execution of character work and conflict. Even by the end, I really didn't like Alice. I like an anti-hero, and I love a good morally gray character with an explainable and justifiable motive. But Alice is and remains self-centered, focused solely on the perception of others around her. She complains about being invisible to everyone around her, but actively rejects any meaningful connection with others for most of the book. It's an invisibility of her own making, which then manifests into literal invisibility. If this is the central conflict, I'm not sure it resolved conclusively enough (which I think this book was going for).

The main action in the plot stems from Alice's invisible spying/thieving, which I found enjoyable overall. I did find the culminating task to be absurd with an unconvincing "sub"-villain, but overall this plot device helped drive the plot forward. I wish Liang had explored the unpredictable nature of her power more because other than one task, Alice's powers (which apparently do not have an on/off switch) work the way she needs them to, when she needs them to almost all the time. I also generally enjoyed the romance between Henry and Alice. I saw her growing the most in the interactions with Henry, but even then I wish there was a deeper conflict behind Alice's animosity towards him.

Readers who like magical realism, a little romance, and a dash of action, will enjoy this book!

Not only was the writing in “If You Could See the Sun” by Ann Liang gorgeous, this story was superbly, all-around entertaining, heartfelt, and absolutely adorable. The cover is also so perfect. Definitely recommend!

Interesting and unique storyline! I have not read anything quite like this before! A scholarship student - the only one - at an elite boarding school must find a way to be able to stay after tuition costs are raised. She does not come from a wealthy family like all of the others so this makes it difficult for her family to afford. She strives to be the top of her class and when tuition increases and she might not be able to stay, she becomes invisible! She leans on her friend to become just that! Twists, turns, and excitement await in this VERY creative story!

When Justine from Harper Collins invites me to join a blog tour for a new book I'm always guaranteed a great read. If You Could See The Sun may seem like your typical girl-gets-a-new-superpower-and-turns-invisible story, but this debut novel by Ann Liang blew me away with its cultural richness, humour, and heart.

If You Could See the Sun
Ann Liang
9781335915849
Hardcover
$18.99 USD
Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary
352 pages
If You Could See The Sun is about Alice Sun. Her Chinese name is Sun Yan. She was born in Beijing and moved to California with her parents when she was seven. They move back to Beijing after Alice's mother is injured when their family grocery store is robbed. Sun is an anxiety-filled, straight-A overachiever "Study Machine". She feels like her grades are the only thing she can control. She has a half scholarship at Airington and feels out of place amongst the other students who come from rich families. Alice always ends up sharing the awards for the highest achiever with her high school nemesis, Henry Li. When her parents take her out for supper she knows they have big news. They can't afford to pay for her school tuition at Airington and she needs to either attend a local school or go back to America and attend public school.

The next day, Alice suddenly turns invisible. And not just once. She begins turning invisible with very little warning and she's not able to control it. Alice teams up with an unlikely partner - Henry Li. Together they create an app where fellow students can pay to have tasks completed by an anonymous person (invisible Alice) so she can save up the money to pay for her tuition. How far will Alice go to stay at Airington?

› I use the CAWPILE method to rate books.
› Characters: 9
› Atmosphere: 7
› Writing Style: 7
› Plot: 10
› Intrigue: 10
› Logic: 8
› Enjoyment: 8
Average 8.4

My Rating ★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• If You Could See The Sun is one of the best debut novels I've ever read. Certainly top of the tier for YA books for me. This is a heartfelt story about parents sacrificing for their children. It's about the stresses of school, the importance of friendship, and the impact of racism and class. This is about actions, consequences and the dangers of unchecked ambition. There's also a cute love story and humour. What a great book! I can't wait to read more by Ann Liang.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Alice Sun is the only scholarship student at a prestigious Beijing international boarding school, where she hopes to finally lift her family out of poverty. But just as she finds out that her parents can't afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, she is turning invisible. This power allows her access to all the secrets her rich and powerful classmates have, and selling off this skill for a price will keep her in the school. Tasks soon escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, so Alice must decide if helping her family is worth losing her conscience or her life.

The school means so much to Alice in the beginning, as well as other people seeing her as successful despite her lack of wealth. She works so hard but is essentially invisible, so when she actually turns invisible, only Henry really cares. He's her academic rival, and the two notice each other far too closely for it to be just hate. Her jobs as the Beijing Ghost at first were to follow someone and take pictures, to delete nudes from a phone, and such things. Those are easy for her to do, for all that she fumbles aspects. The jobs escalate until it gets to the one that's more than just following, observing, or stealing objects. She thinks it's tolerable for the payout, so she can afford the tuition, but this pushes her to a crisis of conscience.

This YA novel has the socially invisible turn actually invisible. She's hollow, where even teachers tell her that she's still a child, and her parents tell her that her priorities are skewed. Her sheer focus on school reminds me of Hermione from the Harry Potter movie where she warned the boys that they might die, or worse get expelled. But there is more than school and money, and Alice sees the value in friends, connections, and doing what she loves, not just what will get her top marks. The final quarter of the book was quite a ride, and I loved how everything came together. This is a wonderful book, and I'm so glad to have read it.

This started strong and just kept getting weaker as the story went on. I was all in for the invisible girl stuff, but then, the capers began and that just didn't work. She was rewarded for lying and committing crimes. No way.

I think one of my favorite things about this book is actually that Alice never learns to control or perfectly predict her ability to become invisible. She knows about how frequently it happens, so she can kind of hope and loosely plan, but that extra tension made every job she took risky because she couldn’t guarantee she’d become or stay invisible when she needed to.

In other teens-with-superpowers books that I’ve read, I’m pretty sure all of them learn to control their ability at least to a certain degree, so I also liked that Alice never having dominance over her ability set this book apart and made me feel like it added a new type of story to the supernatural ability book list.

Alice is driven and smart, but not in a prodigious way. I liked that though she is used to keeping to herself, her ability and decisions about it forced her to open herself up to others in a way she hadn’t before. It made her realize how lonely she’d been and that people weren’t always who she initially thought them to be. I really liked Henry and Chanel, and I was glad that she formed bonds with them.

IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN explored a lot of themes that resonated with me, including friendship and family. I’m super glad I read it. I think readers who enjoyed HOW WE FALL APART by Katie Zhao or BOYS I KNOW by Anna Gracia definitely need to read this one.

Will post on 10/14/22

What would you do if you could be invisible from time to time?

Alice Sun gets to answer that question when she suddenly finds herself with a new, but uncontrollable, ability to become invisible. Feeling the pressures of wanting to stay at her expensive private school, which is supposed to help her Ivy League goals, and the desire to offload the financial burdens from her parents, Alice finds herself using her newfound ability in a financially lucrative way…but will this last?

I enjoyed reading this book. As always, I like having books available to the YA population that includes other cultures and cultural contexts. The diversity of YA books has certainly improved since my days as a young adult reader. I empathized with Alice’s struggles of trying to be seen through academic success and the loftier desires that young people have and are often told are “not realistic.” I wanted more character development for Alice than what I got…and the same for Henry. The book covers a lot of ground in some ways and it left me wanting more in others. The premise is clever and fun. I just wish there could have been more development within the premise.

Are you going to read this? If you do, what did you think?

This book is such a jem!!!

Sadly, I wasn't able to finish it completely before pub date (today) but I will post a full review on my instagram @angstology when I do!

I'm highly enjoying this: I love the main character, the love interest, their impending romance, the class commentary, ugh!!!

One thing I've noticed is that the super power part was really treated in a juvenile way and it doesn't match the rest of the ~feel~ of the book, which is supposed to be older (since the characters are seniors)

But I would totally recommend this!

I really, really loved this book! It was incredibly immersive and I felt like I was walking the campus of Airington/the streets of Beijing myself -- impressive, since I've never been there :D The romance was *chefs-kiss* and the plot/character arcs? Masterful!

This book reminds me why I love reading young adult. It's such a wonderful genre mash-up; you’ve got fantasy, romance, family drama, and a criminal element, oh and of course, it's set in academia. So much to love.

I thought it was brilliant how Ann Liang gave Alice the ability to turn invisible when she already felt invisible among her classmates. She also wove into the narrative the reality of classism and racism. Alice and Henry’s rivals-to-lovers relationship is developed so well, first academic rivals, then business partners, and then… well, Alice sees he’s not nearly as annoying as she once thought.

Thank you @harpercollins @inkyardpress and @annliangwrites for a spot on tour and a gifted ebook.

This book turns the campus novel on its head with fantastical elements and a charming academic rivals-to-lovers romance. It embodies classicism, the pressures of being an only child, and the desire to be seen and understood. Think rich Beijing boarding school white collar crimes, but make it socially conscious.

Attending an elite boarding school in China means that Alice always kind of feels left out. As the only scholarship student, she dosen't really fit in with her rich, high society classmates. So when Alice actually gets the ability to turn invisible, it doesn't feel much different from normal.

When Alice's parents can no longer find the money to help pay for her tuition, she comes up with a scheme to raise the money, using her newfound invisibility. She'll sell the darkest secrets of her classmates and get information no one else can. But when the scheme starts to turn towards the more criminal side, Alice has to decide if it's worth it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for an advanced copy of this to review! What immediately drew me in was the cover; it might make the light for one of the best covers that I've seen all year. How can you not want to read that book just by looking at the cover? It's so intriguing!

But I digress. Luckily, the story inside the book was just as enticing at the cover. We get a bit of academic rivals to enemies, and trust me. You can feel that tension almost from the beginning. You're going to be rooting for them throughout the entire book, even as they get deeper into a possible criminal enterprise. Liang did a great job creating these three dimensional characters who are doing some shady things, but you still fall in love with them anyway. Give me a good morally grey character any day.

And the premise! Alice is kind of exposing the underbelling of the Beijing elite, willing to do whatever it takes to get the money she needs. You know she's going to get trapped in some kind of morally questionable situation, and it's what really drives teh story. I was hooked into this intrigued, and enjoyed the way Liang wove the supernatural into it. I think a lot of teens will really loved this story!

All in all, if you like genre-blended kind of stories with a tense plot and good characters, I'd highly recommend picking this one up!

If You Could See The Sun is a genre-bending YA contemporary novel with fantasy elements. This story reminded me a little bit of Turning Red, but for an older age group, as the main character experiences invisibility that feels like a "curse" and she uses the power to do favors for others in order to earn the money she needs to pay her school tuition. I really liked seeing the relationship between the main character and her academic rival mold and grow. These two very clearly had completely different opinions of each other and I was rooting for them to get together really early in the book. Overall, I enjoyed the story and how the tasks the main character agrees to do start to make her question her ethics and the kind of person she is becoming. I also appreciated the discussion of family dynamics and how sometimes we feel obligated as children to take on more burderns and responsibilities in order to honor the sacrifices of our parents.