If You Could See the Sun

by Ann Liang

"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 powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates’ most scandalous secrets.
 
Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.
 
When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.
 
But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

• ISBN10: 1335915842
• ISBN13: 9781335915849
• Publish Date: 24 November 2022 (first published 11 October 2022)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 21 December 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Inkyard Press
• Edition: Original
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Guys, this cover is legit STUNNING! It immediately caught my eye (as did the title, if we're being honest), and that was all it took to get me diving right into If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang.

Alice Sun is brilliant – though she doesn't see herself as a star. In fact, Alice frequently feels invisible. She's one of the top students at her elite boarding school, and yet people don't know the real her.

So perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise when Alice did start turning invisible. At first, Alice decides to turn this odd series of events into a business venture, but it doesn't take long for things to get out of control.

Okay, I would like to nominate If You Could See the Sun for the Young Adult award of the year. Which Young Adult award, you say? Any of them? All of them? I'm not sure! But I know it deserves one.

At first, I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book. I loved the premise, but a good premise has burned me in the past. Thankfully, that wasn't the case for If You Could See the Sun, as I found myself reading it late into the night.

There's a good reason for that. There are many elements in If You Could See the Sun, and they all work well together. Alice's character is compelling, naturally. But more than that, I enjoyed the chemistry (enemies to lover style) she had with Henry Li. Combine this with the backstory, her strange new ability, and her determination to get some money out of said ability? Well, that's just the perfect recipe, don't you think?

The pacing of this book is perfect. There's always something going on that will keep you invested in the story, but it rarely feels like sensory overload. And trust me, you'll want to keep reading and see how these events play out.

Long story short, go read If You Could See the Sun. It's worth it.

Thanks to Inkyard Press and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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