The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: If You Could See the Sun

Series: Standalone

Author: Ann Liang

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Magical Realism

Rating: 4.25 stars

Review

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. – summary from Goodreads

What would you do if one day you could turn invisible? Would you start a crime ring? Because that is exactly what Alice Sun decided to do.

I have to admit I was super hesitant to read this book. I loved Ann Liang’s other books, but after reading the synopsis I didn’t think this was going to be my cup of tea. I was a little nervous this book would be super dark.

If you have similar worries, I shall put them to rest. What Alice does isn’t super terrible, nor are they described in a lot of detail. A lot of what she did seemed more like what a private investigator would do (from my understanding of private investigators). The biggest crime was committed at the end of the book and involved a kidnapping, though this was quickly resolved.

I actually really loved this book. I shouldn’t have worried; I like all of Ann Liang’s books. She has a way of writing main characters that makes you feel seen. All of her characters feel real and are not too perfect, which I really like.

The story itself was interesting. I have long wanted to be able to turn invisible but have never considered it for being able to operate a criminal enterprise. I don’t necessarily support Alice’s choices, but her ingenuity was entertaining to read.

I will say that I read I Hope This Doesn’t Find You first and it is a very similar story. The ability to turn invisible and taking place in Beijing are different, but the storyline is similar. This didn’t bother me, but I thought I should note it.

I don’t know how I feel about the ending. While I think Alice deserved consequences for her actions, I don’t know how much I actually like what happened. This is more of a personal issue, though.

Henry and Alice work so well together and I loved how their relationship progressed. Henry was always there for Alice, even if she didn’t always see it. He was a steady presence throughout the books and I quite enjoyed him.

With that being said, I wish the romance was a little more focused on. I could sense it was coming, but it was still somewhat sudden towards the end of the book. I think if it had been a little more focused on over the course of the book, then it would have been even better. However, the relationship between the two was still amazing and the aunt meeting Henry was definitely my favorite part!

If You Could See the Sun was a wonderful young adult novel! It has realistic characters, a gripping storyline, and a cute romance. I highly recommend this book to any clean romance fans!