What would you do if you suddenly turned invisible one day? Would you try and help the people around you without any selfish intentions or would you use this new ability to your advantage? That is the decision Alice Sun has to make when she literally turns invisible in school. Being the only scholarship student in an elite Beijing boarding school, Alice struggles to fit in with her other wealthy classmates, especially her academic nemesis Henry Li.
When Alice finds out that her parents no longer can afford the high tuition fee at her college, she is left with two equally frustrating options: going back to the United States to attend a college in Maine or going to a public school in Beijing. Things took a turn for the worse when she suddenly gains the power of invisibility. However, this might be the opportunity that Alice has been looking for.
Mild spoilers in the next paragraph…
In order to make the best out of the situation, she reluctantly turns to Henry for help. Having to share the title of top student with Henry for the past few years, he is certainly not her favourite person, and yet he might be the only one who can help. The two of them set out to create an app called Beijing Ghost, which can provide the students with help without anyone noticing. In return, Alice would be able to get enough money to cover her tuition fee. It started out small: secretly taking photos of a student’s father’s affair, deleting embarrassing photos from phones, but as the money kept coming in, Alice’s ambitions increase, she starts taking on high risk jobs, like helping people cheat and even getting involved in kidnapping! In the meantime, she seems to warm up to Henry a lot and their relationship gradually evolves into something more…romantic?
Personally, I enjoyed this book on so many different levels. First, the amount of Chinese culture mentioned within brings back so many memories from my time back home. As someone who is Chinese, Alice seems like an old friend with her commentary on family, class, and education. It feels like reading an eighteen-year-old me’s journal. Alice does not want to go back to the States because she feels incredibly isolated due to her skin colour, but she also has no intention of going to a public school in China because of the incredibly difficult exams to get into university (which is called Gaokao) is also super relatable.
Alice Sun is motivated, intelligent, and does not take everything for granted. She knows that her being at the school is not because of luck and definitely not because of money, therefore she strives (and becomes) the best there is. Her strength and her ambitions are something I relate to strongly and for a POC female protagonist, it is amazing to see such developments in heroines.
As for our other protagonist, Henry Li. HENRY LI. He is the definition of a walking green flag. Likes Taylor Swift, has a good heart, tall and good-looking, has a praise smirk, enjoys banter, and he is also smitten with Alice (I just know that he would LOVE the new Midnights album). The fact that Henry did not know that they were supposed to hate each other makes their relationship so much cuter, he is already in love way before she ever did. Honestly, what more do you want more from an enemies-to-lovers story? And the banter is also elite just like the boarding school that they both attend.
Overall, this was such an easy read and if you are looking for some POC protagonists, enemies-to-lovers with a dash of fantasy, you have come to the right place!
If You Could See The Sun is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
In this genre-bending YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates’ most scandalous secrets.
