THIS is what I’m talking about when I say I love academic rivals to lovers. This book is literally the definition of this trope and I’m so freaking in love with it, you guys have NO IDEA!!!

This review will mostly be me screaming about Henry Li...but to be civilized and posh I will start with the plot. I sensed your presence.” … “it’s only because I’m around you so often. I highly doubt anyone else would be able to.” the writing was one of my favorite parts. The academic rivals to lovers was written was so mwa, it's one of my favorite tropes now! Alicehenry's banter was everything. The way they teased each other and the way Henry was always worried about her, I adore them. The writing style was so cute and fluffy, and some of the quotes were so beautiful, i absolutely adored it. Everything was described so nicely, it made me so happy to see a properly written book unlike the... things that sent me into a slump 😭. I've seen people be disappointed at the fact that the invisibility should've been played up more, or that we should've known why it happened. See, this is the way I look at it. Alice never looked into why it was happening with much interest, more on how to use it and how to stop it. The invisibility starts to disappear towards the end, and I think that the reason for that is Alice stopped feeling invisible. She started to see herself, and as that happened the invisibility started to gradually disappear. Yall getting where I'm going with this? It was about Alice, never anyone else. I do with that the rivalry was played up a bit more, but we got such cute stuff that I honestly don't even care 😭. You're still a kid, you know. Even if it doesn't feel that way now, you're still only a kid. You're too young to be this hardened by the world. You should be free to dream. To hope.❞ If You Could See the Sun isn’t just special because it decenters whiteness, and saying that would unfortunately recenter whiteness in the conversation surrounding the book. It is also just a better version of this genre than we often see. When you finish reading The Secret History or If We Were Villains, you are still left with an undercurrent of romanticization and maybe some abstract ideas about where the moral boundary is; you are only ever shown the dark side of academia through a dreamy lens that in many ways glorifies suffering. If You Could See the Sun does not pull these punches. Instead, it allows the reader to take in the staggering inequalities of the institution it is set in, and it shows the consequences of the way our society has simultaneously made a student’s ability to learn their entire identity and something that hinges on how much privilege they have. Alice isn’t hurt by the institution she gives everything to because of a failed test or college rejection letter. She is hurt because she was forced into horrendous moral compromises by a school that didn’t care enough to make itself accessible to her. This is what dark academia means.I have one complain though. I wish there was a scientific or idk a reason for Alice becoming invisible. Like a Chinese folk tale. A theory. A phenomena. Just something. Something regarding star alignment. Really anything fictional that just justifies her becoming invisible. Partial scholarship student, Alice Sun, is top of her class -well actually tied for top of her class at Beijing International Boarding School where the wealthy are plenty. After another ceremony where Alice is celebrated for her grades, she has to share the spotlight again with none other than her ridiculously handsome nemesis, Henry Li. Following the ceremony she literally falls into a situation that triggers the power to make her invisible. the plot. oh my god, she makes an app called beijing ghost to carry out her classmates' tasks that they don't want anyone to know about, because she's invisible, has henry li for a partner, and ends up making money from it.. my mind was racing while reading!! i didn't know i needed this book as much as i did 🤧🤧 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. If you enjoy the academic-rivals-to-oh-friends-maybe-more-wait-what kind of trope…. you will ADORE this, I swear. I absolutely fell for the way the relationship was set up, right from the start. The feelings develop slowly, the characters are absolutely endearing and so real with their feelings, sometimes messy, sometimes not-really-getting-it. It’s slow-burned and just, EXCELLENT, every single one of their interactions was gold. I loved it.

this is one of my favorite young adult romance books. it was so so enjoyable. alice was such an interesting protagonist, and i loved reading about her type a, workaholic personality. and henry!!! god how can you not love him. their reluctant alliance and the forced proximity that resulted had me screaming crying bc they are SO CUTE. Love and hate are separated by a thin line, and parallel to it are the blurred lines that Alice starts to cross when her intentions start off reasonably and turn into criminal activity. How far is Alice willing to go? I liked the writing style. The way Chinese culture was clearly evoked in the storyline made me love the book more because in a way it gives readers an idea of the chinese amenities.

‘If You Could See the Sun’ published on October 11, 2022

If You Could See The Sun is one of these stories that captivated me, right from the very beginning. Alice, our main character, is fierce, determined and absolutely endearing. I could deeply relate to her reaching for perfection, to her trying, wanting to be perceived, seen, loved and yet, not so much. I loved her and how she grew as the book went on, learning to speak up for herself, learning that she’s more than just a study machine… and most of it all, learning that she’s just a kid. Still. i adored the slow-burn in this!! it was barely even a kiss they had in the end lmao but the way everything came together was chef's kiss. the writing, the characters, the plot, the fluffy cuteness gets me every single time. i do sort of wish the enemies to lovers had been played up to a little more, and the magic realism part too? bcs it wasn't fully explained in the end wtf happened - but oh well. i enjoyed every bit, so i'm not gonna reduce the rating on that lmao. Upon discovering her parents can no longer afford their portion of her schooling and with the new ability she now obtains, Alice takes into her own hands to devise a plan to earn all the money she needs to pay for her own tuition. She cannot do it without the help of her rival, Henry, to create an app to offer her secret services at a cost. but there was also so much else i liked about this book: the commentary on social class and money, and how everyone else at airington was wealthy beyond belief while alice was compromising her studies and her physical and mental health just to afford a spot there; the reminders that alice is still just a kid and has so much going for her and that she shouldn’t be afraid to dream and go after what she wants; alice’s coming to terms with the gravitas of her actions and taking responsibility for what she did, and accepting the consequences even though we know she did it out of sheer desperation and, in good conscience, would never have done such a thing. sometimes the unfairness of the world leaves us with no good choices, and in our haste to make the right one, we choose unwisely.

i also feel like i'm in my ya era rn and i love Ann Liang's writing style soo much 😭 so i've officially read both books by her and absolutely LOVED it so much!! the fact that i could connect so much with the mc is another plus. Henry is my adorable little baby who I would protect with my LIFE. He was so sweet and sincere and cute and amazing and GAH why can't I meet anyone like him? 😭😭 He was so cute towards Alice and he's so smart and I always fall for the smart soft guys in books 😭I was really excited to read IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN. I love me some magical realism and it's always awesome to see YA that isn't set in the United States. This book is set in a very exclusive school in Beijing, and Alice, the heroine, isn't going to be able to attend much longer even with her scholarship due to her family's dwindling funds. Liang paints a clear picture of what it’s like to struggle for certain advantages that are seemingly handed to others, skillfully exploring themes of classism and privilege via a sympathetic protagonist who feels—sometimes literally—invisible."— Publishers Weekly

I personally loved how this was a somewhat Urban Fantasy. Like the fantasy element was there but as a sub-plot. You know? Fantasy meets enemies to lovers romance with powerful messages made me enjoy my reading a lot more than I expected. A Chinese American scholarship student with an inexplicable ability to turn invisible uses her newfound power to monetize her peers’ secrets in Liang’s imaginative debut. Unlike her affluent classmates, 17-year-old Alice Sun has only her hard-earned “established streak of success” going for her. After receiving news that her parents can’t afford the tuition for her next semester at the prestigious Beijing-based Airington International Boarding School, she’s faced with transferring to a local Beijing academy or moving in with her auntie to attend school in Maine. But when she suddenly finds herself able to turn invisible, she uses this gift for leverage. With help from her academic rival Henry Li, they anonymously create the Beijing Ghost, a phone app that allows students to request Alice uncover secrets and scandals for a fee. As the tasks escalate to a criminal level, however, the cost becomes greater than Alice anticipated. Liang paints a clear picture of what it’s like to struggle for certain advantages that are seemingly handed to others, skillfully exploring themes of classism and privilege via a sympathetic protagonist who feels—sometimes literally—invisible. Ages 13–up. Agent: Katherine Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. (Oct.) Publishers Weekly Alice realizes there’s an upside to her strange new power—unparalleled access to the secrets of China’s most rich and influential teens. Soon, Alice has a new plan: offer her invisibility services to find out what her classmates want to know—for a price. The novel follows Alice, a young girl going to one of the most elite international schools in the world, located in Beijing. Life is not particularly easy for Alice, as she is often seen as a ‘foreigner’ in Beijing, despite having been born there and never feeling at home in an overwhelmingly white California. The school Alice attends is also incredibly affluent, as her classmates are children of models, CEOs, and other one-percenters, and Alice is decidedly not. In fact, Alice is the only scholarship kid in her entire school, and it makes her feel invisible. Then, one day, inexplicably, she actually turns invisible. This, of course, leads to a slew of hijinks and self-discovery with an academic rivals/enemies-to-lovers plot woven throughout.Then her parents drop a bomb -- they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship. But that's the least of Alice's problems, because she has started uncontrollably turning invisible. As in completely, physically invisible. I won’t be able to focus with you there?” “are you saying you find my presence distracting, Alice?”