#if you could see the sun by ann liang

[bookburners]

Alice: I can excuse kidnapping but I draw the line at cheating

Henry: You can excuse kidnapping?

[two-braincells-in-total]

Alice: *trying to explain why Henry is entitled*

Henry: *happy that his crush told him that he's pretty*

[heyteenbookshey]

If You Could See The Sun by Ann Liang

Goodreads summary:

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.

I love urban fantasy. Like so much that maybe I would like fantasy fantasy if I gave it a shot but why would I give it a shot when cool books like this are out there?

Poor student at a wealthy school is not a new premise, but the nuances of Alice's situation upped the ante. If she has to leave her school where she is a top student Alice's options are to be a student lagging behind in a local Chinese speaking school, or going across the globe to face familiar discrimination and live with a distant relative. So I get it when my girl starts using her invisibility for monetary gain, and I can roll with the moral weirdness of some of it.

It's all fun until it gets VERY SERIOUS ALL OF THE SUDDEN?? Like 70% of the novel is reasonably increasingly complicated invisible heists then suddenly it gets VERY REAL but also not real at all because in a lot of ways there's not enough consequences.

From the jump Alice identifies her academic rival Henry as her ultimate enemy--ENEMY ENEMEY ENEMY--but at the drop of a hat asks him to go into business with her, then is like oH yeah but I hate him! And at one point is like oh wait guess we're dating then she and then and then--

and it's not will they won't they, she's confused and conflicted and feels both things at once. It's like the book itself dropped all stakes in the relationship when she went to him with her secret then acted like the stakes were still raised for the rest of it. In this, and the iron straight moral conflicts, it honestly felt sometimes like I was reading a middle grade book until a "fuck" popped up.

But oh my god the starring moment of the book is when Alice realizes she forgot she has a test and her breakdown bleeds off the paper. It's so intense and shame filled and that awful sticky foggy devastation that this is it this is the world falling apart was so real and visceral I had to stop reading for a beat!!

Despite having familiar tropes the book feels incredibly fresh. I love a good boarding school book and an international boarding school in China is a completely different playing field. The book ends with some pretty big questions unanswered, and if there was a sequel it would be my next book.

Not everything has to be edgy edgy complicated, and this is good fun especially for urban fantasy fans looking for a little romance.

Date Published: Oct 11, 2022

Date Read: May 9, 2024

Rating: 3.5/5 ghosts

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang

Author: Ann LiangPublisher: Inkyard PressReleased: October 11, 2022Received: NetGalley 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.…

[daphnevincent]

if you could see the sun by ann liang

and everything about this moment is so lovely and so fragile in its loveliness that i'm almost afraid to hold it

[typingwithmyhandstied]

Ann Liang 🤝 Holly Black

Alice thinks, "I do hate you. I hate everything about you. I hate you so much that whenever I'm around you, I can barely think straight. I can barely even breathe," on page 134 of If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang.

In The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, Jude says in her narration, "I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him I can hardly breathe" (30).

In I Hope This Doesn't Find You, Sadie says, "It's like I've been poisoned. It's like a sickness, and somehow, the cause and cure of it is him" (Liang 281).

Cardan says the following in The Wicked King, "If you're the sickness, I suppose you can't also be the cure" (Black 57).

[abyssmita]

Did I wait 20 chapters for the first kiss? Yes. Did she smash her face into his and bite him accidentally while trying to kiss him? Yes. Am I thoroughly embarassed and currently working up the courage to open the book again? Yes.

[vvalgrace]

when are we going to talk about a shirbert au with basically the dynamic of if you could see the sun by ann liang. academic rivals to lovers where as anne is fully convinced they hate each others guts but gilbert has always been head over heels for her and only sees their competition as a way to get her attention. anne and diana being alice and chanel, soulmates and all. I MEAN there's soo many possibilities i could literally die for someone to make this.

[the-final-sentence]

Top Final Sentences of 2023

He knew that on the day of his death he would see her face and he could hope to carry that beauty into the darkness with him, the last pagan on earth, singing softly upon his pallet in an unknown tongue. Cormac McCarthy, from The Passenger

And there are so many silences to be broken. Audre Lorde, from “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”

For Guinevere Tallow, it felt like coming home. Ethan M. Aldridge, from Deephaven

And we laughed and held each other and filled our hearts with the faith that we could always do that, always blow away the clouds that threatened our stars. Andrew Neiderman as V.C. Andrews, from Honey

But as anyone who loves reading and writing quickly learns, both activities allow you to commune with the living and the dead, to listen to the thoughts of those who have come before you and argue, cajole, and sing praise for them in response. Kaitlyn Greenidge, from “Books for a Black Girl’s Soul”

The greatest shame would be to reach the end of our lives and have the epitaph read, ‘They worked really hard.’ Roxane Gay, from “Yes, Your Job Is Important. But It’s Not All Important.”

The sky is gory with stars, like the insides of a gutted night. Julia Armfield, from “Salt Slow”

Sometimes, even in towns built on curses, at least once in a blue moon, things turn out okay. Ryan Douglass, from “Knickknack”

Eventually, if we speak the truth to each other, it will become unavoidable to ourselves. Audre Lorde, from “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger”

In the distance, the darkness has started to lift like a veil, the first light of dawn spilling over the Beijing skyline, a promise of all the beautiful and terrible and sun-soaked days to come. Ann Liang, from If You Could See the Sun

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[murasaki-cha]

Ok I finished the main story of If You Could See The Sun by Ann Liang (I loved it!!!)

And now I'm reading the bonus Henry pov chapters and *deep inhale* *immediately starts wheezing* Oh my god this boy is so so much more pathetic than I expected!!🤣🤣🤣

Even he admits that this is masochistic of him I can't-

[two-braincells-in-total]

I love this book. There's literally nothing more I can say about it, this speaks for itself

[luxaofhesperides]

IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN by Ann Liang

I still want so much, so badly. My heart still aches for all the bright things beyond my reach. I want to be smarter and richer and stronger and just... better.

[mxshhh0]

"Because even though I’m smart, I’m not that smart. Not the kind of prodigy-level smart you would expect to find at Harvard, the kind that would allow me to skip all my classes and still rank first in every test, that would make everything come easily. I don’t say this in a self-pitying way, either; I’ve long acknowledged and accepted my limitations, and done my best to compensate for them with sheer willpower and hard work"

if you could see the sun by Ann Liang

[breezyjin]

if you could see the sun (!!LIGHT SPOILERS!!)

bro i just finished reading if you could see the sun and like... it's good and all but i need M O R E . like are there any fanfics about alice and henry? i need fanfics that are just about alice, henry, and chanel fucking around and being teenagers because i strongly believe that alice deserves it after all of the stressing out she has been through. plus, it'd be a nice closure for me (but that's a personal thing) because i wanna see this girl to learn to let go and have some fun, kinda like what she and henry did when chasing vanessa

[permanentreverie]

literature moodboards: if you could see the sun by ann liang (ver 2)

“Yes, is the obvious answer. I do hate you. I hate everything about you. I hate you so much that whenever I’m around you, I can barely think straight. I can barely even breathe.”