After reading an excerpt of If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang, I thought I might have finally found a magical realism book that I would enjoy. Despite the fact that I have yet to find a book in this genre that I love, I am determined to find one. Unfortunately, If You Could See the Sun was not that book.
The novel follows Alice, a girl attending a private school in China, who finds out that her family does not have enough money to continue sending her to this school. While Alice is a perfectionist and overachiever, she often feels invisible, but is shocked one day when she actually turns invisible. She decides to profit from this misfortune by secretly accepting tasks from her classmates in exchange for money, but this plan soon goes horribly wrong.
The excerpt that I read was fantastic, and it ended with the first time Alice turns invisible. Sadly, the rest of the book was underwhelming. It felt like nothing happened for a good portion of the book, and then everything was crammed into the last 50 pages or so.
Similarly, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it was absolutely horrible. Basically, Alice does something morally wrong, and not only does no one stop her, she argues that she shouldn’t be punished for her wrongdoings because she is poor. Likewise, much of the novel focused on her growth as a character, only to have her lie to someone towards the end. It just ruined all the character growth prior to that instance.
Finally, I thought the ending was a little abrupt. It left me with quite a few questions, and I was certainly disappointed. Overall, this book is probably a good fit for those who like magical realism, but I am still searching for a book within that genre that I enjoy.
The novel follows Alice, a girl attending a private school in China, who finds out that her family does not have enough money to continue sending her to this school. While Alice is a perfectionist and overachiever, she often feels invisible, but is shocked one day when she actually turns invisible. She decides to profit from this misfortune by secretly accepting tasks from her classmates in exchange for money, but this plan soon goes horribly wrong.
The excerpt that I read was fantastic, and it ended with the first time Alice turns invisible. Sadly, the rest of the book was underwhelming. It felt like nothing happened for a good portion of the book, and then everything was crammed into the last 50 pages or so.
Similarly, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it was absolutely horrible. Basically, Alice does something morally wrong, and not only does no one stop her, she argues that she shouldn’t be punished for her wrongdoings because she is poor. Likewise, much of the novel focused on her growth as a character, only to have her lie to someone towards the end. It just ruined all the character growth prior to that instance.
Finally, I thought the ending was a little abrupt. It left me with quite a few questions, and I was certainly disappointed. Overall, this book is probably a good fit for those who like magical realism, but I am still searching for a book within that genre that I enjoy.