Alice is a Chinese-American girl who whose family returned to China after several years in the US. She is the only scholarship student at her elite private international school in Beijing. Surrounded by her super rich classmates, Alice has always felt invisible and pours her energy into academic achievement. Her scholarship is only partial, and her struggling parents have let her know that they don’t have enough money for her to attend beyond the current semester. Shortly after her parents drop this bomb, Alice finds that she can become intermittently and unpredictably invisible. With the help of her academic rival, Henry, who creates the app "Beijing Ghost", she monetizes this unusual ability by performing tasks and finding out secrets.
The story is fast-paced and tense, exploring themes such as economic inequality, racism, isolation and belonging. Alice is a flawed, brilliant but clueless, ambitious but relatable character and, as the stakes intensify with each task, has to make some difficult decisions about how far she will go for tuition money. It is satisfying to watch Alice find her moral center and learn to speak up for herself. If You Could See the Sun is a highly addictive, fascinating, paranormal contemporary with an exquisitely executed slow-burn rivals to lovers romance, excellent writing and a lot of depth.
The story is fast-paced and tense, exploring themes such as economic inequality, racism, isolation and belonging. Alice is a flawed, brilliant but clueless, ambitious but relatable character and, as the stakes intensify with each task, has to make some difficult decisions about how far she will go for tuition money. It is satisfying to watch Alice find her moral center and learn to speak up for herself. If You Could See the Sun is a highly addictive, fascinating, paranormal contemporary with an exquisitely executed slow-burn rivals to lovers romance, excellent writing and a lot of depth.