I'd been seeing news about If You Could See the Sun since it was first announced but was on the fence about whether or not I'd read it because, despite my love for academic rivals-to-lovers, I'm not really a dark academia kind of girl. Still, the excerpt caught my attention, and I ended up winning a copy through a giveaway, so I decided to give it a shot.
I picked up If You Could See the Sun thinking I'd read a couple chapters and ended up devouring it in a single sitting.
There's just something really compelling about Ann Liang's writing, and I was quickly immersed and sucked into her story. I wasn't even that invested in the actual plot (more on that later,) but there was something about the way she wrote that had me coming back for more and more. The setting doesn't play a large role in the story, but the descriptions of Bejing and the few of Suzhou instantly transported me back to China, adding yet another to this immersive read. The romance played a relatively minor role in the story, but I still enjoyed it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend If You Could See the Sun if you're mainly interested in the academic rivals-to-lovers aspect, though, since it was a relatively generic version of the trope.
The rest of the story was certainly enjoyable but nothing that really blew me away. The book was pitched as a dark academia, "eat the rich" story filled with scandal and secrets, but the book felt more like a standard YA story with fantasy twist and an "unlikeable" protagonist. Ann Liang promoted her debut as a story about rivals who steal and sell their classmates secrets, promising "a dash of crime" and "drama & dirty secrets," but in reality, the story was relatively light and fun. While Alice certainly had a skewed moral compass and exploited her newfound invisibility, she was more of a scholarship student on the outside looking in than an "ambitious girl who'd rather be villain than the hero." Again, I'm not expert on dark academia, but this felt more like dark academia lite than any real representation of the sub-grenre.
The story itself felt overly simplistic and undeveloped. Henry Li read like your typical perfect love interest (rich, smart, handsome) and was not, as promised, pretentious in the least. (Also, the number of times Alice noticed his ears turning pink without recognizing why was a little ridiculous.) Alice's invisibility didn't have any kind of resolution or explanation, which I was okay with, but she also never connected the fact that it seemed to happen when she was especially anxious about something which seemed strange to me considering she was supposed to be top-of-the-class. The "resolution" of the story also didn't sit well with me. Overall, it felt like Liang wanted to make a grand statement about wealth and class but just circled the issues instead of making a developed point.
Despite my misgivings, the fact still stands that I found If You Could See the Sun compelling enough to read in a single day. It's definitely piqued my interest in Ann Liang, and I'm looking forward to reading her next few books.
I picked up If You Could See the Sun thinking I'd read a couple chapters and ended up devouring it in a single sitting.
There's just something really compelling about Ann Liang's writing, and I was quickly immersed and sucked into her story. I wasn't even that invested in the actual plot (more on that later,) but there was something about the way she wrote that had me coming back for more and more. The setting doesn't play a large role in the story, but the descriptions of Bejing and the few of Suzhou instantly transported me back to China, adding yet another to this immersive read. The romance played a relatively minor role in the story, but I still enjoyed it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend If You Could See the Sun if you're mainly interested in the academic rivals-to-lovers aspect, though, since it was a relatively generic version of the trope.
The rest of the story was certainly enjoyable but nothing that really blew me away. The book was pitched as a dark academia, "eat the rich" story filled with scandal and secrets, but the book felt more like a standard YA story with fantasy twist and an "unlikeable" protagonist. Ann Liang promoted her debut as a story about rivals who steal and sell their classmates secrets, promising "a dash of crime" and "drama & dirty secrets," but in reality, the story was relatively light and fun. While Alice certainly had a skewed moral compass and exploited her newfound invisibility, she was more of a scholarship student on the outside looking in than an "ambitious girl who'd rather be villain than the hero." Again, I'm not expert on dark academia, but this felt more like dark academia lite than any real representation of the sub-grenre.
The story itself felt overly simplistic and undeveloped. Henry Li read like your typical perfect love interest (rich, smart, handsome) and was not, as promised, pretentious in the least. (Also, the number of times Alice noticed his ears turning pink without recognizing why was a little ridiculous.) Alice's invisibility didn't have any kind of resolution or explanation, which I was okay with, but she also never connected the fact that it seemed to happen when she was especially anxious about something which seemed strange to me considering she was supposed to be top-of-the-class. The "resolution" of the story also didn't sit well with me. Overall, it felt like Liang wanted to make a grand statement about wealth and class but just circled the issues instead of making a developed point.
Despite my misgivings, the fact still stands that I found If You Could See the Sun compelling enough to read in a single day. It's definitely piqued my interest in Ann Liang, and I'm looking forward to reading her next few books.