Learning to be Seen

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If You Could See the Sun is a fun and thoughtful story about what happens when Alice Sun, a smart young woman from a low income family, decides to take advantage of literal invisibility to make money to pay her school tuition. When she discovers that she's become invisible, she feels she has no one else to turn to but her main rival at school, Henry Li. The two develop an app that allows their fellow classmates to buy Alice's services anonymously, but the partnership also allows Alice to begin seeing Henry differently. Not just Henry either - she finally becomes friends with her roommate Chanel, and begins forming connections with classmates that she both didn't have the time or the financial means to previously. The story looks at several different ethical issues - when is it okay to spy on people, when is it okay to cheat? But a request gets submitted that goes way beyond those things with long reaching consequences, and Alice has to decide whether the risk and sacrificing her morals are worth the money she needs to stay at school and have the future she wants. The story does a great job of looking at how people with means never get forced into the type of position that Alice does, and how when they make bad decisions of their volition, the consequences aren't nearly as steep. It really is a story of haves and have-nots. I never felt like Liang played out the invisibility storyline to a natural conclusion, and would have like to have seen that tidied up better. I liked the storyline between Alice and Henry, but would have liked a deeper dive into the dynamics of their relationship. I also liked how as the story went on Alice began to see things she was missing because she was so focused on her studies, and how it began to make her reprioritize. I can't say that I completely loved the ending; while it makes sense it just feels like it could be stronger. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.