Invisibility With A Side of Academic Perfectionism: Review of If You Could See the Sun

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang is a journey of the pursuit of purpose and happiness beyond validation from others. Set in an elite and fancy international boarding school in the midst of Beijing, Airington High is filled with privileged students whose parents either own top companies or are celebrities. Surrounded by these rich and influential students who have never had to think about money, Alice Sun is the only one at the prestigious school on a scholarship that doesn’t even cover the full cost. She is the only daughter of a middle-class family: her parents immigrated to United States, chasing the “American dream”, only to move back to China after barely scraping by at their convenience store.

Alice does not fit into the circle of rich students, making her feel completely invisible. Above that, Alice’s family is not in high society, and her parents work tirelessly to provide her with this life. Therefore, she feels the constant need to prove herself to her parents, showing them that the long hours they work are not going to waste. This combined with the emotional turmoil of feeling unseen all lead to her determination to forge her own reputation, which she does through consistently excelling in her academics. However, despite winning numerous awards, she can’t even revel in her achievements as she must share the spotlight with her rival, Henry Li.

Henry Li looks like the picture-perfect son, with his grades being just as exceptional as Alice’s and his privileged background due to his father owning the largest technology company in Beijing. Although he seems put-together on the outside, there are conditions that come along with being born into high society. Henry’s father has extremely high expectations of him, demanding nothing less than the best. Throughout the story, we slowly find that his sharp and posh demeanour is nothing more than a façade to mask the pressure and stress he feels.

The result of this combination? Alice and Henry are always neck to neck when it comes to test scores and projects. However, beneath the seething glares and intense competition, the two may be more alike than they think.

One day Alice is working hard to maintain her reputation, and the next Alice’s parents announce to her that they cannot afford the rest of her semester at the school. At a restaurant, they provide two options to a devastated Alice: one, she can go to a regular high school and take the gaokao, a rigorous Chinese university entrance exam, or two, return to America where she will not be able to continue with her IB coursework. Stuck in this dilemma, Alice is desperate to find a way to stay at the school where she’s worked so hard to become recognized by her academics. She soon begins to lose hope, until suddenly, she turns invisible. Literally.

I loved Alice’s character and how Liang portrayed her. She is the representation for those who would sacrifice their needs for others and have different personalities for separate situations because you hopelessly want others to like you. Alice is a competitive high achiever, and she cares about her image at the school. Liang clearly expresses Alice’s emotions, for example, her reaction to her parents telling her she couldn’t attend Airington anymore. She was angry, confused and panicked because this was sprung on her and her future was on the line.

By describing Alice’s emotions, the author allows us to view her in a more vulnerable state, which is essential for the connection between the reader and the book/characters.

After the initial mental breakdown (because she was literally invisible) and a visit to her aunt, Alice comes up with an idea. She decides to use her newfound powers to uncover the secrets of her classmates in exchange for a hefty price. Through the service, Alice hopes to make enough money to pay for the remainder of her education. She proposes this plan to Henry, who surprisingly not only agrees to help (for 50% of the profit, of course) but also designs an app called “Beijing Ghost” where students can anonymously submit their requests. Alice and Henry launch the app, not expecting much, but wake up to requests flowing in from overnight. These tasks range from spying on certain parents, uncovering scandalous secrets, and stealing the answers to exams.

Alice completes her first few missions successfully as they are relatively simple, but she starts to lose herself trying to balance the mountains of homework and tests with the rapidly increasing requests. After forgetting there was an important history test and getting two hours of sleep maximum every night, it is evident that she is beginning to burn out, and Alice knows that, too. Yet even after all her efforts, she is still short of her goal; to make matters worse, the school raised the price by 30,000RMB.

As the Beijing Ghost tasks escalate from high-school drama to the verge of criminally offensive, Alice must decide if she wants to set aside her priority of good grades to preserve her morals. On top of all this, Alice’s relationship with Henry is developing as they work together to accomplish the tasks. They begin to form a “friendly” bond, which is a huge step from hating each other’s guts. Or at least it’s what Alice thought. As the story progresses, it is revealed that the rivalry and hatred is all one-sided and all Henry thought of it as was an entertaining competition. The plot unravels, warping from a competitive academic rivals’ trope to a softspoken romance, with Alice soon finding that Henry maybe is not so insufferable.

I found this book beyond enjoyable because there were many themes that were portrayed realistically, and a variety of character traits which made the book relatable. Social class is what the setting of the book revolves around, as the location is a high school in which the school fee directly eliminates the “normal” people from attending. The students there are children of the highest social class in Beijing, which affects their upbringing and how they act now that they’re older. Additionally, validation is another important theme that branches off from social classes. This theme is what drew me into each page of the book and allowed me to understand Alice’s actions.

Liang portrays this characteristic in Alice through her feelings of inferiority compared to her peers, and the need for validation from everyone around her.

This demonstrates she clearly was not brought up in a family that people thought highly of, which therefore led her to the fear of being seen as less important and recognized because she does not come from money. This is a fear that many people have in the real world, which is what contributes to the relatability of the book.

If You Could See the Sun spins a brilliantly interesting interpretation of a student’s life in Beijing and seamlessly wove common feelings of teenagers into this book. All the characters never failed to play roles that helped emphasize the themes focused on in this novel. The book is one of my all-time favourites and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a short and quick-paced book. And to anyone who feels a little invisible, your efforts are worth it, no matter what people see. Don’t do things for the approval of others; do it because it makes you happy.