If You Could See The Sun

"Jealousy wraps its cold claws around my throat and squeezes, hard. And I find myself wishing, not for the first itme, that I wasn't always so acutely aware of the things I lack."

With the fifteen million pending assignments I fail to complete, it's ironic I choose to pick up If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang, a startlingly well-written debut novel about an over-achieving teenager grappling with the struggles of her IB course-work (just like me, although I must say she's a lot more devoted) and her sudden invisibility powers.

The novel follows Alice Sun, known study machine, and top academician in her grade, but to her great dismay, this is a title she is forced to share with her 'sworn enemy' Henry Li. This academic rivalry spurs the plot ahead by bringing the two together after Alice realizes she can go invisible, something she uses in order to pay the remainder of the exorbitant boarding school fees her scholarship leaves uncovered by creating an app capitalizing on this power of hers. Together, Henry and Alice uncover the clandestine secrets and the tangled web of false pretenses constructed by the rich and elite Airington students through their shared app project, Beijing Ghost.

To start with, I owe the fact I read this book in such a short amount of time to how simplistic and lucid the prose of this novel is. Whilst it maintains a signature simplicity throughout, there are unexpected sprinkles of beautiful descriptions and thoughts replete with emotion that truly brings the characters to life.

Alice Sun, the novel's protagonist, is wholly relatable. She's flawed and insecure, constantly undermining herself and prone to bouts of anxiety and nervousness. She ties her self-worth to her academic achievement, so much so that she can barely make the distinction between who she is and what her grades are. They begin to represent her wholly, being her sole identifying factor in the hierarchies of this prestigious school for the elite, the school that she never truly fits into.

Alice's commentary and astute observations on the power dynamics and notions that the rich and elite hold further add another layer of dimension to the novel. Not only does the novel make an overt critique of the type of systems people with prestige and financial power create, but Alice's trials and tribulations as an outsider also make us all the more receptive to these systems and how commonplace they are everywhere, and in the novel's case, institutions of academia.

The cherry on top is the romance that blossoms between our male and female protagonists, Henry and Alice. Whilst the novel maintains its fast-paced nature, with Alice constantly on the move completing tasks for the app Beijing Ghost, the slow-burn lead-up takes the shape of a subtly gradual crescendo. The romance is not the central fore of the novel, it simmers quietly in the background, but is an integral part of Alice's self-discovery.

All in all, I am a thorough enjoyer of this book, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone in need of a quick yet satiating read.