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A review by shannonxo
Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park
4.0
Look, it doesn't matter what it says on that cover. Sunny Song is famous to me.
Thank you to Raincoast Books for the ARC!
Sunny Song is a teenage influencer working her butt off her to grow her social media platform. After school and on weekends she is working hard at getting videos and content together to post and reach that elusive 100k follower benchmark. She schedules all her posts, but the frequency of them has not gone unnoticed. After her LA school expresses concern and a filming mishap goes viral, her parents sign her up for a one month social media detox camp at a farm in Iowa. It's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, if you ask me, but holds the makings of a great story.
Sunny was a fabulous star for this story with so much depth to her. Given that the premise centers around a young woman absorbed wholly be her phone, social media, and the number of online interactions she has, I was expecting someone rather vapid and gross. Sunny was a very likeable character with a great sense of humour, real teenage concerns and wants, and an overall sweet personality. I definitely laughed a few times at her voice in here, but also understood her dreams and fears. She's an independent woman making her way in this off the rails world the best she can and I could only admire her for it. I will admit that her character took a bit of a hit for me at the end when she had the opportunity to stand up for someone in trouble for something that wasn't theirs, and did not.
Like Sunny, I found this to be a surprising story overall. I didn't quite know where it was going to go, but I enjoyed the themes it leaned into. A young woman choosing her future on her own terms, whether that is going to college or going into business for herself. Making meaningful relationships and how social media can help enhance and benefit those. Even Sunny's identity as a Korean-American, how she chooses to embrace that amongst touches of racism, whether intentional or not. It was nicely thought out and had a great ending. The character growth for Sunny alone was worth the read, and it had me reflecting on my own social media and phone use.
This book was not perfect, though. I found that the writing sometimes went into the minutiae of certain tasks, describing every little movement needed to complete it when it was not necessary. It dragged the story down, especially when that word count could have been used to build out the story more. Even some of the characters could have used some beefing up. The book was far from boring, but I do wish we could have gotten more of the camp activities and the hijinks that came with them. Even the things described on the cover as her summer goals were barely given enough notice.
I really enjoyed this! It's a quick read that's super cute and fun!
Thank you to Raincoast Books for the ARC!
Sunny Song is a teenage influencer working her butt off her to grow her social media platform. After school and on weekends she is working hard at getting videos and content together to post and reach that elusive 100k follower benchmark. She schedules all her posts, but the frequency of them has not gone unnoticed. After her LA school expresses concern and a filming mishap goes viral, her parents sign her up for a one month social media detox camp at a farm in Iowa. It's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, if you ask me, but holds the makings of a great story.
Sunny was a fabulous star for this story with so much depth to her. Given that the premise centers around a young woman absorbed wholly be her phone, social media, and the number of online interactions she has, I was expecting someone rather vapid and gross. Sunny was a very likeable character with a great sense of humour, real teenage concerns and wants, and an overall sweet personality. I definitely laughed a few times at her voice in here, but also understood her dreams and fears. She's an independent woman making her way in this off the rails world the best she can and I could only admire her for it. I will admit that her character took a bit of a hit for me at the end when she had the opportunity to stand up for someone in trouble for something that wasn't theirs, and did not.
Like Sunny, I found this to be a surprising story overall. I didn't quite know where it was going to go, but I enjoyed the themes it leaned into. A young woman choosing her future on her own terms, whether that is going to college or going into business for herself. Making meaningful relationships and how social media can help enhance and benefit those. Even Sunny's identity as a Korean-American, how she chooses to embrace that amongst touches of racism, whether intentional or not. It was nicely thought out and had a great ending. The character growth for Sunny alone was worth the read, and it had me reflecting on my own social media and phone use.
This book was not perfect, though. I found that the writing sometimes went into the minutiae of certain tasks, describing every little movement needed to complete it when it was not necessary. It dragged the story down, especially when that word count could have been used to build out the story more. Even some of the characters could have used some beefing up. The book was far from boring, but I do wish we could have gotten more of the camp activities and the hijinks that came with them. Even the things described on the cover as her summer goals were barely given enough notice.
I really enjoyed this! It's a quick read that's super cute and fun!