✍️ One Sentence Synopsis: When you detach from tech sometimes you attach to something (or someone) better.

💭 Overall Thoughts: This is a YA novel about a high school influencer sent by her parents to a summer camp to detox from social media.

I enjoyed the premise and the overall message of opportunities missed or lost when you focus too much on social media and don’t set boundaries for yourself.

I liked the character growth through the book and loved some of the side characters and personas.

It’s a very cute, light, story with a message without being too pushy.

What I Liked:
👍 It was a cute, light read with a happy ending.
👍 Some of the side characters that come up through the farm added some witty comic relief.

What I Didn’t Like:
👎 I wish there was a bit more to the romance.
👎 The parents here seemed a bit hypocritical.

💞Read this if you liked: You Have a Match

🎧 I enjoyed the narrator for this audiobook, but the auto tune ended up making her sound a little robotic. I listened at 1.5.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for allowing me to listen with request for honest review.

the concept of this book had me SO intrigued!! an up and coming social media influencer and youtuber from LA gets sent to a digital detox camp in the Midwest.

Sunny has been on the internet since she was little and her mom had a blog about her life as a mom, but Sunny has since taken over her persona and is always trying to gain more followers. this story was definitely unique! there were kind of a lot of elements happening at the same time (love interest, classes for nursing home residents, social media competition, a tiny plot point suggesting staff from the camp were using illicit drugs??

The narrator of the audiobook did a really great job capturing the mood of the story and I would definitely recommend listening to this book if given the choice.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous tells the story of Sonny, a girl who is determined to have a career through social media and gaining a following, who is sent to a technology "detox" camp after an unfortunate live stream error pushes her parent's patience over the edge. Sonny hates the farm camp in Iowa she's sent to and the social media obsessed personalities she meets there, but the longer she's at camp, the more she learns about herself and the way she uses social media.

I really enjoyed this fun and sometimes humorous read, which is a good option if you're looking for a relatively light and low pressure storyline. While Sunny has some flaws and makes some poor decisions along the way, she is someone you want to root for and hope she learns along the way. I think I might have enjoyed this more if it had delved a bit deeper into social media and what it means to some many people, especially teenagers.

I listened to this book on audio and thought the narrator did a good job of matching the tone of the novel and the main character.

Sunny Song is an up and coming YouTube star, but when she accidently films a PG-13 baking show in her kitchen, her parents send her to a digital detox camp for the summer.

This was a super quick and easy read, perfect for summer. I think the premise was a lot of fun, and I was intrigued with how the story was going to unfold. Sunny is an interesting character, but can be a tad annoying and self-centered at times. The love interest, Theo was cute, but a bit basic and one dimensional in my opinion. There wasn't really any development in his character. The romance was very light-hearted and I think it was pretty cute. The shenanigans that Sunny gets up to are entertaining and pretty funny at times. The biggest downfall I think I had with the book was how preachy it was in nature. It was constantly shoved at us that phones are bad and social media is evil and shouldn't be used.

I listened to this on audio, and I liked the narration, I think they did an excellent job with Sunny's voice.

Though I’m giving this book a 2.5 star rating, it does NOT mean I think it’s a bad book, nor do I think people shouldn’t read it. I just felt like it seemed very young to be young adult (I know that this does not make sense, but let me try to explain what I mean).
Sunny is supposed to be a 17-year old, about to start her senior year. But a lot of her actions felt like something a 14 or 15-year old would do, which I know isn’t a big difference but she just felt a lot younger than most YA protagonists (which maybe I’m just getting too used to characters who have had to grow up too fast, and should start getting used to characters who should be ALLOWED to be young!)
Most of the plot of this book could have been cut down to be shorter, and it wouldn’t have changed. The old folks coming to visit was just a lot of filler for me.
Overall, Sunny was somewhat bland, but I am very happy she had good character growth in reference to the plot and I’m glad she stuck up for herself!
I’m probably being too harsh, please don’t take it to mean this book isn’t worth picking up. If you’re a fan of fun, modern age stories, this could still be for you!

I listened to this audiobook through the net galley app and there was an echo, and the app randomly stopped after some chapters. I tried listening through the phone speakers and AirPods, and still had the same issue. I'm going to blame the app for that and not take it out on the book.

First of all, I was disappointed in the story, but I won't blame the audiobook for that. I've included my review of the story below and on my review of the book

The narrator was fine, but she wasn't a believable teenager, because Sunny is not written as a believable teenager. It's not the narrator's fault if the source material sucks. That being said, I enjoyed the narrator's pronunciation of Korean words. I think that added to the story.


**BOOK REVIEW**
This book was so disappointing.

It earned the single star for the premise. An influencer at a digital detox camp? Sounds perfect for today's tech addicted teens.

Where it fell short was pretty much everything else. First of all, Sunny was not a believable teenager. Not enough angst, wit, or snakiness, and this is coming from a High School Teacher. I spend 30 hours a week with 16 year olds! I also think there was a huge missed opportunity with Sunny. She could've gone through a transformative change at the camp, but just didn't. She didn't get any more insight into her relationships with her mom, dad or sister. Absolutely no reflection there. Also, she wasn't dynamic or likable.

None of the characters were dynamic for that matter. Take Wendy, the villain. We got absolutely no reason for why Wendy hated Sunny so much, even before it was revealed that they were competitors. Did Sunny do something to Wendy? Was Wendy hurt and is taking out on everyone else? Does Wendy have absent parents, so she seeks attention and validation online? Another huge missed opportunity to talk about mental health, bullying, or the reasons why teens are so reliant on social media.

Don't get me started on Theo. Ok, I'm already started so let's get into it. Theo was also a flat character, and I couldn't get invested in their love story because I didn't care about either of them, but here's the kicker- Their story was so G rated the entire book with blushing and very chaste descriptions of Theo's body..... and then at the end THEY GO TO A PRIVATE ROOM TOGETHER AT AN OLD MAN'S REQUEST AND THE SCENE FADES TO BLACK. Wtfffff Sunny has never dated a boy before and now we are to expect that she bangs this guy she's only known for a minute AT AN ASSISTED LIVING CENTER?

Finally, an epilogue would have helped salvage this book, but it didn't have one. Did Sunny and Theo ever see each other? What the eff happened to Raphael? Did Sunny learn ANYTHING from her whole summer?

I guess my feels about this book can be summed up in 2 words: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES! The premise was so good, the execution was a flat snore fest.

Super cute story about a Korean American LA high school YouTuber who is sent to digital detox camp at a farm in Iowa the summer before senior year. Very funny and great lessons learned ❤️

Special thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the advance copy of the audiobook. The narrator did a great job also. Comes out June 3rd!

I enjoyed this one. I think it has a great message about how screens take over a life wrapped in a fun story About the contest and camp life at a working farm. I am an old farm girl myself, but not to the extent I had to muck out stalls. I enjoyed this book a lot and loved the subtle messages about how good technology can be and it’s pitfalls if abused.

5 stars

I have not enjoyed a YA contemporary novel as much as I enjoyed Sunny Song in quite some time.

Suzanne Park delivers on an absolutely brilliant concept with fantastic characters, immense wit, and remarkably poignant insight into the mind of a teenager living in the social media age. At first, I thought that Sunny was going to be just like many other YA protagonists - defined by a singular characteristic for the entire book. However, what is so genius about this book is that the entire concept allowed Park to subvert that trope and open up Sunny as a character during her time at the detox camp. Her arc was pulled off beautifully and I particularly enjoyed that not every question was answered by the end of the novel. There is such a sense of hope for the future that felt so right for a story about teenagers.

I am honestly shocked that more people aren't talking about this book. If you're reading this, get your hands on a copy ASAP!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review!

3.5 I really enjoyed the start of this with Sunny's social media antics and I know this was about the detox camp but I still kind of wish there had been a bit more of her videos as that was a really strong aspect! I wasn't convinced by the romance (to be honest I literally just finished the audio ARC and can't remember who she ended up with) but I enjoyed the senior citizen home and the idea of the camp. The book didn't keep its strength but this is the first Suzanne Park book I haven't hated so that's a big plus!

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this book. I feel like this book taught me a lot of lessons and I think it could help you too! I would totally recommend this book!

I enjoyed this book and my review can found under the novel itself, but as for the narration of this, I have to say I liked it! She was really good at very distinct voices for the different characters and as a fan of Kim’s Convenience, I enjoyed the Korean influences in her choices of snacks etc and her complex relationships with her family members was very well animated by the narrator.
I think that I enjoyed this more as an audiobook than I would have by simply reading it.
Thanks to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

Look, it doesn't matter what it says on that cover. Sunny Song is famous to me.

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!

This is a really cute, thoughtful, funny YA about an Instagram/YouTube influencer, Sunny Song, who gets sent away to "Technology Detox Camp" for the summer. This was my first Suzanne Park novel and I quite enjoyed it. It's an interesting, nuanced take on the technology generation that I think treats teenagers with the respect and nuance that they deserve.

I think it's perfect for anyone who loved To All the Boys but thought that Peter Kavinsky was a bit of a dingdong! This is definitely Sunny's story, with a very small, sweet romance sprinkled in. It's a quick read, so a lot of the side characters felt sketched in rather than fully formed, but Sunny herself was a really strong, imperfect character in a way that was really fun to read.

Joy Osmanski's narration is smooth, funny, and easy to listen to.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ALC!