Exclusive: Read an excerpt from Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park

The latest novel from acclaimed Korean-American author Suzanne Park arrives this summer with Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous, a sweet, charming YA romantic comedy about self-discovery and self-acceptance with serious “read by the pool all day” vibes.

The novel follows the story of the titular Sunny, a Los Angeles teen YouTube star whose goals for the final few months before her senior year revolve around finally cracking 100K followers,  snagging the boy of her dreams, and having the best summer ever.

Not on Sunny’s list: accidentally filming a PG-13 cooking video that goes viral (#browniegate). Extremely not on her list: being shipped off to a digital detox farm camp in Iowa for a whole month. She’s traded in her WiFi connection for a butter churn, and if she wants any shot at growing her social media platform this summer, she’ll need to find a way back online.

But between some unexpected friendships and an alarmingly cute farm boy, Sunny might be surprised by the connections she makes when she’s forced to disconnect

From rising star and acclaimed Korean-American author Suzanne Park, Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous is a hysterical, #ownvoices rom-com that offers readers a dreamy escape into an internet-free life.

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous won’t hit shelves until June 1, but those looking forward to the story can check out an exclusive excerpt below right now.

Read an excerpt from Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous right now

"My registration person looked at me and smiled. “Sunny Song. Seventeen years old. Los Angeles, California?” I nodded and watched as she wrote 2 on the printout. According to the key next to the roster, that was tier-­-2 social media addiction.She said, “Great, I’ll check your name off. Do you have any other names you go by? We don’t have any others listed.”“Oh, my mom filled out my forms, not me. I go by Goggle Girl on Insta and YouTube and Sunny D on everything else.”She laughed. “No, I meant, like, a family nickname or something. In case someone calls the office and is trying to contact you in case of an emergency?”Heat flushed my cheeks, and my body flicked on the maximum-­perspiration switch. “Oh, jeez! I’m so…oh my God. I go by Sunny, or Sun-­Hee at home, usually when my parents are angry with me.” I scrunched my head down into my shoulders like a turtle backing into its shell.Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the guy with the vitamins and drugs give me a pitying look, like he wanted to stand up and give me an “aww, poor thing” pat on my back.As she scribbled Sun-­Hee on the registration paper, the back door burst open. A tall guy with a strong, chiseled face breezed in with boxes of granola bars, animal crackers, clementines, and bags of popcorn. The campers immediately flocked to him, anointing him with praises. The snack messiah had come to save us all from starvation!Behind him, a younger, more regular-­looking guy carried two cases of a much heavier water bottle load and pushed his way through the door. They looked a lot alike, but the water bottle guy was shorter, less muscular, and had a flushed, shiny face covered with beads of sweat—­a lot like mine, but he had beard stubble.The first snack guy was likely the taller, athletic, more charismatic older brother. The water guy was, well, that guy’s shadow. Poor thing.Water Boy tore the plastic off one of his crates and handed everyone in the back of the lines a room-­temperature bottle. The camp attendees grabbed it from him without acknowledging his heroic duty of keeping us hydrated in the overbearing heat.While he made his way up to me, the girl behind me stuck her hand out and made a stop gesture right in his face. “I don’t know if you know this, but plastic bottles are destroying our environment.” Her eyes rolled so far back that I wondered two things: if she wore contacts and if they ever got stuck back there.He smiled politely. “My top concern is to make sure you all are hydrated. Your health and safety mean a lot to me right now.”A very diplomatic answer, but she wasn’t satisfied. “Fewer than half the bottles in the world are recycled, and seven percent of those that are collected are turned into new bottles. Instead, most plastic bottles end up in a landfill or in the ocean. U.S. landfills are overflowing with more than two million tons of discarded water bottles!” Each new sentence was shriller and more panicked than the previous. Her stress made my own anxiety spike. My pulse thumped hard along my jawline as she badgered the water boy.She snorted like a bull. “I don’t know why I’m at this stupid place. I have two hundred thousand subscribers on my environmental YouTube channel, and we talk about ways people like you can stop being selfish by destroying Mother Nature with your consumerism. If I’m here, that’s fewer people out there getting the message.”A hush fell on the remaining campers. She stopped talking. Finally. Her breathing was labored, probably from spouting all those facts, but had slowed a little by the time the guy spoke.“You know, you’re actually surrounded by a lot of nature here, Karynne. Yes, I know who you are because we reviewed your applications before you arrived. Honestly, I think you’ll be more at home here than where you live now, in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As for the bottles, they were donated from a local county fair that had ordered too many, so drinking them is doing them a favor. Otherwise, they’d be tossing them into the trash.”She crossed her arms and huffed out her nose again. “Okay.”After all the hemming and hawing, that was all she said. Okay. She didn’t even apologize!He offered a polite smile. “There are water-­filling stations by the outdoor bathrooms and also inside the commissary. It’s a five-­minute walk from here, and I’d be happy to pull you away from the line and walk you there myself, assuming you have a reusable water bottle.”I tried to not laugh. I really did. But a single cough burst out of me.Water Boy switched his gaze from Landfill Girl to me, and I raised my reusable bottle in my hand, like I was cheers-­ing him.“I take this with me everywhere,” I said. It wasn’t true, but I wanted to help him out.An amused look filled his eyes. “Would you want an extra water if she decides she doesn’t?”“I’d love an extra. I wouldn’t want it to go to waste.”He held out the extra bottle so I could grab it, but she snatched it out of his hand at a lightning-­fast speed.“I don’t want to lose my place in line,” she grumbled. Or more accurately, venomously hissed.The registration person handed me a yellow envelope packet and waved me on. “Next in line, please!”I rubbed my nose with the back of my hand to stop a sneeze. Examining the map, I asked aloud, “Wait, where do I go?”The water guy came over to me and grabbed the paper from my hand. Um, rude! “You’re in Cabin D, which is straight out the door you came in and down the path to the left. The welcome assembly’s in an hour.”He stepped even closer to show me the map key. His fresh-­shower smell must’ve been heat-­activated—­the pine mixed with spring-rain scent enveloped me completely. Moderate suffocation…in a good way. Was that even possible? I’d never experienced anything like this before. As he pointed his finger at a path on my map, I noticed his chest was so close to my head, I could headbutt it. What a stupid thought. This was why I never dated.“I don’t get this at all,” I said, squinting at the legend. “It’s nowhere to scale. Where’s Cabin D?”He grabbed a marker from his back pocket and made some edits to the key.Cabin Apostle ACabin Bethlehem BCabin Canaan CCabin Damascus DCabin Ecclesiastes EHe circled my cabin and handed the paper back to me. “Sorry, this map is old and we didn’t get a chance to update it. If you need anything else, my name is Theodore. The guys here call me Theo. You might hear Teddy too. Or even T. rex?” His face turned more crimson with each word he spouted. A strong contrast to his soft-­green T-­shirt, which matched his eyes.I grinned. “I like the name Theodore a lot. Were you named after Theodore Roosevelt?”He shook his head. “I wish. It’s embarrassing. I was named after Theodore from…the Chipmunks.”My eyes widened. “You mean, like the chipmunk Chipmunks? The ones with those…chipmunk voices?” Wow, Sunny, bravo. You really have a way with words today.“Yes, those Chipmunks. Alvin, Simon—­”“Theodore!” I shouted so loudly that everyone around us hushed to silence. “Sorry,” I said in a whisper. “It’s just so hilarious! But…I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”“Well, I guess you’ll need to get to know me better to find out.” With a lopsided smirk, he handed the two waters he was holding to people behind me.His brother came over and gripped both of Theo’s shoulders from behind. “There’s still more cases of water in the van. Hurry up.”Theo sighed. “Okay. Well, if you need anything—­”“Yeah. I’ll come find you,” I finished. I retrieved my bag from the luggage area, and dragging my wheeled suitcase behind me, I walked toward the building exit with my map in my hand. I glanced around and caught Theodore looking at me over his shoulder as he walked in the other direction.I didn’t want him to leave me. He was the nicest person I’d met. “Hey! Theo!” My throat was dry, like it was lined with sandpaper.As he jogged over, I realized I didn’t need him for anything.Think of something.Think of something.Hurry.His face brightened as he drew near.Then the unsexiest words possible spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them.“Where can I go to the bathroom?”Excerpted from Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous by Suzanne Park. © 2021 by Suzanne Park.Used with permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved."

Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous hits shelves on June 1. Will you be adding it to your must-read list? Sound off in the comments.