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Jenna Chen has spent her life in the shadow of her flawless cousin. Jessica Chen is so smart she gets the top score on every test.
Jessica Chen is so beautiful people stop in the hallway to stare at her. Jessica Chen is so perfect she got into Harvard.
And Jenna Chen will only ever be a disappointment.
So when Jenna makes a desperate wish to become her cousin, the last thing she expects is for it to come true—literally. All of a sudden she gets to live the life she's always dreamed of ... but being the model student at cutthroat Havenwood Private Academy isn't quite what she'd imagined. Worse, people seem to be forgetting that someone named Jenna Chen ever existed. But isn't it worth trading it all away—her artistic talent, her childhood home, even the hope of golden boy Aaron Cai loving her back—to be Jessica Chen?
"This is a poignant exploration of what it means to be uniquely 'you' and the struggles of wanting what you don't have. The supporting characters are diverse and uniquely flawed, adding depth to Jenna's character and propelling the story with its relatability. Hand this to students who never feel like what they do is enough, who just want to feel seen, and who long for that moment of fame and feeling perfect. Highly recommended." —School Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] haunting speculative novel...Via vivid prose, Liang grapples with identity, desire, and issues surrounding self-worth, immigrant parents' expectations, and class divides." —Publishers Weekly
"Jenna's artistic eye sometimes manifests in overly ornate prose in her first-person narration, but the vulnerability of her voice will pull readers in. A sincere and emotionally astute story offering reassurance to anyone who feels like they don't matter." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about I Am Not Jessica Chen was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ann Liang is an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne. Born in Beijing, she grew up travelling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. When she isn't stressing out over her college assignments or writing, she can be found making over-ambitious to-do lists, binge-watching dramas, and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who's a good dog. Ann is the author of If You Could See the Sun, This Time It's Real, and I Hope This Doesn't Find You.
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