I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang is an insightful Young Adult Contemporary that explores the stress and pressure that come with academic success, comparison, and identity. I was excited to read Ann Liang’s 2025 release after falling in love with her gorgeous prose and whimsical storytelling in A Song to Drown Rivers. I was excited to explore her writing style in a contemporary setting and was not disappointed. Her signature prose and writing style, and a touch of magical realism, make for a mesmerizing read.
What’s It About?
This story explores how Jenna Chen, her parents’ only daughter, is struggling with her disappointment over her recent rejection from Harvard, the last Ivy League school she applied to. She has a history of poor academic performance and the ongoing pressure to make her immigrant parents proud and prove their sacrifices weren’t for naught.
She struggles with feelings of failure, especially in comparison with her cousin Jessica Chen. She has it all: popularity, money, beauty, brains, and is the best student at Academy. At their family gathering, she finds out that Jessica was accepted to Harvard as her family showers her with praise and accolades. Their attention turns to Jenna as they pressure her to share her results, and she’s forced to reveal her rejection.
Embarassed and frustrated with Jessica and her childhood friend Aaron trying to comfort her, she makes a wish on a shooting star, wishing to be Jessica Chen. She’s shocked when she wakes up the following morning as Jessica Chen. While in the beginning, she’s excited about this opportunity, she quickly discovers that the pressure associated with maintaining success and excellence is more than she bargained for.
And, as she unravels secrets about Jessica’s life, she realizes that her life is fading, with family and friends forgetting she exists. Now, Jenna must decide whether she’s willing to let go of her life and transform into Jessica or find her way back to her reality before it’s too late.
Details About The Novel
Release Date: January 28, 2025
Page Count: 320, Hardcover
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Magical Realism
Meet The Main Characters
Jenna Chen: The protagonist of the story. 17-year-old Jenna is a talented artist, obsessed with making her parents proud of her and becoming a successful academic. Following a freak occurrence, she begins a journey of self-discovery as she learns how to love and accept herself as is.
Jessica Chen: Jenna’s super successful cousin who everyone aspires to be. She’s secured her spot in Harvard, but underneath her facade of perfection lies a secret that will potentially upend her success.
Aaron Cai: Jenna’s childhood crush and friend who knows her better than she knows herself. His interaction with Jenna plays a key role in her journey of self-actualization and acceptance.
Tropes & Representation
Liang crafts a relatable and compelling story filled with familiar tropes with a fresh twist. Additionally, there’s diverse representation for minorities and marginalized groups.
- Body swap with a twist
- The grass isn’t greener
- Academic pressure and familial expectations
- Chinese American experience and family dynamics
- Mental health and identity
- Asian Author
Let’s Break It Down
Content
This novel is rich in themes regarding success, identity, and academic pressures, making it the perfect book for young adults in high school or recent graduates as they plot out their next steps.
Identity and Self-Acceptance: This is a primary theme of this novel. It dives into the idea of radical self-acceptance that isn’t based on academic performance, popularity, or appearance rather the unique characteristics that make each person an individual.
The Pressure To Succeed: This novel confronts the obsession with success, especially the idea that academic success and attending an Ivy League school guarantee a better future. How educators and peers can add to this pressure, either with holding students to high standards of perfection and performance. Or, by not prioritizing students and helping mediocre students to become better, and helping them find their niche, identifying their strengths.
Family Expectations and Comparison: This novel brings to light how comparing family members to each other, where you uplift one and disparage the other for not being more like them, can impact a person mentally and emotionally. Potentially damaging one’s self-worth.
Mental Health Struggles: Another great theme in this novel is how we explore the reality of burnout, anxiety, and impostor syndrome among young adults when it comes to academics and the pressure to achieve high scores, participate in extracurricular activities, and get accepted at top universities. These factors create stress on students, impacting their mental health and well-being.
The Cost of Perfectionism: We follow Jenna as she not only dismantles how society, culture, and family impact this drive to be perfect. Additionally, we see Jenna confront her desire for perfection as she tries to be the perfect person that she’s created in her head.
Writing Style
I’ve mentioned before how I find Liang’s writing style to be stunning, and this novel is no different. She was able to unpack this story with rich emotion and vulnerability that never felt melodramatic or cheesy. When it comes to crafting the Gen Z voice, I found it to be spot on and relevant to today’s generation. This was done minus slang, or vernacular that would potentially age horribly and come across as cringeworthy. But instead, created a literary work that lends to a more timeless feel that can be enjoyed by young adults of generations to come.
This novel’s pace kept a steady rhythm and moved fairly quickly, much to my enjoyment. I found that she was able to explore themes succinctly without beating them to death. The Chinese American culture was interwoven in this novel with rich cultural references, family dynamics, and Mandarin phrases.
The magical realism elements didn’t overtake the story and worked with the overall theme of this novel. Additionally, the symbolism with art and mirrors was a great touch to highlight Jenna’s journey in understanding her identity.
Plot Development
This novel begins with Jenna’s trauma and frustration, transitions to her curious transformation, and wraps it up with a hope-filled conclusion. It contains strong character-driven elements that move this story forward. From point to point, Liang takes you through Jenna’s journey. She uses specific people to aid Jenna in identifying her worth and pointing out the truth that Jessica wasn’t all she seemed to be.
While enjoyable, there were times that it felt as though the story felt superficial in places, and the ending was rushed, with events happening rapidly.
Characterization
The juxtaposition between Jenna and Jessica made the key themes surrounding identity, success, and perfection pop. Jenna is the underdog artist who couldn’t truly see what made her wonderful and unique. And then Jessica, the queen of the school forced to perform her role to avoid disappointing everyone around her. Lastly, we have Aaron Cai, who sees beyond the success and perfection trap and exposes Jenna to a reality free from the rat race, where you enjoy the beauty of individuality and redefining what makes a person successful.
The character development was on point, yet still lacked some depth, where characters felt almost perfect, but something was missing that could make them truly spectacular.
Is It For You?
I love to recommend young adult books for parents and young adults to read together and discuss in an effort to learn from each other. And I believe this book would be perfect for high schoolers and graduates. And, if you’re not a young adult but enjoy YA stories, you may enjoy this, as the commentary and themes about success, perfection feel relatable for readers regardless of age and life stage. Ideal for those in a life transition or career change.
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Final Thoughts
I found this book to be relatable. While no longer a young adult, I felt Liang hit the nail on the head regarding success and perfectionism. Another of my favorite themes was how familial pressure and expectations have a major impact on your identity, self-worth, and perception. I felt the magical realism was done to perfection and was an essential literary device in this novel. I enjoyed this novel so much!
