After getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.
Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.
- Title: I Am Not Jessica Chen
- Author: Ann Liang
- Publisher: HarperTeen
- Publication Date: January 28, 2025
- Genre: Contemporary
- Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley / Publishers in exchange for an honest review
- Targeted Age Range: YA
- Content Warnings: death of a parent (past, not main characters), parental neglect (not main characters), grief, minor injury, blood, racism
- Rating: ★★★★★
From the moment I started reading the author’s letter at the start of the book I said to myself, “I Am Not Jessica Chen is going to wreck me” and I was 100% correct. Something I’ve come to expect from Liang’s work are strong characters, emotional journeys and moments that’ll bring tears to your eyes; I Am Not Jessica Chen had all of those things and more.
Obviously, we have to take a moment to talk about the Taylor songs that connect to this book (I am who I am okay?) This book screams The Prophecy; Jenna is the lyric “I’ve never been a natural / all I do is try try try” in a single character, and Jessica is definitely a Nothing New girlie, and there are for sure some The Lucky One vibes as well. I had a lot of Taylor songs running through my head during this book, I won’t lie.
Ann Liang says this book is about wanting, and I majorly felt that. The want that Jenna feels to be better, smarter, prettier, cooler, more popular, more everything soaks every page and really hits you in the face in the most understandable and relatable way. I really felt for Jenna, she spends her whole life trying so hard to be perfect, but she never meets the standards that she believes she needs to meet, and that’s something that is definitely relatable to me. I was really invested in her as a character and her journey throughout the book; while I didn’t always agree with her choices, I could understand where she was coming from and why she was making the choices she was. Her journey felt very realistic and I was really happy to see her growth throughout the novel.
We know that I love magical realism; I am a magical realism girlie, and honestly, Ann Liang does magical realism so freaking well, it’s amazing. It would’ve been so easy as a reader, to sit there and go “Okay, but like how exactly is this working” but that thought never once crossed my mind while I was reading. I just sat there thinking “Yup, this is how this world works, she made a flippant wish when they saw a shooting star and the next day she woke up in her cousin’s body, cool, sounds good, let’s see where this goes.” I didn’t have to suspend my disbelief while reading because it just felt like this was a natural thing that occurred in this world. I was especially obsessed with Jenna’s self portrait and the changes to it as the story went on, that was absolutely one of my favorite things Liang put in the book.
This book is a great exploration of the immense pressure that teenagers/young adults are put under, especially when it comes to education. As an educator myself, I see this kind of stress and pre-emptive burnout in students I teach, even students as young as 10. Sometimes that pressure is put on the kids by themselves, and other times it’s by their family, friends, or teachers — regardless of where the pressure is coming from, it is there. There’s nothing wrong with having lofty and ambitious goals and going after them, it’s important to not let that consume you and I think this topic is explored so well through Jenna and Jessica’s storylines.
I Am Not Jessica Chen is another masterful novel from Liang. Her signature intelligence, heart and storytelling shine from page 1 to 384. If you’ve enjoyed her previous works then I guarantee that you’ll love this one as well, and if you’ve never read her work before, well, it’s time to start now. I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy and annotate!
Links for I Am Not Jessica Chen: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop
Ann Liang is the New York Times, USA Today and Indie bestselling author of critically acclaimed young adult novels, as well as adult fiction novels. Her books have sold into over twenty foreign territories. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America as a GMA book club pick, and on The Today Show, Cosmopolitan, PEOPLE, Harper’s Bazaar,and more. Born in Beijing, she grew up traveling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. She now lives in Melbourne, where she can be found making overambitious to‑do lists and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who’s a good dog.
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