ARC Review: I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang

Snarky and romantic, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.

Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a “pleasure to have in class.” It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She’d never send them of course — she’d rather die than hurt anyone’s feelings — but it’s a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie’s work.

All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. “You’re attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you’ve been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft…”

Sadie doesn’t have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them… that is, until they’re accidentally sent out.

Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It’s her worst nightmare — now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they’re not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there’s one person growing to appreciate the “real” Sadie — Julius, the only boy she’s sworn to hate… 

• Title: I Hope This Doesn’t Find You
• Author:  Ann Liang
• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication Date: February 6, 2024
• Genre: Contemporary, romance 
• Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley / Publishers In exchange for an honest review 
• Targeted Age Range: YA
• Content Warnings: underage drinking, cheating (not main characters), parental abandonment, complicated family dynamics
• Rating: ★★★★.5

I Hope This Doesn’t Find You is pitched as a snarky and romantic mix of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, if Lara Jean had written hate emails instead of love letters, and that is exactly what this book is. 

After loving both If You Could See the Sun and This Time It’s Real, I had high hopes for Ann Liang’s third book, and my hopes were definitely met! Liang’s writing just feels effortless; I don’t feel like I’m reading a novel, I’m just…reading about someone’s experiences, if that makes sense. She makes it so easy to get lost in the worlds that she’s created because her characters feel so real and relatable.

For me, characters have always been Liang’s strong point. She’s great at writing clear, distinct characters and personally, I like that she doesn’t feel the need to write large ensemble groups where everyone kind of blends in together. Her books typically focus on a small group of main and supporting characters, and then there will be another handful or so of minor characters introduced throughout the story. All of Liang’s characters in I Hope This Doesn’t Find You were really well written and easy to differentiate from one another and all served a purpose in telling this story.

I thought Sadie was a fantastic narrator— yes, I do say that about every overachieving, type A, people pleaser character I read about. If I had to summarize Sadie in Taylor Swift songs (duh) she’s absolutely a mirrorball / You’re On Your Own Kid / Mastermind girlie with a heavy dose of “pathological people pleaser” energy, so clearly, I connected to her right away. Liang does a great job of never making her characters too perfect, and Sadie is no exception. She’s flawed, absolutely, but at the end of the day she’s just trying to do her best and I wanted to give her the biggest hug and tell her that things would be okay.

I am such a sucker for academic rivals to lovers, honestly, give me a book with this trope and I will eat it up! Sadie and Julius’ relationship dynamic was definitely reminiscent of Ben and Devi’s relationship in Never Have I Ever, and they also gave me similar vibes to Eliza and Len in Michelle Quach’s Not Here to Be Liked. What I especially loved about Sadie and Julius was their banter — they were so funny and made me laugh out loud multiple times. I loved how snarky and sarcastic they were with each other (they had some really great insults that I may have to keep in my back pocket), and that made their soft tender moments even sweeter. 

I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, especially if you’ve enjoyed Liang’s previous works. I can’t wait to have a physical copy in my hands and read it again.

Links for I Hope This Doesn’t Find You: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop