Reviews - Dear Wendy | The StoryGraph

1.04k reviews for:

Dear Wendy

Ann Zhao

4.0 AVERAGE

amacaroni33's review

5.0

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

oliviarleblanc's review

3.5

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was cute. However, I think it was about 100 pages too long. I don’t think the story was deep enough to have 350 pages. I didn’t love Sophie or Jo as characters, but together, I loved their dynamic. It was also kind of funny knowing they were fighting online, but were good friends in real life. The story was predictable but that doesn’t bother me. Overall, I don’t have many strong feelings about this book. It was cute, and I liked seeing ace representation as I don’t know much about the ace spectrum.

readandfindout's review

4.0

lighthearted medium-paced

Style/writing: 3.5 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars

Content Warnings

space_waste's review

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

myardumi7343's review against another edition

4.25

funny hopeful informative lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was so cute. It’s about two rival advice-giving instagrams at Wellesley College, and centers on two aroace main characters (one of whom is Chinese American) in a dual perspective narrative. It was absolutely a YA book, and for that reason it had something of an “intro to gender studies/intersectional feminism” energy, but this book would’ve rocked my world at 16.

I also had never seriously contemplated how aroace people move through the world. As a queer identity, obviously there are many resonances between aro/ace experience and queer experiences, but I was really struck by how themes I might’ve considered in my early lesbian experience also resonant with aroace experiences: not being able to imagine your future, worrying about being lonely as a result of being different, parental pressure to be in the right kind of relationship, and feeling set apart from your friends who don’t share your experience—all of which is of course only exacerbated by Sophie’s experience as a child of immigrants. I had never read anything with aroace representation before, and I felt like I learned a lot. I also loved the idea of these aroace characters guiding their friends through their romantic relationships as an objective, third party perspective.

It’s a true YA book and I don’t think I’m the target audience, but I really enjoyed being immersed in Jo/Sophie’s world and all the Wellesley Instagram drama. It was a playful, enjoyable read with good heart. It made me feel very connected to the gender diverse women’s college I attended, as well as to that 18 year old iteration of myself navigating gender/sexuality/queerness for the first time. It read in many points like a love letter to queerness, friendship, and spaces like Wellesley. I thought the friendships in the text were well developed, and it did a beautiful job of showing how love—in its many potential forms, and perhaps especially in its platonic forms—makes the world a more beautiful place.

Content Warnings