Review by nerdybookqueen - I Am Not Jessica Chen

nerdybookqueen 's review for:

I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang

4.0

hopeful mysterious tense 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

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for review

Jenna has worked her whole live to make her family proud, to make herself proud, to reach her goals, to be perfect. And she has fallen short, in her eyes. Meanwhile, her cousin, Jessica, is everything she wishes she could be. One wish later, she wakes up in her cousin's body, with her own, and her cousin's mind, no where to be found.

Through her misadventures in her cousin's life, she learns that the boy she loves, likes her more, that her cousin is far from perfect, to stand up for herself, and mostly, that she wants to live her own life, imperfect and all.

This story was a wonderful adventure in loving yourself and a lesson in "the grass is always greener on the other side." Layer in is racism issues from her Asian heritage (google says Chinese-American, specifically, but for the life of me it is slipping my mind.) and a romance plot in which Jenna realizes she is more than enough.

Jenna is a lovely protagonist, and damn I recognize the struggle of not feeling like you're enough. Some of those lines hurt my heart a bit.

Great book for anyone struggling with not feeling like they're enough.

Content Warnings