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A review by libraryoflaura
This Is Not a Personal Statement by Tracy Badua
4.0
I was given access to this eARC through Edelweiss, with thanks to the publisher and the author.
'This is Not a Personal Statement' is an interesting and original view on the extremes of behaviour that can be caused by pressure on young people to be perfect.
The story follows Perla Perez, a sixteen year old born to two Filipino-American's whose parents emigrated to the USA before them. Thanks to their high-paying prestigious jobs, Perla has been afforded the best of private education; she is a bright teenager who has skipped two grades during her educational years; who dreams of attending Delmont University and studying pre-med. Though just sixteen, thanks to her intelligence and the skipping of the grades, she's able to apply to university two years before most others.
From a young age, Perla has been pressured in every aspect of her life to be perfect; to succeed. It is drilled into her by her family, especially her parents, who consistently talk about how hard they have to work and how much better they have to be than everyone else, to be held to the same standard due to their ethnicity and migrant roots. And she is brilliant, even if it isn't always recognised.
After years of being reprimanded for anything less than perfect scores, results, grades, and actions, Perla can see her life crumbling around her when she gets rejected from not only her dream university, but every single other she applied too, to. Faced with the question of who she is without success, and the fear of letting down her parents, teachers, and everyone else who is expecting her to be great, she comes up with an impossible plan.
Whatever that slip of paper says, Perla Perez is going to university.
This book is really well written, and the character development is clear and wonderful for most of those involved. It is difficult at times to see the perspective of some people in this story, when we consider the lengths that Perla goes to to cover up the fact that she was rejected from university.
This is a story warning of the dangers of putting too much pressure on children; of expecting things from them that they cannot possibly give. Perfection is not attainable, even when it is striven for.
'This is Not a Personal Statement' is an interesting and original view on the extremes of behaviour that can be caused by pressure on young people to be perfect.
The story follows Perla Perez, a sixteen year old born to two Filipino-American's whose parents emigrated to the USA before them. Thanks to their high-paying prestigious jobs, Perla has been afforded the best of private education; she is a bright teenager who has skipped two grades during her educational years; who dreams of attending Delmont University and studying pre-med. Though just sixteen, thanks to her intelligence and the skipping of the grades, she's able to apply to university two years before most others.
From a young age, Perla has been pressured in every aspect of her life to be perfect; to succeed. It is drilled into her by her family, especially her parents, who consistently talk about how hard they have to work and how much better they have to be than everyone else, to be held to the same standard due to their ethnicity and migrant roots. And she is brilliant, even if it isn't always recognised.
After years of being reprimanded for anything less than perfect scores, results, grades, and actions, Perla can see her life crumbling around her when she gets rejected from not only her dream university, but every single other she applied too, to. Faced with the question of who she is without success, and the fear of letting down her parents, teachers, and everyone else who is expecting her to be great, she comes up with an impossible plan.
Whatever that slip of paper says, Perla Perez is going to university.
This book is really well written, and the character development is clear and wonderful for most of those involved. It is difficult at times to see the perspective of some people in this story, when we consider the lengths that Perla goes to to cover up the fact that she was rejected from university.
This is a story warning of the dangers of putting too much pressure on children; of expecting things from them that they cannot possibly give. Perfection is not attainable, even when it is striven for.