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A review by cloreadsbooks1364
Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao
4.75
Dear Wendy
By Ann Zhao
4.75/5
Genre: contemporary fiction
Sophie, a first-year student as Wellesley university, has a secret. She is the creator of the popular Instagram account Dear Wendy, where she anonymously provides people with advice about their love lives. It is a time-consuming hobby, and Sophie is confused when a new account pops up, clearly based off of Dear Wendy and offering light-hearted jokes for responses. She has no idea that the voice behind Wanda is Jo, her newfound friend. As Wendy and Wanda battle it out, Sophie and Jo grow closer.
I decided to read this one after seeing a lot of praise from @queerkidreads and other bookstagrammers. And let me tell you that it definitely deserves every crumb of praise it receives.
Sophie Chi (she/her) was such a lovable protagonist. She always wanted to do her best, completing all assignments early, putting hours of thought and research into providing the best advice to the questions received on Dear Wendy. She was comfortable with her aroace identity, even with her Chinese immigrant parents not fully accepting that she would never want a romantic partnership with anyone. It was lovely to see how determined Sophie was to be a good friend, especially to her roommate.
Jo Ephron (she/they) was the more outgoing protagonist. Being raised by Queer parents, she knew what being aroace meant from a young age, but still hadn’t met another person with the same sexuality until befriending Sophie. Jo struggled a lot with the fear of being abandoned in the future when their alloromantic and allosexual friends find partners. This was elevated with the realisation that one of their roommates was interested in the other. Jo started her Sincerely Wanda account as a joke, offering silly advice to her friend. Their advice gradually becomes more serious, as their duel with Dear Wendy intensifies.
It was so amazing to read a platonic love story which resulted in a beautiful relationship between Sophie and Jo. It demonstrates exactly how platonic love is equally as important as romantic love, though I find that it is sometimes neglected in books. I loved seeing the two protagonists decide to start a club for aro and ace students, as the a-spec is one of the most unaccepted parts of the LGBTQ+ community, subjected to an endless torrent ignorance and bigotry.
This novel is set as Wellesley university, which the author herself attended. It’s a historically women’s college, containing mostly only women and enbies. This lets the characters feel safe from the threats often posed by cishet men, and encourages them to share their opinions freely. I enjoyed this setting, and how supportive it was towards the many students who were part of marginalised groups. This setting was important to the plot, as the close-knit community of students pretty much all knew about Dear Wendy and Sincerely Wanda.
I liked the way that parts of the story, especially the battle between the two Instagrams, was shown through texts, posts, and stories. It helped me to feel more immersed in the plot, as if I could actually see the social media accounts.
So, what I liked most about this book was the plot and the characters. It fulfilled my expectations entirely. At the start I did think that more side characters should’ve been mentioned, as the protagonists were living on-campus, but this soon changed with the creation of the club and the mention of people through their comments on Sophie and Jo’s posts.
Overall, I adored this novel. If Ann Zhou releases another book, I will certainly read it. I highly recommend it to you all.
Queer rep:
Aroace protagonists
Many Queer side characters
By Ann Zhao
4.75/5
Genre: contemporary fiction
Sophie, a first-year student as Wellesley university, has a secret. She is the creator of the popular Instagram account Dear Wendy, where she anonymously provides people with advice about their love lives. It is a time-consuming hobby, and Sophie is confused when a new account pops up, clearly based off of Dear Wendy and offering light-hearted jokes for responses. She has no idea that the voice behind Wanda is Jo, her newfound friend. As Wendy and Wanda battle it out, Sophie and Jo grow closer.
I decided to read this one after seeing a lot of praise from @queerkidreads and other bookstagrammers. And let me tell you that it definitely deserves every crumb of praise it receives.
Sophie Chi (she/her) was such a lovable protagonist. She always wanted to do her best, completing all assignments early, putting hours of thought and research into providing the best advice to the questions received on Dear Wendy. She was comfortable with her aroace identity, even with her Chinese immigrant parents not fully accepting that she would never want a romantic partnership with anyone. It was lovely to see how determined Sophie was to be a good friend, especially to her roommate.
Jo Ephron (she/they) was the more outgoing protagonist. Being raised by Queer parents, she knew what being aroace meant from a young age, but still hadn’t met another person with the same sexuality until befriending Sophie. Jo struggled a lot with the fear of being abandoned in the future when their alloromantic and allosexual friends find partners. This was elevated with the realisation that one of their roommates was interested in the other. Jo started her Sincerely Wanda account as a joke, offering silly advice to her friend. Their advice gradually becomes more serious, as their duel with Dear Wendy intensifies.
It was so amazing to read a platonic love story which resulted in a beautiful relationship between Sophie and Jo. It demonstrates exactly how platonic love is equally as important as romantic love, though I find that it is sometimes neglected in books. I loved seeing the two protagonists decide to start a club for aro and ace students, as the a-spec is one of the most unaccepted parts of the LGBTQ+ community, subjected to an endless torrent ignorance and bigotry.
This novel is set as Wellesley university, which the author herself attended. It’s a historically women’s college, containing mostly only women and enbies. This lets the characters feel safe from the threats often posed by cishet men, and encourages them to share their opinions freely. I enjoyed this setting, and how supportive it was towards the many students who were part of marginalised groups. This setting was important to the plot, as the close-knit community of students pretty much all knew about Dear Wendy and Sincerely Wanda.
I liked the way that parts of the story, especially the battle between the two Instagrams, was shown through texts, posts, and stories. It helped me to feel more immersed in the plot, as if I could actually see the social media accounts.
So, what I liked most about this book was the plot and the characters. It fulfilled my expectations entirely. At the start I did think that more side characters should’ve been mentioned, as the protagonists were living on-campus, but this soon changed with the creation of the club and the mention of people through their comments on Sophie and Jo’s posts.
Overall, I adored this novel. If Ann Zhou releases another book, I will certainly read it. I highly recommend it to you all.
Queer rep:
Aroace protagonists
Many Queer side characters