I Am Not Jessica Chen

by Ann Liang

Recommended Age: YA (13+ years and above)

Lexile: N/A

Content Warning(s): abandonment, death, racism

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Book Summary

"After getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.

Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever."

My Thoughts

Ann Liang is one of my automatic-read authors—if she releases a book, I instantly put it on my TBR list, no questions asked. Even if it’s not a genre I’d typically read. So you can imagine my excitement when she announced I Am Not Jessica Chen and subsequently found that she had several more books planned over the next few years. She's been on a roll lately, releasing bestseller after another, surprising no one.

I read this book way back in February—as soon as it released—and have been meaning to write a review on it ever since, but I just kept forgetting. So now, I'm going to try and recall what I felt when I first read it as best as I can.

At the time, I had recently read a poem in my English class called "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. I remember reading the poem and seeing the parallels with the book and poem. "Richard Cory" contrasts how poor people imagine rich people's lives versus the actual reality of it. In this comparison, Jenna represents the poor people, and Jessica is Richard Cory. From the outside, Jessica has the picture-perfect, polished, and seemingly flawless life—similar to how the townspeople believe Richard Cory's life is a literal utopia because of his wealth and cheerful appearance. But after an unexpected twist, it turns out his life—the "rich" life—isn’t all it's cracked out to be. (I really suggest reading the complete poem to get the full gist of this analogy, otherwise, it might seem a bit far-fetched.)

It's common to be compared to other people—more so if you're family—who look successful and seem to have everything. Placed in a similar situation, Jenna begins to resent her cousin for having everything she doesn't and being everything she isn’t.

Then, through a wild and magical twist of events, Jenna is literally placed in Jessica's body with no known way to escape. She now has to navigate Jessica’s life, making sure that no one suspects the truth that it's not actually Jessica inside her body. I know it's a crazy premise and highly unlikely to happen, but it forces you to walk a mile in someone's shoes before commenting on how easy or hard they have it. It taught me to hold off before judging because you never know what someone's life is really like until you live it. Simply put, I realised it's easy to make something look hard, but it's infinitely harder to make something look easy.

So, if you're in for a sci-fi twist on a very relatable feeling—especially for high schoolers—definitely check this book out.