Genre 📚: YA Contemporary/Fantasy, Dark academia, Romance, Coming-of-age
Tropes 💁♀️: Body swapping, Hidden identity, Friends to lovers
Rep ✔️: Chinese American main characters, POC and queer side characters
CW ⚠️: Depression, Self-loathing, Grief, Off-page death of a parent
Rating ⭐️: 5/5
Jenna Chen is me. She’s my spirit animal, my soul sister, all of the above. She just never feels good enough for her parents, her teachers — anyone. Not with her beautiful, rich, all-around perfect cousin Jessica around. She’s always wanted to be her cousin, and one day, after making a wish on a star, she gets that chance. She wakes up the next day in Jessica’s body.
Amazing, right? Who wouldn’t want to jump into a life of constant success and praise? There have definitely been times I wished I was a celebrity or that one perfect girl in school. Not just in a curious way but a desperate I-need-to-escape-myself kind of way. To see those feelings explored on the page with Jenna… it struck a nerve. Her own self-worth is so low that the idea of returning to her old life legitimately scares her. Even when she realizes people are forgetting the real Jenna ever existed.
My favorite parts had to be when Jenna “bonded” with Jessica by gradually understanding her perspective. And whenever Jenna bumped into her green flag of a love interest, Aaron. There’s one scene, with Jenna and Aaron in a car, that absolutely gutted me. It was raw, heartbreaking, and downright suffocating. Like when you’re struggling to hold back tears, your body screaming at you to let it out. It’s not often a book has that strong of an effect on me, yet Ann Liang succeeds every damn time.
So, good job, Ann — you’ve gripped me with yet another round of perfectly imperfect characters. Hell, Jenna might be my favorite heroine of the year, and the year has barely started! 🙈
**Much thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I Am Not Jessica Chen will be released on January 28, 2025.
Sara Bechtol 