"I Hope This Doesn't Find You" by Ann Liang

I Hope This Doesn’t Find You (Feb. 6, 2024) by Ann Liang.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Just as she looks on paper, Sadie Wen is perfect. She’s a school co-captain at Woodvale Academy, is on her way to becoming class valedictorian and is a model student and daughter, tirelessly helping her mom at her bakery. Her face hurts from the ever-present, model-student smile she keeps plastered on it. She manages this by channeling all of her frustrations into her email drafts. Take that Julius Gong, fellow school co-captain with annoyingly gorgeous, soft-looking hair! And you, power-tripping English teacher, and you, vainglorious classmate who claimed her science fair project as one’s own! No one will ever see them except her. She has a deeply ingrained need to be liked, accepted and forgiven. But then the day comes when the emails are sent out. (How??) Now everyone knows what Sadie really thinks of them, including Julius. The one person she’s sworn to hate may be the one person who appreciates the “real” Sadie, who doesn’t hide behind fake smiles, perfect grades and overachieving.

            Two Chinese Australian seniors take center stage in this contemporary YA novel filled with the awkward, dramatic romance that encompasses the teenage years. The novel is a lively, snarky one (with the occasional cuss word) that shows vulnerability in Sadie, Julius and even Sadie’s best friend, Abigail Ong, and includes underlying themes of perfectionism, academic stress, parental abandonment and the pressures of being a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. This bildungsroman is chaste (kissing is the extent, for concerned parents/readers), and I applaud Sadie for realizing that she doesn’t always have to be a people-pleaser. For anyone who enjoys a YA rom-com, I hope this book finds you.