Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
“Thank you for your interest in our school, but we regret to inform you that…” you’re not special. You’re too average. You’re too boring.
Well, in that case, she’ll have to show them just how interesting she can be.
Elizabeth Zhang is well aware of her place in the world. She’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. While she’s never been the most beautiful or the most liked, she knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her greatest dream: Harvard Law School. But when Harvard rejects Elizabeth for not standing out enough—which she knows means she’s just another boring Asian female—her carefully constructed life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. Elizabeth can’t figure out how this could have happened. Why was Laura accepted? What makes her so interesting?
At first, she follows her because she’s just curious. What Laura orders for lunch. Where Laura shops. What Laura’s hobbies are. All of these things must contribute to her overall package, what makes her an acceptable person to Harvard. But still, Elizabeth just can’t see it. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot.
A spot that she knows she deserves after working so hard. A spot that she’ll simply have to take back.
Layered and subversive, this novel brings to light how, in the face of societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures, a person can unlock the darkest parts of themselves and show how far they’re willing to go to achieve their vision of success.
My Review
I honestly cannot believe this is a debut novel! I will absolutely be reading whatever Canwen Xu writes, because Boring Asian Female blew me away! Boring Asian Female is an anxiety spiral in book form, and I mean that in the highest possible compliment.
Elizabeth Zhang is one of those protagonists where every single decision she makes had me going “oh baby, no”. Her logic is infuriating and her obsession with ranking everyone around her in percentiles of attractiveness, intelligence, and likeability is deeply irritating. And yet, I could NOT put this book down. Watching her descent into full unhinged obsession over Laura Kim, the classmate she’s convinced stole her Harvard Law spot, is like watching a slow motion trainwreck. You know it’s coming, but you can’t look away. This is very much Single White Female, but make it high-achieving Asian girl, and it works so well.
Elizabeth’s drive for success isn’t just neurosis for neurosis’ sake…there’s a real sense that prestige feels like the only way to make every struggle and sacrifice worth it. This book explores how another Asian woman’s success felt like a direct threat to Elizabeth’s own.
My only real complaint is that the ending is a little too optimistic and convenient for my taste. Also worth noting: this is being marketed as a thriller, but I’d call it literary or pop fiction, so don’t go in expecting a traditional thriller!
THE GOOD:
- Elizabeth’s spiral is absolutely unputdownable, even when she’s impossible to root for
- The percentile obsession and internal logic are deeply unnerving and weirdly fascinating
- The book captures something really specific and layered about the Asian American, model minority experience
- The social media sleuthing and college setting feel super true to life
- An incredibly confident and interesting debut book!
THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
- Elizabeth is genuinely hard to root for…reading her internal monologue can be super stressful and exhausting
- The ending doesn’t feel like it works with the rest of the book
THE NEUTRAL:
- The entire book is essentially Elizabeth’s internal monologue, so if you struggle with unreliable, deeply neurotic narrators, know that going in
OVERALL RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Boring Asian Female is a wildly compelling debut about ambition, obsession, and how far one person will go to get what they believe they deserve. Layered, unhinged, and impossible to put down.
PERFECT FOR:
- Fans of Yellowface and other literary explorations of the Asian American experience
- Fans of dark academia in pop fiction
- Readers who love watching a character spiral in real time
- Fans of Single White Female-style obsession stories
