What do readers think of Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu? Write your own review.

Thank you to BookBrowse for assigning me this book to review. It was very interesting and not my normal subject of reading. Unfortunately, for some reason, I thought it was going to be somewhat comedic and amusing to read. Not quite so.

It actually turned out to be the story of an obsessive overachiever trying to get into Harvard Law School. The lengths at which she tried to get to her goal were difficult and disturbing to read.

Too many people ended up being collateral damage on her path to her being accepted into law school. A little too dark for me. She really goes down the rabbit hole as the book progresses. It actually might be a good psychological thriller of a movie?

This book was just not my cup of tea and I only read it to the end because I needed to give an honest review.

The book was very well written and I'm sorry I cannot give a better review! It was just not what I expected.

I really tried to like this book. Don't get me wrong, it is well written and somewhat entertaining. But I could not like the main character or the concept. I slogged thru and halfway thru it began to change in the sense that there was an action that changed the storyline. The first half was the worst bemoaning and complaining of life. I couldn't empathize at all! And then, boom, an action that for me was unthinkable as a human being. From there until the end, I was hoping for redemption for the main character. I kept hoping that she would become a better person and see how lucky she really was instead of this insufferable whining complainer. But nope, the miserable human being had yet to show remorse or exult in being alive.

2.5 stars

I have serious mixed feelings after reading this book. At first, I thought this would be a book right up my alley, with its Chinese American protagonist and spot-on (in the first few chapters at least) depiction of the struggles with identity and belonging that children from immigrant families encounter. Indeed, I found the opening chapters especially resonant, as the protagonist, Elizabeth Zhang, talks about her singular obsession of getting into Harvard Law School and why this is so important to her – a perspective shaped by her experiences growing up amongst two disparate and constantly clashing cultures. For the first four chapters, I was able to relate to Elizabeth's struggles and actually felt that we had some things in common, which led me to empathize with her when she finds out about her rejection from the school of her dreams. But then, starting at the end of chapter five, the story starts to spiral downward into extreme dark academia territory and Elizabeth, instead of being a protagonist I could root for, instead becomes a character that I absolutely could not stand. Actually, to be blunt, I hated Elizabeth with a passion – not only because of her extreme, over-the-top, verging on batsxxt crazy behavior and actions, but mostly because of her constant efforts to justify and rationalize her every horrible thought / action / behavior.

There are two types of tropes in stories that absolutely frustrate me (and I try to avoid reading as much as possible): one is "rich people behaving badly (and feeling entitled to it)" and the other is "delusional people acting stupidly (and constantly trying to justify it)." The protagonist in this story was the perfect manifestation of the second category, which put her in "annoying as hell" territory for me – though to be honest, to say that I could not stand Elizabeth is actually putting it mildly. Starting from chapter 5 on, the entire time I was reading, the main thought running through my mind was that, at the end of this story, Elizabeth better get comeuppance for her bad behavior – in fact, finding out what the consequences would be for her was the only reason why I resisted the urge to DNF this book early on and instead, pushed myself to read through to the end (though yes, I did skim some parts, though mostly because I was starting to get a headache from reading sentence after sentence about Elizabeth's horrid behavior and warped justifications, to the point that I honestly wanted to jump out the window). Whether she gets comeuppance or not, of course I'm not going to mention, but I will say this – I hated the ending so much that I lowered my rating by one full star because of it.

With all that said, I am definitely an outlier with this book, as majority of the reviews I've seen so far have been fairly positive. In this light, maybe this is one of those situations where I'm just not the right reader for this book in the sense that I'm probably taking the story too seriously rather than appreciating what the author was likely trying to do (satirical takedown of academia and the Ivy League admissions process, perhaps?). Speaking of "takedown," this book actually reminded me of another book written by a Chinese American female author that was also "satirical takedown" but of the publishing industry: R.F. Kuang's Yellowface, which also featured a much-loathed (and, yes, delusional) protagonist engaging in the most god-awful behavior and justifying it up the wazoo (though by all accounts, that book was much better written, in my humble opinion).

Given that I had such an unpleasant reading experience with this one, I am going to refrain from giving an opinion in terms of whether to recommend this or not, since each reader's taste will be different. I'm personally not a fan of dark academia, which probably played a role in why I couldn't really stomach this one, but that doesn't mean others won't enjoy it. So I would say before deciding whether to pick this one up, read other reviews to get a more well-rounded picture first.

Received ARC from Berkley via NetGalley.

Elizabeth is a very smart young lady from the Midwest. Her goal in life, one she will do anything for, is to attend Harvard Law School and then make a lot of money.

She is so fixated on this that she can see nothing else. When Laura, a smart and outgoing Asian girl does get into Harvard and Elizabeth does not, she goes to all types of antics to get Harvard to re-consider her application and take back Laura's acceptance. The antics include finding out she is pregnant and decides to keep to pregnancy because Harvard will then consider her outstanding for being a student and a single mother.

The premise of the book is really upsetting and at the same time unreal. The writing is stilted. Had I not volunteered to review it I would have stopped at the beginning. I cannot recommend this.

I had very much anticipated reading Boring Asian Female to see how it handled the myth of the model minority on the grounds that it takes one to know one. Unfortunately, I disliked the protagonist Elizabeth from the first chapter, and rapidly grew to find her utterly repulsive. Her Plan A—there is no Plan B-- from a young age is to go to Harvard Law School which she envisions as the only pathway to the wealthy jet-setting lifestyle she envies. Though she aspires to law school, there is never any real thought about practicing law, only the monetary rewards it must yield. Every choice, every decision, every individual she interacts with at Columbia is calculated to advance her toward her goal. Harvard Law was the only way to prove to the father who deserted her, and to the kids in the small town in the Dakotas that marginalized her, that she deserved more. When Harvard Law sends her a rejection letter, she goes to increasingly crazed lengths to prove to the admissions office that she, not her perceived rival Laura Kim should be admitted.

I got through the first 3rd of the book before deciding that the best I could do was skim to the end as I had no desire to spend any more time with this character. Her malignant self-propulsion is entirely self-fueled—there is no "tiger mom" pushing her from behind. Was Harvard Law an unrealistic goal? No. But the means she pursues to achieve it are not only absurdly extreme but illustrate some of the worst aspects of higher education today.