Dear Wendy

Starred review from January 29, 2024
Wellesley College freshman Sophie Chi runs the well-established Instagram romance advice column Dear Wendy. Classmate Joanna Ephron, meanwhile, has just started posting as Dear Wanda, a less serious but still sincere competitor. Each is named for a Wellesley stereotype: Wendys are considered perfect type As, while Wandas are perceived as sloppier, someone more likely to skip a class or three. Though they’re rivals online, they soon discover that they have a lot more in common than they realize after meeting IRL in a women’s studies class—most notably that they’re both aromantic and asexual. They each help the other through their individual dilemmas: Joanna hates it when her friends get romantically involved with people and often wonders if she’ll always feel alone, and Sophie wishes her Chinese immigrant parents understood her identity better. Via Sophie and Joanna’s alternating POVs, Wellesley student Zhao curates a realistic setting at a women’s college full of angsty queer students caught in the throes of romance, self-doubt, and self-discovery, culminating in a gently sweet aro-ace rom-com and a raw and emotionally resonant debut. Joanna is white; most other characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jennifer March Soloway, Andrea Brown Literary.

March 1, 2024
Two aromantic asexual college students face off online while bonding IRL. Chinese American first-year college student Sophie Chi (she/her) runs Dear Wendy, a popular anonymous Instagram account, where she provides relationship advice to her fellow Wellesley College students. She feels like she's hitting her stride when a new anonymous Instagram account pops up, seemingly parodying her account. Fellow Wellesley student Jo Ephron (she/they), who's white and has two moms, started Dear Wanda as a one-off joke for her friends. But as the account gains popularity, Wendy and Wanda begin to spar, creating a rivalry that wavers between playful and hostile. Meanwhile, Sophie and Jo meet as classmates and immediately strike up a friendship over their shared aroace identities, unaware of each other's Instagram identities. As their friendship deepens and their online rivalry grows, the duo's story hits all the beats and thrills of a will-they-won't-they romance without compromising the deep satisfaction of an aroace love story. The first-person narration alternates between Sophie and Jo, although their voices are often difficult to distinguish. Still, their realistic concerns, excitement at their burgeoning friendship, and competitive sparring as Wendy and Wanda make them compelling protagonists. Relatable aroace concerns and conundrums provide an accessible window and mirror for anyone looking for quality representation that doesn't tip into didacticism. Jo, Sophie, their friends, and their family members all have nuanced identities and strong relationships that enrich the narrative and worldbuilding. The no romo love story aroaces have been waiting for. (Fiction. 14-18)

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April 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* At Wellesley College, many LGBTQIA+ students say that they feel safer and more seen than they do elsewhere--and that's part of why both Sophie Chi (she/her) and Jo Ephron (she/they), two aromantic asexual freshmen, decided to attend. Sophie runs a successful Instagram advice account, Dear Wendy, where she mainly answers romance-related advice, but she becomes flustered when a new rival account, Sincerely, Wanda, joins the platform. Suddenly, Wanda is giving advice on the same topics as Wendy--but to Sophie, it looks like a mockery of the art behind advice-giving. Wanda is cavalier, funny, deadpan, and her advice is often unserious ("Take both of them on a date at the same time. Figure out who you like more then."). Sophie, by contrast, takes her role as Dear Wendy very seriously; she fills in the gaps in her knowledge by reading research and psychology about relationships, and she gives long, thought-out answers to her readers.The trouble, of course, is that Dear Wanda, unbeknownst to Sophie, is run by Jo, and Jo and Sophie are beginning to become friends. When they meet in Dr. Fineman's introductory level Women and Gender Studies class, they quickly realize they have something important in common: they are both aromantic and asexual. It's the first time they have each found another aroace friend, a commonality that draws them together despite their obvious differences. Even as the online feud between Wendy and Wanda gains momentum, Jo and Sophie become more deeply connected as friends; they talk about Jo's gender identity (she uses both she/her and they/them pronouns throughout the story) and relationship with their two moms, as well as Sophie's Chinese immigrant parents failing to understand her aromanticism or her choice to attend Wellesley.Through alternating point-of-view chapters, readers get to know both Sophie and Jo more intimately. Their narrative voices are distinct, with Jo's sarcasm, wit, and hard exterior hiding a character who is deeply afraid that all of their close friends will eventually leave her behind for a romantic partner. Sophie's Type-A personality reveals her deep anxieties about her family's acceptance and how she is perceived in the world as an aroace Chinese woman. The underlying feud between their online accounts offers insight into what pushes each character to run their account and give romance advice in the first place, and asks readers to examine what it means to be kind, compassionate, and accountable in online spaces.Author Zhao, who is a graduate of Wellesley College, drew from her lived experience as a student in writing this, and the timeline even follows the actual academic calendar for the spring 2024 semester. She also says that she modeled the plot after the Buddy Love storyline from Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! story beats. "Over the summer, I watched Joy Ride, and it kind of does the same thing with its protagonists, who are childhood best friends that go through a rough patch during a trip abroad," says Zhao. "At the core of any Buddy Love type of story is the idea that these people are better with each other than without, which can manifest in all sorts of ways!"The friendship between Jo and Sophie is the central love story in Dear Wendy. This story shines as a love story that is self-described as #NoRomo, an inside joke for the aromantic community that highlights a lack of romance in close relationships. The friendship between the two unfolds with the same beats as a romance novel, but it's focused on a platonic bond. Zhao executes this tenderly and with emotional resonance, and both Sophie and Jo's emotions as their friendship shifts and grows are appropriately explored and...

August 9, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Few people at Wellesley College know that Sophie Chi (she/her) is the freshman behind the anonymous "Dear Wendy" relationship-advice Instagram account. Sophie is aromantic and asexual, but her lack of personal relationship experience doesn't stop her from crafting thoughtful, well-researched responses to her peers' romantic woes. Thus, she is profoundly annoyed when a rival Instagram account ("Dear Wanda") pops up, offering a more irreverent take. As a feud between the accounts heats up, Sophie befriends Jo Ephron (she/they) in her gender studies course and is thrilled to learn that Jo is also aroace. Their intense, budding friendship is threatened when "Dear Wendy/Wanda" submissions from mutual friends lead to biased advice with messy results, and Jo's hidden identity as the author of "Dear Wanda" is revealed. Zhao's debut effectively captures the intellectual exploration of self and society that takes place in college, as well as the social complexity of navigating friendships and romances between friends in a close-knit community. Wellesley College's lore and traditions are conveyed in rich detail, and discussions of aroace identity are thoughtful and nuanced. While told from both protagonists' perspectives in alternating chapters, the narrative voices of those chapters are not well-distinguished, unlike the narrative voices of their respective social media accounts, and some dialogue falls flat. Sophie is of Chinese descent, Jo is white, and supporting characters are racially and culturally diverse. VERDICT A fun, a-spec rom-com steeped in the Wellesley College setting, perfect for fans of Kacen Callender or Mason Deaver.-Elizabeth Giles

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