Betty's Bookish Thoughts | Boring Asian Female
Boring Asian Female
Canwen Xu
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"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. 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 Laura because she's curious to see what made her stand out to Harvard. What does Laura order for lunch? Where does Laura shop? What are Laura's hobbies? But no matter how hard she tries, Elizabeth just can't understand what makes Laura so special. The only thing she does understand is that Laura has taken her spot. A spot that, after all her hard work, she feels she deserves more. A spot that she'll simply have to take back.
Layered and subversive, Boring Asian Female reveals how societal expectations and personal pressure can unlock the darkest parts of a person and exposes how far one young woman is willing to go to fulfil her deepest ambition.
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Posts about this title from Betty's Bookish Thoughts
Betty's Bookish Thoughts
Betty • May 10
The ARC gods have been good to me ✨ 2026 is already looking FABULOUS for our Asian-authored reads and I’m not taking any moments for granted about how lucky I am to read them early! 🤍
Spread the word, alllll of these books are worth the read, add them to your TBR asap 🫶🏻
Thank you @netgalley and all the publishing groups for making the first few months of the year so full and fruitful. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve learned from history, contemplated existential philosophy, and I’ve grieved friends I’ve never met. So much love for every single one of these authors who’ve had me lost in their gorgeous stories 💝
- Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim 7/28
- This Wretched Alchemy by Tina Mars 11/10
- Kitten by Stacey Yu 8/4
- Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kumar 7/21
- The Typing Lady by Ruth Ozeki 6/2
- The Young Will Remember by Eve J. Chung 5/5
- Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu 4/28
- The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue by Zoulfa Katouh 6/2
- Burn the Sea by Mona Tewari 4/21
- The Winged Game by Sophie Kim 6/30
10 books
Posts about this book from across Bindery
Betty's Bookish Thoughts
Betty • May 10
Spread the word, alllll of these books are worth the read, add them to your TBR asap 🫶🏻