Dear Wendy

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.