I Am Not Jessica Chen

Gr 9 Up–“I’ve always had this theory that if I want something badly enough, the universe will make sure to keep it just out of my reach,” Chin longingly opens as 17-year-old Jenna. On the evening she’s rejected from Harvard while her perennially perfect cousin Jessica gets in, Jenna implores a shooting star, “I wish I was Jessica Chen.” Jenna goes to bed weighted (again) by her immigrant parents’ disappointment but shockingly wakes the next morning, on the outside, anyway, as Jessica Chen. Beyond the sudden privileges—wealth, beauty, peer adoration—experiencing the reality under Jessica’s flawless façade might be the only way to save Jenna’s own life. Chin provides a slow-burning emotive performance, albeit lacking a broader range of primary characterizations; Jenna seems forever resigned, Jessica merely higher-pitched and unconvincingly innocent.