Dear Wendy is one of those books I would want to go back in time and give to my younger self. It’s a book that feels like the next Loveless! Talk about a book about friendship, community, and family all at once. Keep reading my book review of Dear Wendy for my full thoughts.
Summary
Sophie Chi is in her first year at Wellesley College (despite her parents’ wishes that she attend a “real” university, rather than a liberal arts school) and has long accepted her aromantic and asexual identities. Despite knowing she’ll never fall in love, she enjoys running an Instagram account that offers relationship advice to students at Wellesley. No one except her roommate knows that she’s behind the incredibly popular “Dear Wendy” account.
When Joanna “Jo” Ephron―also a first-year student at Wellesley―created their “Sincerely Wanda” account, it wasn’t at all meant to be serious or take off like it does―not like Dear Wendy’s. But now they might have a rivalry of sorts with Dear Wendy? Oops . As if Jo’s not busy enough having existential crises over gender, the fact that she’ll never truly be loved or be enough, or her few friends finding The One and forgetting her!
While tensions are rising online, Sophie and Jo are getting closer in real life, bonding over their shared aroace identities. As their friendship develops and they work together to start a campus organization for other a-spec students, can their growing bond survive if they learn just who’s behind the Wendy and Wanda accounts?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Dear Wendy was the best hug. Featuring dual POV, it’s an opposites, rivals, to friendship. A testament to the idea that we have more in common with our rivals than we might think. It’s also a book which celebrates the feeling of knowing we aren’t alone. That there are people who feel the same as we do, people who know how it feels. Featuring aromantic and asexual representation, Dear Wendy explores themes of representation, queer erasure, and the allosexual and alloromantic nature of society.
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Dear Wendy also explores our families. The pressure from our family not only in terms of our queer identity, but also our future and ambition. How each generation is expected to climb ‘upwards’ – whatever that means to the older generation – and the weight of those dreams. It showcases how pervasive the rhetoric of ‘happiness’ and ‘life goals’ are tied to romantic relationships. It’s a heart warming story about the importance of platonic love whether it be family, friendships, or a community.
Find Dear Wendy on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.