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I'm Not Here to Make Friends

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

Terrace House meets Loveboat, Taipei in this fun, frothy, incisive YA debut, following two teens and their unforgettable summer on a reality show.

When Sabine Zhang is picked for Hotel California, a teen reality show with an all-Asian cast, she jumps at the opportunity. As one of few Asians at her high school in the Midwest, she's always felt as if she was playing a side character in someone else's story. But on this show, she'll finally have a chance to step into the spotlight.

All Yoona Bae wants is to get away. The girls at church think she's mean, her mom thinks she's a troublemaker, and she's tired of fighting against her unearned bad reputation. So when she's invited to appear on Hotel California, Yoona sees it as an opportunity to chill out, make some friends, maybe even get a tan.

But life on the show isn't all sunshine and self-actualization. The producers want drama at all costs, even if it means pitting Sabine and Yoona against each other. With the season finale looming, can the girls figure out a peaceful way forward, before they lose control of their own narratives?

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    • Kirkus

      June 15, 2023
      Six Asian American teens live together for a month as part of a reality show. Chinese American Sabine Zhang is thrilled to get out of Moline, Illinois, and appear on Hotel California, a small reality series that centers on six Asian high schoolers living together for four weeks. When she arrives at the show's Palm Springs house, Sabine realizes the other contestants--including artsy Mari, who's implied Japanese; bookish Nigerian and Taiwanese Grant; aspiring actor Chris, whose ethnicity is not specified; and cool, sporty Danny, who's cued South Asian--aren't regular teens like in previous seasons. They all look like models and hail from bigger cities. The new season, it's announced, is going to air on a huge streaming platform, so the casting focused on looks and the likelihood of romantic and interpersonal tensions. Sabine is most unsettled by gorgeous and outspoken Manhattanite Yoona Bae, the narrative's second protagonist. An only child, Yoona is just happy to be away from her controlling mother and their gossipy Korean community. Yoona doesn't want to come off as the beautiful mean girl, and Sabine doesn't want to seem like an insecure Midwesterner, but in the producer's hands, the two are established as antagonists. This winning story thoughtfully explores Asian representation, the differences between growing up a person of color on the coasts versus middle America, and how girls are expected to be rivals rather than friends. A charming, crowd-pleasing debut. (Fiction. 13-18)

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      September 8, 2023
      Grades 9-12 Sabine Zhang has always felt out of place. At her high school in the Quad Cities, she's one of the only Asian students; that's why she loves Hotel California, an under-the-radar, slice-of-life reality show that features Asian teens living their lives with no drama. When her application to be on the show is accepted, she's over the moon, but when she arrives, she learns that Hotel California has been picked up by one of the major streamers and is now very different than the show she's been watching. Enter Yoona Bae: gorgeous, bold, direct, and recruited specifically because her tell-it-like-it-is personality causes hurt feelings and stirs up drama. As the producers get to work heightening the tension between Sabine and Yoona, the girls struggle to know what's real and what isn't--and to control their own narrative. Yang's debut joins the recent crop of novels about reality TV, but this one, notably, isn't a romance. It skillfully unpacks the harm inherent in prejudice and first impressions and offers a triumphant take on reclaiming your own story.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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