500 Words or Less

June 25, 2018
In this moving novel in verse, Nic Chen agrees to write her classmates’ college essays for a price and becomes not only her peers’ accidental biographer but also a vessel for many of their secrets. Through Nic’s poetic narration and essays, debut author del Rosario unearths the profound range of emotions buried underneath the surface in a class of high school students—grief about a parent who left, hope of becoming someone who is “more than a football player,” pain of walking down the school hallways while being the object of cruel gossip. Nic carries her own percolating well of loss, too: of her mother, who left; of her ex, Ben, who transferred after she cheated; and of her classmates’ respect following the incident (“whore” is written in lipstick across her locker in one scene). Del Rosario’s poems are accessible, and Nic proves herself a keen observer of the world around her, an adept interrogator of her own self, and a philosopher who considers how and why life happens the way it does. Ages 14–up. Agent: Brent Taylor, Triada U.S.

July 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Seventeen-year-old Nic Chen is Chinese and white, and struggling with issues of race, class, and gender double standards in the affluent community of Meydenbauer. This is a town where Ivy League acceptance letters are a minimal expectation, and the microaggressions experienced by people of color are eagerly swept under the rug to comfort the sensibilities of white elites. After cheating on her boyfriend, Nic is a social outcast with only her best friend, Kitty, taking her side. Nic's talent for writing serves as a lifeline to redeem her. The catch: she must write winning college admissions letters for her classmates. The price: $300 and fragments of her moral compass. Nic is able to take the lived experiences of her classmates and write essays in 500 words or less that speak to something deeper in the human spirit. As she churns out essays, she has to search her own soul as well as those of her friends. It's not the money she craves, but a very specific void that she's trying to fill. This compelling novel in verse encourages deep thought and conversation. VERDICT Fans of Perfect by Ellen Hopkins will devour this timely and addictive read.-Christina Vortia, Hype Lit, Land O'Lakes, FL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2018
A high school senior tries to move past her betrayal of her boyfriend and the disappearance of her mother.Branded a whore after an alcohol-fueled hookup with her boyfriend's best friend and desperate to ."..for a moment / be someone / other than / that girl," Nic Chen agrees to write the college essays of classmates at her competitive high school. She understands the power of the spare, stripped-down vignette, and in learning and writing the stories of the valedictorian, the artist, the quarterback, and the mean girl, Nic starts to find her own story too. There's a lot going on here, and the boyfriend comes and goes in such fleeting moments that it's hard to empathize with Nic's stated sense of loss. Debut author del Rosario only begins to unpack the complexity of Nic's relationships with her runaway white mother and her emotionally distant Chinese father and her identity as their biracial daughter in a largely wealthy, largely white Seattle-area community. Add in an extensive cast of classmates and a few loyal friends whose stories aren't told, and the impact of the whole is perhaps less than the sum of its parts. Still, the author, like Nic, knows the weight of "emotionally raw" experiences, and, in poignant verse, the moments of anguish, loneliness, and hope ring true.As one of the characters describes Nic: beautiful but not perfect. (Novel in verse. 14-18)

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July 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 For biracial high-schooler Nic Chen, senior year is supposed to be about applying to Princeton, imagining the future beyond her privileged high-school experience in a wealthy enclave, and determining the fate of her romantic relationship with longtime friend (and now boyfriend) Ben. But after cheating on Ben with his best friend Jordan, Nic is branded a whore?while Jordan's reputation is unscathed, a double standard if there ever was one. A top student and skilled writer, Nic begins writing college essays for her peers, exploring the experiences that have come to most define them. In the process, she explores the low points that have shaped her life; not just what happened with Ben and Jordan but also being recently abandoned by her mother and the refiguring of her family that's followed. Written in highly readable prose poems, as well as the essays themselves, del Rosario's debut is one of the rare YA contemporaries that isn't centered on a romance. Instead, Nic reckons with her own multifaceted identity. Who is she, truly, beyond a daughter, a student, an (ex-)girlfriend? Thoughtfully introspective.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
Biracial girl Nic Chen exists in a holding pattern: without her (runaway) mother, without her boyfriend, and without a clear sense of who she is beyond the wealthy star student who cheated on the school's golden boy. After stumbling into ghostwriting her classmates' college admissions essays--about love, loss, connection, and wholeness--Nic finally begins to grapple with the tensions that exist within herself. A moving coming-of-age novel in verse.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)