Filipina-American “Perfect Perlie” Perez has grown up with a big red binder on the bookshelf. It is jam packed with the high expectations of her parents, laying out the exact path her life is meant to take: graduation from an elite high school, matriculation at an insanely competitive college, a medical degree, success in life and work. It all goes fine until she doesn’t get into the right college and, in her panic, creates a fake acceptance letter to appease her parents. Sure she is meant to be there, and planning to reapply for the spring semester, Perlie moves on to campus in the fall, finding an empty room and pretending she belongs. So begins a semester of hiding, sneaking, lying – and trying to figure out why all the other students were admitted, and she wasn’t.

In the sub-genre of YA books that feature the college admission process, this novel brings something different. Focused on the dark fallout of the often-fraught, highly arbitrary admittance of qualified high school seniors to the most elite schools, compounded by excessive parental expectations, and Perlie’s situation is – while horrific to contemplate – surely something that more than one graduating senior who didn’t get into their dream reach school has wished possible. It’s also, frankly, a little bit of a downer, though in the end, with distance away from her parents and time to think, Perlie realizes that her parents’ dreams for her are not the same as the dreams she has for herself, which is a positive, and readers are left with a Perlie who is growing up in a way that college never could have taught her. On the whole, this book was very readable, and enjoyable, but also a somewhat sad look at how high family expectations, combined with a college system in this country that prizes exclusivity, can wreak havoc with teenagers.

3 Stars. Nice to add to the collection, but not a must-have.

Reviewed by Jenny Martinez Nocito, Maine State Library