I'm Not Here to Make Friends by Andrew Yang
Published by Quill Tree Books on July 18, 2023
ISBN: 0063223279
Pages: 352
Genres: Realistic Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads

Sabine Zhang, one of the only Asians in her midwestern high school, has been chosen as one of six cast members for a low-budget teen reality show with an all-Asian cast, aired on a local streaming service that nobody really watches. She is a fan of the show, which is a low-stakes month at a house in California where the cast gets to know each other and have fun.

But this year, things are different: a major streaming service has picked it up, and everything has changed, from how the cast is selected to the staged drama. Sabine is the only one there who loved – or even watched – the old version of the show, and she feels totally out of her depth. For the first time she is surrounded by Asians, and she’s never felt less like she belonged. Worse, the showrunners seem to have picked her to be one of the dramatic leads in their contrived storyline, pitting her against housemate Yoona Bae, a confident, beautiful girl from NYC.

Told in alternating POV between Sabine and Yoona, readers gain insight into the struggles that each is trying to keep hidden from the cameras and each other, and how the curated dramatics of the show are working to make their rift even worse. Despite this, Sabine begins to understand just how much the strings of her experience are being pulled, and how little of it is real; she and Yoona take steps to work out their differences and realize just how much they have both been manipulated.

This book will appeal to fans of reality TV above all; it is an interesting look into the behind the scenes work that goes into portraying a storyline out of unscripted content, and gives insight into how drama is created by the showrunners. The emphasis on friendship being the “happy ending,” instead of romance, was a plus. On the downside, the other four cast members and smaller supporting characters felt two-dimensional, since narration came from only Sabine and Yoona. The story would have overall been stronger had we been inside the heads of the other four housemates. The cast was all Asian American but lacked any other diversity (all cis hetero, with backgrounds that were indistinguishable in any meaningful way).

Entertaining, but not a must have.

Three Stars

Reviewed by: Jenny Martinez Nocito, Maine State Library, Augusta