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Boring Asian Female by Canwen XuPublished by Berkley on April 28, 2026
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Literary Fiction
Format: Physical
Source: Library
“Thank you for your interest in our school, but we regret to inform you that…” you’re not special. You’re too average. You’re too boring.
Well, in that case, she’ll have to show them just how interesting she can be.
Elizabeth Zhang is well aware of her place in the world. She’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. While she’s never been the most beautiful or the most liked, she knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her greatest dream: Harvard Law School. But when Harvard rejects Elizabeth for not standing out enough—which she knows means she's just another boring Asian female—her carefully constructed life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. Elizabeth can’t figure out how this could have happened. Why was Laura accepted? What makes her so interesting?
At first, she follows her because she’s just curious. What Laura orders for lunch. Where Laura shops. What Laura’s hobbies are. All of these things must contribute to her overall package, what makes her an acceptable person to Harvard. But still, Elizabeth just can’t see it. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot.
A spot that she knows she deserves after working so hard. A spot that she’ll simply have to take back.
Layered and subversive, this novel brings to light how, in the face of societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures, a person can unlock the darkest parts of themselves and show how far they’re willing to go to achieve their vision of success.
Trigger & Content Warnings: stalking, miscarriage, racism, misogyny, panic attacks, death
Boring Asian Female was like watching a train wreck happen in real time – it was unhinged and just got more unhinged as the book progressed. Just when I thought, “Surely it couldn’t get any worse… right?” it definitely got worse. I should’ve known better: Elizabeth Zhang is the worst version of myself.
Canwen Xu’s debut follows Elizabeth Zhang, a Columbia student in her final year. She’s grown up following goal post after goal post, and one of her goals is to be accepted into Harvard Law School and eventually make her way up the corporate ladder.
Except Elizabeth doesn’t get accepted. She’s too boring. Instead, another classmate of hers, Laura Kim, gets accepted. For Elizabeth, it feels like an absolute robbery – according to her calculation, there’s only a certain number of spots available reserved for Asian students, and Laura most definitely took the last spot from her as a mediocre person who doesn’t deserve a spot in Harvard Law’s incoming class. So she sets out on a mission to find out why Laura was accepted and not her: what makes Laura not boring? What’s so special about Laura that Elizabeth doesn’t have?
I absolutely hated Elizabeth Zhang. She views the world and people around her in percentiles, including herself, and her narration was exhausting to read. She’s the worst version of myself that I could’ve become (minus looking at the world in percentiles, because that’s not how my brain works), and I wanted to tap out because her narration was exhausting. But I wanted to find out just how unhinged it could get, and honestly? Elizabeth Zhang is such an interesting character study. I understood Elizabeth. I understood her perfectionism, having a roadmap of her life and moving from goal to goal, wanting validation, and constantly feeling like second-best. Despite hating her narration and her as a character, I found her to be well-written. She’s ambitious and driven, and the ending is honestly fitting for her.
Boring Asian Female ultimately asks, when the goal you’ve worked towards all your life suddenly falls apart, what do you do? Throughout this, Xu examines what happens when resentment is left to fester for much too long and becomes an obsession, which is exactly what happens with Elizabeth. As the book progresses, we watch her go into an absolute downward spiral.
Anyways, I really liked Xu’s debut. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (it almost wasn’t mine!), but I’m glad I pushed through to the end (so sorry to the friend I was sending live updates to, though). Looking forward to reading Xu’s future works.
Hannah has a penchant for chaos, which is probably how she ended up blogging since 2012. That, and she was probably too expressive for her parents to handle, so it had to go somewhere. She can be found occasionally at The Arts STL. If you’d like to fuel her boba addiction or just enjoy her posts and want to support her, stop by her KoFi or Buy Me a Coffee!
I love the review! especially “Boring Asian Female ultimately asks, when the goal you’ve worked towards all your life suddenly falls apart, what do you do? Throughout this, Xu examines what happens when resentment is left to fester for much too long and becomes an obsession”. Glad you didn’t become the worst version of yourself 🙂.