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Perla Perez only knows what it’s like to grow up in the pressure cooker of the exclusive California town of Monte Verde. The high school is ultracompetitive and is known for its graduates going to excellent universities. Perla herself not only works hard and does well, but she actually skipped two grades when she was young, so she’s only 16 as she graduates. (Hence her nickname of Perfect Perlie.) Her parents are successful (one a lawyer and one a dermatologist), and they expect her to be equally successful. The plan (really her parents’ plan) has always been for her to attend the top-notch Delmont University and then go to medical school. Not that she’s really enthused about that, but she doesn’t have much of a say in her future.
When her letter from Delmont arrives and it is a rejection, Perla is not just crushed but panicky. In a bid to put off sharing the bad news with her parents, she fakes an acceptance letter. And things snowball from there. Since she didn’t apply to any backup colleges, only “reach” schools, Perla has nowhere to go. So she decides to fix things. She’ll go to Delmont, pretend she’s a student, and gather intel on-site as she works on a new application for the spring semester.
The plan is a terrible/almost impossible one, obviously, and it made me feel either/both that the story really stretched credulity and/or that Perla had some serious problems. She faces a lot of challenges trying to find places to live temporarily and just to eat without letting her parents know the truth. And it goes on for several months. Her parents’ expectations border are appalling. It begins to make some sense why this character thinks she can attempt an outrageous, potentially dangerous and even ruinous, plan.
I had thought the book was going to be more lighthearted, so I was not prepared for its sobering tone. The story explores what it’s like to face intense pressure to be perfect and live up to others’ expectations. The Perezes are Filipinos (her father is second generation and her mother a longtime immigrant), and their ethnicity plays an important role in the story. Perla’s parents faced their own pressures to succeed in America and to prove themselves as “brown people.” My husband is Filipino, and he has talked about the same message shared here: if you’re a person of color, you have to work a lot harder than white people to get anywhere. The immigrant/BIPOC viewpoint is a valuable one for readers. It’s valuable as well for young people to learn through Perla that it’s OK to make mistakes and to find something they enjoy as they attend college or work toward a career.
For the above-mentioned insights, I recommend This Is Not a Personal Statement. Just don’t have the expectation of lightheartedness/wackiness that I did going in. Either I didn’t pay close enough attention to the book’s summary or I read into it what seemed a more likely possibility of what the tone would be.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes one instance of moderate profanity, about 10 uses of mild language, and 5 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There is no sexual content or violence. There are some references to college students drinking, and the main character, who is just 16, drinks alcohol once.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
