Never Thought I’d End Up Here out now from Scholastic Press; 320 pages
Content Warning: Depression, racism
About the Author: “Ann Liang is the New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestselling author of critically acclaimed young adult and adult fiction. Her books have been sold in over twenty foreign territories. Her work has been featured on Good Morning America as a GMA Book Club pick, and on the Today show, Cosmopolitan, PEOPLE, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Born in Beijing, she grew up traveling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. She now lives in Melbourne” (Bio from author’s website).
Find Ann Liang on the following platforms:
“You remind me of the greatest sculptors, who can turn marble into the impression of billowing silk, the coldest stone into something soft. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that everything you touch turns beautiful. The world becomes beautiful, as long as there’s you.”
Leah Zhang’s life has veered off course. For the last two years she’s been a model, until she quit for a reason she refuses to tell anyone. Feeling lost and unsure of her identity, she makes a fatal language error at her cousin’s wedding, wishing them ill health and a depressing marriage. To fix this, her parents decide to send her on a two-week travel program to China to improve her language skills. Leah is excited to get a chance to escape from the drama of her past, but she spots her former enemy, Cyrus, among the group for the trip at the airport. She takes this as her opportunity to finally get revenge on him for ruining her life two years ago, but her heart has other plans. As they travel through the provinces of China, Leah begins to fall in love with herself, her country, and the boy she never thought she would.
Never Thought I’d End Up Here found me at a time when I needed it most. Leah has recently left the world of modeling behind, but it took a toll on her. When Leah quit modeling, she didn’t know how to grapple with the feeling of abandoning something she’d worked so hard for, even if it hurt her. I could relate to a lot of these feelings as someone who was on the fringes of the music industry for years before quitting and never looking back. Leah felt like she was the only person who quietly disappeared from this industry, but I knew that she was not. I loved how she didn’t just discover romance on her journey through China, she also discovered self-love. After years of searching for a place to belong, Leah found her footing thousands of miles away from home, and Cyrus was her biggest supporter. The two had great banter, but they also understood each other on a deeper level. Since he was fluent in Mandarin, Cyrus also helped Leah reconnect with the language she had lost. As someone who is a week away from flying to another country to immerse herself in the language, I saw what I had to look forward to in the way Leah slowly discovered new words and places in a different country. Never Thought I’d End Up Here was my first Ann Liang book, but it will not be my last. She has made me a fan for life.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Scholastic Press for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Sam Yanis, Pine Reads Review Lead Writer
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