The book Not Here to be Liked by Michelle Quach follows a Vietnamese - Chinese high school student, Eliza Quan, and her “nemesis” - Len DiMartile. Eliza has poured her time and effort into the Bugle, the school newspaper. She decides to run for editor in chief, confident due to the fact that no one else was running against her – well until she found out Len decided to become a candidate at the last minute. Eliza wasn’t worried though since she was the best in the field. But when Lin gets chosen instead of her because she seemed too judgemental and scary. She sees this as a misogynistic approach towards her, and pours out all her emotions onto a google doc. However, in a hurry to cover this up, she locks the computer without signing out. The next morning, she’s surprised to see her whole essay published on the school’s website. While on her journey to get others to see how misogynistic the school is because of losing her election while she’s more qualified, many things are lost, and many things are gained. Along this journey, she soon realizes, through all the protests, that Len, her enemy, could be something more to her.

At the start, I thought this book would be something close to my heart – I was proven wrong. This book was well written, but the way the characters were portrayed and their personalities annoyed me throughout my read. Usually characters evolve, and some did in ways, but I saw little difference.

The leading female character was pretty hypocritical, and it didn’t change throughout the end.

In the back of the physical copy of the book, it states, “WARNING: This book contains an unlikeable female character.” Honestly, I agree with this statement. Eliza’s point of view on most things is very negative, and she victimizes herself in a lot of situations. Again, she’s very hypocritical, and is hesitant with most things she does. She also doubts herself when doing protests even though she felt so strongly about it 5 minutes earlier – she doesn’t stand for what she believes in.

Although I did not fully enjoy this book, it did keep me captivated. I found myself itching to know what happened next or what he or she responded with. This is not a thriller, but there are plenty of surprising elements. Seeing who posted her article – things like that. Additionally, the plot was not too bad. Also, many readers love quick escalation in romances, however I definitely did not. However if you do enjoy the quick escalation trope, I would propose this book.

It may be due to my point of view or opinions, however I wouldn’t recommend this book to other readers. Although it kept me entranced into the book, I found myself questioning or getting annoyed at the characters. I think an opinion on this book varies from each reader's perspective, but I hated how quick relationships elevated. In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend you to add this book to your list.