"A Line in the Dark," by Jessica Wong

Keeping secrets from your friends is hard. Keeping romantic feelings from your friends is even harder. Being a young Asian American teenager has never been easy for our main character in A Line In The Dark Jessica Wong. The story tells Jess's experience being a teenager trying to please her parents and make something out of her passion for art while also hiding romantic feelings for her best friend Angie. Malinda Lo the author of A Line In The Dark went to Wessely College to receive her undergraduate degree before receiving a masters degree from both Harvard and Stanford University. She worked multiple jobs before starting her writing career which included being a managing editor for a blog called AfterEllen, an associate editor for Curve magazine, and an entertainment reporter. She then published her first book Ash which was nominated for multiple awards like the: William C. Morris award and Mythopoeic fantasy award. In 2017 she released A Line In The Dark which was then named “best book of the year”. Malinda Lo is best known for her coming of age-young adult novels making her a powerful advocate for the Queer and Asian-American community.

A Line In The Dark is set in a small town in Maine starting when Jess’s best friend Angie gets a new girlfriend: Margot, a rich kid who attends Pearson Brooke Academy, a private school on the wealthy side of town. This makes it increasingly hard for Jess to fight her feelings for Angie as her jealousy and disapproval of their relationship becomes more and more apparent everyday. Jess expresses her frustrations through her drawing, she creates comic book characters known as Laney, Kestrel, and Raven who are made to represent Jess, Angie, and Margot's love triangle. Unfortunately for Jess she has already signed up for an arts program at Pearson Brooke forcing her to be around Margot even more. However, at Pearson Brooke Jess learns through other students that Margot may not be the loving and innocent girlfriend Angie thinks she is. All tensions boil over at a Christmas party Margot hosts where Jess’s true feelings toward Angie are revealed and Margot's best friend Ryan is murdered. In the beginning of the book the conflict for Jess are her conflicting feelings toward Angie. Jess has had a crush on Angie forever but doesn’t have the courage to tell her how she feels and believes she is unworthy of a relationship with someone “as great” as Angie. This is reflective of Jess’s own struggles with her identity, she lacks self confidence and is ashamed of how she stands out because she is Asian. Over the course of the book Angie starts dating Margot, despite this being heartbreaking for Jess it forces her to come to terms with her feelings for Angie. She can no longer hide behind her love for Angie and must discover who she is as an individual. During this time Jess finds herself through her art, with encouragement from the arts program she is taking at Pearson Brooke she is able to navigate her feelings through her drawing. After a disastrous Christmas party and a murder investigation Jess realizes that Angie is willing to choose Margot over her and if she wants her life to finally improve she must move on. It’s painful but eventually Jess is able to steer herself down a new path away from Angie showing her growth as a character. At the beginning of the book Angie is characterized as very friendly, generous, and openminded. However because of her friendly disposition she is also described as naive and often doesn’t realize people's ulterior motives. For example on pg 5 “One of the guys checks her out while he waits in line, he hides it pretty well by looking at his phone. Sometimes guys leer at her over the counter, as if their panting tongues and googly eyes will turn her on, but she always pretends she doesn’t know what they're doing and asks if they want more toppings on their ice cream.” Towards the middle of the book Angie is described as distant and cold towards Jess. Angie knows that her and Margot's relationship is causing a rift between her and Jess but doesn’t realize Jess has feelings for her and is becoming increasingly annoyed by her odd behavior. One example of this is on page 154: “Angie looks irritated with me. I know it’s because you don’t want to hang out with Margot. You would barely come shopping with me today because I'm shopping for her present.” Finally at the end of the book Angie is characterized as guilty. She feels guilty towards Jess because she finally learns Jess has feelings for her but ultimately chooses Margot over Jess despite their long standing friendship. For example on page 379 “Angie blinks rapidly. She glances around the room. How many times do I have to say this? I wish things were different. I really do. But they're not.” Overall Angie's decision to choose her girlfriend over her best friend is why she is characterized as guilty and uncertain by Jess at the end of the book. 

One thing I liked about this book was the writing. When the police are investigating Ryan’s murder the author uses police interviews told from the different perspectives of different witnesses at the Christmas party. This engages the reader in the investigation as if we were actually there trying to solve the murder ourselves. As the different perspectives overlap we as readers are able to put the pieces together and form our own observations and predictions about who could have killed Ryan. This also gives us insight into the detective's thought processes when solving the case which is one that is not portrayed often in literature, distinguishing this book from lots of other murder mysteries. Another thing I like is the parallels between Raven, Kestrel, and Laney's love triangle to Jess, Angie, and Margot's love triangle. I think it really showed the reader just how deeply infatuated Jess was with Angie because their relationship was taking over every aspect of Jess’s life including her art. However, the love triangle also represents the character's growth throughout the story and provides Jess with some much needed closure. However, as someone who likes action the book was quite slow at first and I lacked motivation to keep reading. I think the author could have done a better job editing out some of the unnecessary details. However, some could argue the book's shocking, unexpected ending makes up for its slow start. But if you're like me and enjoy a mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first page this is probably not the book for you. If I had to rate the book I would give it a ⅗  stars. A Line In The Dark was written to give representation to gay and Asian-American teenagers who struggle to fit into traditional western ideals and social expectations. It teaches us lessons like teenage heart break isn’t the end of the world and don’t take what you have for granted. But the book teaches us most importantly that telling your truth will help you lead a free and unapologetic life.