TRUE LOVE AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE ODDS

A highly logical college student attempts to quantify love.

Freshman Grace Tang is rational, viewing not just her math classes through a logical lens but also life itself. While she enjoys her time with roommates Ruhi and Ava, every weekend Grace drives the half hour home to be with her recently widowed father. Li skillfully contrasts Grace’s family dynamics and history with typical college student life, including strategic flashbacks that also boost the narrative tension. When Grace is faced with a group project for her Game Theory and Market Design elective, she proposes applying the stable match algorithm, designing what she’s sure is a foolproof quiz for Leighton College students to find their true loves. Although her intimidating library co-worker, fellow freshman Julia Zhang, who’s also Chinese American, writes a scornful op-ed for the college paper, the app gains in popularity. Grace even starts dating her match, Jamie, a boy from one of her classes. But when couples start breaking up, Grace’s faith in the algorithm wavers, and her world begins to crumble, although her growing feelings for Julia are a bright spot. The book’s themes—self-development, core living values, the impact of grief, and changing friendships—are well woven into the plot and support the characters’ development. While the romance starts off slowly and contains some predictable twists, the emotions and the relationships overall feel realistic.

An engrossing and original coming-of-age story.