Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone

By: Tae Keller

Narrated by: Shannon Tyo, Carolyn Kang, Tae Keller

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

In her first novel since winning the Newbery Medal for When You Trap a Tiger, Tae Keller offers a gripping and emotional story about friendship, bullying, and the possibility that there's more in the universe than just us.

Sometimes middle school can make you feel like you're totally alone in the universe...but what if we aren't alone at all?

Thanks to her best friend, Reagan, Mallory Moss knows the rules of middle school. The most important one? You have to fit in to survive. But then Jennifer Chan moves in across the street, and that rule doesn’t seem to apply. Jennifer doesn’t care about the laws of middle school, or the laws of the universe. She believes in aliens—and she thinks she can find them.

Then Jennifer goes missing. Using clues from Jennifer’s journals, Mallory goes searching. But the closer she gets, the more Mallory has to confront why Jennifer might have run . . . and face the truth within herself.

Tae Keller lights up the sky with this insightful story about shifting friendships, right and wrong, and the power we all hold to influence and change one another. No one is ever truly alone.

©2022 Tae Keller (P)2022 Listening Library

Critic reviews

“I absolutely loved this book! Tae’s glorious writing had me hooked and her characters, so wonderfully imperfect and nuanced, felt instantly relatable. She had me wondering which is more mysterious: extraterrestrials, or the beautiful, occasionally-heartbreaking intricacies of friendship.” –R. J. Palacio, New York Times bestselling author of Wonder and Pony

"Keller’s skillful interior narration puts us inside Mallory’s skin, even when it makes us uncomfortable." —The New York Times

“By setting the victim, the missing Jennifer, into the narrative background, Keller directs the flood light onto Mallory and company and aims responsibility (and possible redemption) right where it belongs.” —The Bulletin, starred review

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basically perfect

i think this book is almost perfect like 9/10 tbh like fr the writing is SO good, the writing for all the characters and for mallory’s inner dialogue. i have a few criticisms about it:
1) i truly don’t know why this wasn’t gay. i think it was perfect for being gay. it felt like it would be perfect and perfectly appropriate for jennifer to say, “why are you doing this?” or whatever she said at the end, “why can’t you leave me alone?” and then mallory says, “because i love you,” and THAT’S the perfect key to the whole lock on mallory’s own heart and inner feelings, and that’s what jennifer wanted when she wanted to find aliens, she just wanted someone to believe in her and like her for who she is and accept her. but instead mallory said, “i don’t know,” and i was ??? also bc when mallory and reagan had that moment at the end where they’re friend breaking up, that could have just been a real breakup. there’s so much of this feeling of exes between the two now, and the loyalty that mallory felt toward reagan (sorry if i spelled her name wrong, i was just listening to the book after all) felt like a girlfriends loyalty like the insistence on best friendship didn’t make much sense to me, and it felt forced.

2) i felt like the resolution didn’t really resolve everything. what happened to tess? did reagan finally come clean? (i guess the flowers insinuate that she has?) did the girls ever get any punishment? are ingrid and kath friends with mallory now? and what about all of mallory’s inner conflicts, did they get resolved? what about mallory’s conflicting thoughts about being korean? does jennifer still believe in aliens? are kath and ingrid friends again? is mallory’s and her mom’s relationship ok again? did the whole pete having a crush on jennifer thing get resolved? so why does jennifer call her mom by her name? how does the rest of the school think about mallory now? it just felt too unresolved for me.

other than that, i really felt like this was a perfect book. the build up to the climax was perfect, and the timing of everything was perfect. i love how it wasn’t just a simple “bully means bad,” but it showed how middle school social rules are so complicated. and the relationships between asian americans are all so different too. i really like this book :)

Powerful story … must read

Tae Keller has put her heart and soul into this book. The story is so relevant in todays social atmosphere. Even though the genre is young readers, there is a message for all. Be kind.

Thank you Tae Keller for asking the hard questions, sharing you personal journey, and giving hope in a sometimes hopeless world.