Review of “Angelina's Choices” by Angelina Wang

Score: 93/100 (9.3 out of 10)

Angelina's Choices: Growing and Learning to Make a Difference is another fascinating read by the Angelina Wang, a teenager who is wise beyond her years!

The book follows right on the heels of her hit debut novel, Angelina's Opinions, which she published at the age of 12! You could make the argument that it actually exceeds the enjoyability of the first book, which is the stance we'll be taking.

What makes Angelina's Choices a more enjoyable book than Angelina's Opinions? Well, for one, it's a bit less fixated, didactic, and heavy-handed when it comes to individual social issues (like feminism and LGBTQIA+ issues), speaking much more broadly. What this does is make it more accessible to a larger audience and make it more applicable to a wider range of issues (in comparison to Angelina's Opinions). Angelina's Opinions had one huge weakness in that it came across as preachy and a bit pushy.

While the the narrative voice in this book is still authoritative, directive, and didactic like the previous book, it comes across as far less overbearing, insistent, and—dare we say—pushy. That's something we really appreciated about this second book.

Interestingly, while the scope of the discussions is broader than in the previous book, the solutions are actually more specific and applicable.

Here's what we mean:

In Angelina's Opinions, Wang fixated a lot on huge issues like women's rights, LBGTQIA+ rights, and climate change. That's great and admirable and all, but that also begs the question... what do you honestly expect ME (the reader) to do about all of that? Yes, we can contribute to the solutions to those problems, but those are such huge, macro issues that aren't going to be reversed by a single human being (reader). Even a US president or UN secretary general couldn't fix that with a wave of the hand.

What's rather fascinating is that it seems like Wang realized the same thing around the time she wrote Angelina's Choices. As if having an epiphany, she began to realize that she might not be able to change the whole world by herself, but she could be part of making it a better place by contributing to it via small, positive choices. For example, she felt like reusing her water bottle wasn't such a big deal until she was given some perspective.

Now, we wanted to chime in here: we can empathize with this. Sometimes, we feel like the problems around us are so big, so huge, and so overwhelming that there's no point in trying to solve them. This is a flawed way of thinking. In an intertextual way, we wanted to refer to what we learned in Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven by Sarah Law (a book about Saint Therese). In Law's book, we learned that St. Therese came to almost the same conclusion that Wang does in her book: that you don't have to do big, grand, world-changing, heroic acts in order to matter. No, you can matter and make a difference by making “little sacrifices” via the “little way.” So, in Wang's case, you might be saving the planet from being polluted by a few water bottles, but you're also encouraging and inspiring others to do the same. Imagine if a hundred or a thousand people made the same choice and followed Wang's example. In Saint Therese's case, you might be helping one grumpy old nun or a prisoner on death row and think that it's not such a big deal. After all, it doesn't save the world, but it does contribute to propagating a spirit of caring and compassion that rubs off on others.

Maybe you can't change the whole world in one instant, but you can make your home a better place. You can make your community a better place. You can be a part of the solution while not having to bear the burden of being the whole solution.

And, really, that all boils down to Wang introducing a new wrinkle in this book: an emphasis on CHOICE and CHOICES. We can make good choices that blossom into big, beautiful things like trees from a seed.

Another thing we noticed is that, because this book is less fixated on individual issues, it's actually less fluffy and bloated. For example, there was a time in the previous book when the term “LGBTQIA+ Community” was stated around 50 times in the span of about 20-30 pages. It got a bit tedious and repetitive.

Angelina's Choices doesn't seem to have issues like this. There's less repetition and redundancy. That likely springs from Wang being a more practiced and experienced writer. However, this book probably had less rounds of editing than the previous book. Why do we think that?

Well, the previous book was almost perfect in terms of grammar. We're pretty sure that one got proofread, edited, and rewritten a few times and by a few people (editors, beta readers, etc.). This book has a flew blemishes in that department. For example, in the section about meditation, the author writes:

“I ended up choosing to mediate for at least 10 minutes”

(She clearly meant “meditate”)

“I have only the scratched surface of this issue”

(This should probably be “I have only scratched the surface of this issue”)

“I’d like to add some activities that may helpful”

(The word “be” is missing)

However, this really didn't bother us that much. It just proves that Angelina Wang is human, not a robot like CARLA from Sentience Hazard writing perfectly 100% of the time while dishing out bold statements and declarations like she's the Founding Fathers. The first book just seemed too clean, too neat, too tidy and too overbearing. It read like a magical fairy grandmother laying down the law from up above. It just didn't feel quite right. It's hard to describe.

However, in this book, Wang is far more relatable, far more down-to-earth, and far more raw and real. She's a lot more vulnerable and willing to admit when she might be wrong or unsure about things. She's a lot more willing to admit when she made a mistake or a lapse in judgment like when she went overboard in humiliating some schoolboys over an incident or when she was mean to a friend. Those are things that come with time, growth, and maturity. There were times in the first book when Wang came across as full of herself, self-righteous, and self-assured—as someone who had all the answers and could do no wrong. Those things sometimes rear their heads in this book, but they're far less frequent.

So, while this second book might be inferior in terms of writing and grammar, it was actually superior in terms of enjoyability. We just liked it more.

Here are a few of the things we really liked from it:

• The idea of not being distracted by technology and social media. In one section, Wang talked about the time when her phone stopped working. She found that she was more productive while it was broken!
• As stated before, she realized that you don't have to do big, grand things like plant 100 trees to make a difference, you could do little things and be a positive contributor to change
• Wang advocates for doing things the day they are assigned rather than waiting until the last minute to do them
• Wang advocates for knowing yourself and your body including being aware when it's time to step away and rest. No, burnout days are not rest days, they're your body's way of telling you that you pushed yourself too far.
• Relaxation isn't lazy
• Set boundaries and limits
• Use self-reflection to become aware of why you feel a certain way about certain things and situations. For example, Wang felt uncomfortable with extracurricular activities because she associated them with a poor experience with skating. However, she became aware of the root of her apprehensions and anxiety rather than let these negative associations linger and fester in the background, going unacknowledged and unaddressed.
• Respect is one of the foremost personal values. It can solve a lot of the world's problems if we were more respectful to each other and the environment.

Check it out on Amazon!