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Admission
It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer. She's headed off to the college of her dreams. She's going to prom with the boy she's had a crush on since middle school. Her best friend always has her back, and her mom, a B-list Hollywood celebrity, may finally be on her way to the B+ list. It's good to be Chloe Wynn Berringer--at least, it was, until the FBI came knocking on her front door, guns at the ready, and her future went up in smoke. Now her mother is under arrest in a massive college admissions bribery scandal. Chloe, too, might be facing charges, and even time behind bars. The public is furious, the press is rabid, and the US attorney is out for blood.
As she loses everything she's long taken for granted, Chloe must reckon not only with the truth of what happened, but also with the examination of her own guilt. Why did her parents think the only way for her to succeed was to cheat for her? What did she know, and when did she know it? And perhaps most importantly, what does it mean to be complicit?
As she loses everything she's long taken for granted, Chloe must reckon not only with the truth of what happened, but also with the examination of her own guilt. Why did her parents think the only way for her to succeed was to cheat for her? What did she know, and when did she know it? And perhaps most importantly, what does it mean to be complicit?
342 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2020
About the author
Julie Buxbaum
11 books3,206 followersJulie Buxbaum is the New York Times best selling author of Tell Me Three Things, her young adult debut, What to Say Next, Hope and Other Punchlines, and Admission (pubs 5/5/20). She’s also the author of two critically acclaimed novels for adults: The Opposite of Love and After You. Her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Julie’s writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times. She is a former lawyer and graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and more books than is reasonable. Visit Julie online at www.juliebuxbaum.com and follow @juliebux on Twitter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,412 reviews
October 1, 2021
This is my record time of reading: My hands were glued to my e-reader and my mind is already conquered with the family scandal. I was truly book thirsty wild literature animal and I was invested from the beginning.
When I read the plot about: college admissions bribery scandal and B- lister Hollywood celebrity Joy Field’s arresting: I think I’m reading a story about Lori Loughlin’s trial case. There are too many things in the book are similar with the actress’ real life story including being B minus Hollywood star but after her sitcom’s remaking on Netflix, she got a chance to be B plus lister. And just like Lori Loughlin: Joy gets sacked from Netflix and Hallmark. She has two daughters just like Lori and she pleaded guilty just like Lori did. ( confession: when I first read the book, Laughlin was pleading not guilty but two weeks later I finished the book: she changed her mind as her lawyers advised her which brought out more real life similarities with the book’s character)
I’m not gonna tell you if Joy follow the same path: You gotta read this impressively intense, perfectly developed family drama going between now and then to tell how their life changed and how they face the consequences of the mistakes they’ve made.
First of all: this book is not written to judge a wealthy family who cheat their way to reach their goals and using their white privilege notoriously to get what they never deserve. I’m one of the people who got really mad after reading the stories about the real scandal, 33 parents’ accusation of paying more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to William Rick Singer.
As like the real scandal; our heroine Chloe Wynn Berringer’s college application essay was rewritten and her photographs were photoshopped and doctored and of course her score was inflated. So many young people work too hard to reach their dreams to get a proper education at elite colleges with little financial resources and push too hard to get a scholarship including Chloe’s best friend Shola’s story who is coming from immigrated Nigerian middle class family.
The author chose a real provocative and thought-provoking subject. It’s so challenging to tell a story about one of the most unlikable family (when you consider there are so many similarities with the real life characters) but interestingly you find yourself root for the characters of the book and you start to see the events from their perspective.
Chloe is mediocre, privileged girl who still doesn’t find her passion or her goal for her life surrounded by A-grader, high achiever friend Shola, intelligent and ambitious, perfectionist sister Isla and golden boy of the school Levi. When everyone around her shines with their highly impressive achievements and big life purposes, detailed future plans, she starts getting more lost and insecure. And of course she doesn’t want her family to be embarrassed by her lack of competitive skills but even though she’s working harder and do everything to get a better SAT score, she gets more panicked and her score is getting lower at her each try.
When her mother finds a special consultant called himself: “doctor” and arranged some other place in West Hollywood for taking the test, she doesn’t question her motives. She knows her mother is competitive, ambitious and hard-worker women who wants best for her kid. And when the test result came showing 200 points higher than her last one she thought there might be some mistake and she tried to tell several people including school consultant but as she sees her mother’s hopeful face and listening to her friends’ motivational speeches, she stops questioning further. She suspects something fishy going around but it was too late to admit her doubts to someone when FBI bangs their door and handcuffs her mom in front of their neighbors and army of paparazzis.
Throughout my reading I mostly liked Isla: one year younger sister of Chloe: the smartest, most mature and practical member of the family even though she is the youngest one and the effects of scandal in her life. Her efforts to bring the family back to face the realities and her harsh but realistic methods to help her sister were well-written. I loved the sisters’ quirky ways of communication and of course I enjoyed the conclusion of the story.
Overall: I had amazing time and I enjoyed the well-developed characterization and intriguing, fast, remarkable pace of the story. I normally give four stars but I’m adding half more and rounding 4.5 to 5 because the brave subject choice and incredible story-telling skills of the author.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for sharing this remarkable ARC with me in exchange my honest review.
When I read the plot about: college admissions bribery scandal and B- lister Hollywood celebrity Joy Field’s arresting: I think I’m reading a story about Lori Loughlin’s trial case. There are too many things in the book are similar with the actress’ real life story including being B minus Hollywood star but after her sitcom’s remaking on Netflix, she got a chance to be B plus lister. And just like Lori Loughlin: Joy gets sacked from Netflix and Hallmark. She has two daughters just like Lori and she pleaded guilty just like Lori did. ( confession: when I first read the book, Laughlin was pleading not guilty but two weeks later I finished the book: she changed her mind as her lawyers advised her which brought out more real life similarities with the book’s character)
I’m not gonna tell you if Joy follow the same path: You gotta read this impressively intense, perfectly developed family drama going between now and then to tell how their life changed and how they face the consequences of the mistakes they’ve made.
First of all: this book is not written to judge a wealthy family who cheat their way to reach their goals and using their white privilege notoriously to get what they never deserve. I’m one of the people who got really mad after reading the stories about the real scandal, 33 parents’ accusation of paying more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to William Rick Singer.
As like the real scandal; our heroine Chloe Wynn Berringer’s college application essay was rewritten and her photographs were photoshopped and doctored and of course her score was inflated. So many young people work too hard to reach their dreams to get a proper education at elite colleges with little financial resources and push too hard to get a scholarship including Chloe’s best friend Shola’s story who is coming from immigrated Nigerian middle class family.
The author chose a real provocative and thought-provoking subject. It’s so challenging to tell a story about one of the most unlikable family (when you consider there are so many similarities with the real life characters) but interestingly you find yourself root for the characters of the book and you start to see the events from their perspective.
Chloe is mediocre, privileged girl who still doesn’t find her passion or her goal for her life surrounded by A-grader, high achiever friend Shola, intelligent and ambitious, perfectionist sister Isla and golden boy of the school Levi. When everyone around her shines with their highly impressive achievements and big life purposes, detailed future plans, she starts getting more lost and insecure. And of course she doesn’t want her family to be embarrassed by her lack of competitive skills but even though she’s working harder and do everything to get a better SAT score, she gets more panicked and her score is getting lower at her each try.
When her mother finds a special consultant called himself: “doctor” and arranged some other place in West Hollywood for taking the test, she doesn’t question her motives. She knows her mother is competitive, ambitious and hard-worker women who wants best for her kid. And when the test result came showing 200 points higher than her last one she thought there might be some mistake and she tried to tell several people including school consultant but as she sees her mother’s hopeful face and listening to her friends’ motivational speeches, she stops questioning further. She suspects something fishy going around but it was too late to admit her doubts to someone when FBI bangs their door and handcuffs her mom in front of their neighbors and army of paparazzis.
Throughout my reading I mostly liked Isla: one year younger sister of Chloe: the smartest, most mature and practical member of the family even though she is the youngest one and the effects of scandal in her life. Her efforts to bring the family back to face the realities and her harsh but realistic methods to help her sister were well-written. I loved the sisters’ quirky ways of communication and of course I enjoyed the conclusion of the story.
Overall: I had amazing time and I enjoyed the well-developed characterization and intriguing, fast, remarkable pace of the story. I normally give four stars but I’m adding half more and rounding 4.5 to 5 because the brave subject choice and incredible story-telling skills of the author.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for sharing this remarkable ARC with me in exchange my honest review.
January 19, 2020
Are you supposed to review your own book? I don't know? I'm probably supposed to play it cool, right? But here's the thing: I've never learned how to play it cool. I only know how to play it honest and a little too earnest. So the unvarnished truth: I love this book. (Also true, I might be a bit biased.) I loved writing this book. (This is a hard fact.) And, perhaps most of all, I very much hope you love this book even half as much as I do. Because if you did that would be very, very cool.
December 22, 2020
I think that Admission missed out on a lot of opportunities to offer a complex and nuanced - and, ultimately, more interesting, in my opinion - story based on the 2019 Admissions scandal, instead becoming a fairly basic examination of rich girl privilege.
There were a lot of ways the author could have approached Chloe's story. She could have explored the suffocating experience of having your parents micromanage your life, believing in your own capabilities so little that they resort to buying you opportunities. She could have considered the role of class mobility in Chloe's particular case-- how her mother clawed her way up from nothing, working her ass off and taking hits along the way, so that now she will do anything to give her daughter an easier life.
What Buxbaum did, however, was write a fairly cliched tale of a rich white girl learning a lesson about her own privilege. A lesson that comes with the loss of her best friend-- a hardworking scholarship student who is black-- who herself feels a bit like a one-dimensional learning tool who exists only for Chloe to see the error of her ways.
Such a story was not interesting to me. Chloe felt like a cardboard character. Flat, lifeless, stuck in a stupid rich girl cliche. Considering that she was by far the most developed character in the book, this didn't make it easy for me to connect emotionally with anyone.
It is also not very well-paced or plotted. The "Now" of the book is far more interesting than the "Then" chapters, which feel like filler, showing Chloe chatting with friends, worrying about her future, and developing a lackluster romance with a boy at school (seriously, why is he even in there?).
I guess if you are part of the 1% and have a "spare" fridge just for storing bottled water and still can't figure out why everyone hates that your parents' donations secured your place at university... then, this book might be the lesson you need. I found it didactic and, for the most part, uninteresting.
There were a lot of ways the author could have approached Chloe's story. She could have explored the suffocating experience of having your parents micromanage your life, believing in your own capabilities so little that they resort to buying you opportunities. She could have considered the role of class mobility in Chloe's particular case-- how her mother clawed her way up from nothing, working her ass off and taking hits along the way, so that now she will do anything to give her daughter an easier life.
What Buxbaum did, however, was write a fairly cliched tale of a rich white girl learning a lesson about her own privilege. A lesson that comes with the loss of her best friend-- a hardworking scholarship student who is black-- who herself feels a bit like a one-dimensional learning tool who exists only for Chloe to see the error of her ways.
Such a story was not interesting to me. Chloe felt like a cardboard character. Flat, lifeless, stuck in a stupid rich girl cliche. Considering that she was by far the most developed character in the book, this didn't make it easy for me to connect emotionally with anyone.
It is also not very well-paced or plotted. The "Now" of the book is far more interesting than the "Then" chapters, which feel like filler, showing Chloe chatting with friends, worrying about her future, and developing a lackluster romance with a boy at school (seriously, why is he even in there?).
I guess if you are part of the 1% and have a "spare" fridge just for storing bottled water and still can't figure out why everyone hates that your parents' donations secured your place at university... then, this book might be the lesson you need. I found it didactic and, for the most part, uninteresting.
November 15, 2020
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Like other pretentious people on the internet, one of my favorite things to do is watch TED talks. That was how I found out about Jon Ronson and his many fascinating discussions on internet shaming. The video I watched was called How one tweet can ruin your life , but he also has a book about the subject as well, and it's all about the pile-on effects of internet vigilantism and how a single misstep can result in devastating consequences for a person, even if their intentions weren't necessarily evil or bad.
I thought about that video a lot while reading ADMISSION, which is a VERY direct parallel to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal that was all over the news just last year. Our heroine, Chloe, is a rich girl who, apart from her mom's celebrity and her fabulous wealth, is painfully average and ordinary. Not exactly the type of person colleges fall over to admit in other words-- especially since, as Chloe herself whines a handful of times-- her parents aren't rich-rich, just really well off, so it's not like they can afford to donate a library wing to guarantee her admission. Her parents can do other things with their money to help, though, like private tutors, special doctor's notes to give her exemptions to take her SAT tests in private, consultants, and so much more. Chloe basically just accepts it all as her due, while whining about all the work and how she's just not smart enough, so nobody is really more surprised than she is when she scores a 1440 on the SAT and gets accepted into SCC.
Because as it turns out, her parents-- but especially her mom-- did some very shady things to get that score and that admission. Things that cheated the system and probably ensured that someone who was actually deserving and did put in the extra mile work to get there didn't get accepted. And because of her mother's fame, and Chloe's own blithe, ignorant privilege, people are mad, and the other people involved in the scandal feel the need to backtrack and cover their tracks to prevent getting painted with the same brush. Her admission is revoked, her best friend and boyfriend won't talk to her and refuse to see her, she can't go to school because it is no longer safe, and people have turned her into an ugly meme online while baying for her mother to go to prison.
I think it's always interesting when an author chooses to make an unsympathetic character the narrator of the book and I thought about Jon Ronson's video a lot because I think it does beg the question: how should people talk about things like this? In this book, Chloe has no idea about what her parents are doing, but she's still blind to her own privilege, griping about how her boyfriend has a touching cancer story to put in his college essay and assuming her Nigerian friend will get in anywhere she wants just because she's Black and different. She doesn't realize how offensive she's being, and everything else is so easy for her that real work just seems to send up immediate mental blocks, because it's like she's just never had to flex those muscles before, so she can't really summon up the motivation to really try.
Unlike some of the people Jon Ronson talks about in his talks, I don't think Chloe is guiltless and it's really hard to muster up much pity for her because she does go about so totally up in her own universe. But she isn't an evil person and neither is her mother, and I don't think the author made too many apologies for people in these kinds of situations (which was my primary concern when I heard about this book). This book is a pretty good cautionary tale about self-entitlement and privilege, while also showing how toxic mob justice can be (even if that isn't the primary message). It doesn't have a total HEA but to be honest, that is probably best. Since Chloe is the villain of her own story, it doesn't really seem fitting for her to end the book walking off in the sunset when she's only really just started out on her own path to redemption.
I'm giving this four stars because it's well written and the story is very dramatic and as hard to look away from as a train wreck, but the CONSTANT flips from "then" to "now" weren't really that well done in places, especially in the beginning, where it felt very choppy. I also didn't like the romance between Chloe and Levi much at all. I stayed away from some of this author's other works because I don't typically get on with fluffy YA romances, seeing as how I am neither a young adult or a fan of fluff, and the way their relationship was written out makes me think that's probably wise.
I'll be back if she writes more timely dramas, though.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
4 to 4.5 stars
April 18, 2020
3 stars
Admission is a story about a high school senior named Chloe. Chloe has a somewhat famous mother, a great dad, and is living her best life in a lot of ways. She finally has the attention of her long time crush, and she has a great best friend. If it wasn’t for the pressure of her college applications, she’d have it made.
Chloe isn’t the best student, and it looks like all of her dream schools are out of reach. Her mom hires an admission coach to help her get into the college of her dreams. Well, it works because Chloe gets in. But then, the unthinkable happens. Her mom is arrested in a college admissions scam and Chloe’s life is over.
This book navigates Chloe’s before life, and Chloe’s now life. It shows everything leading up to her college acceptance and we get to find out if Chloe knew what was going on all along, or if she’s as innocent as she seems.
Admission was an interesting read and definitely unique from what I normally read. There were things I liked about it, but I never felt completely invested in Chloe’s story. I understood where her family was coming from and why they did the things they did, but I found it difficult to be empathetic for them. Overall, this wasn’t my favorite Julie Buxbaum book but it was still well written and I think a lot of people will love it.
Admission is a story about a high school senior named Chloe. Chloe has a somewhat famous mother, a great dad, and is living her best life in a lot of ways. She finally has the attention of her long time crush, and she has a great best friend. If it wasn’t for the pressure of her college applications, she’d have it made.
Chloe isn’t the best student, and it looks like all of her dream schools are out of reach. Her mom hires an admission coach to help her get into the college of her dreams. Well, it works because Chloe gets in. But then, the unthinkable happens. Her mom is arrested in a college admissions scam and Chloe’s life is over.
This book navigates Chloe’s before life, and Chloe’s now life. It shows everything leading up to her college acceptance and we get to find out if Chloe knew what was going on all along, or if she’s as innocent as she seems.
Admission was an interesting read and definitely unique from what I normally read. There were things I liked about it, but I never felt completely invested in Chloe’s story. I understood where her family was coming from and why they did the things they did, but I found it difficult to be empathetic for them. Overall, this wasn’t my favorite Julie Buxbaum book but it was still well written and I think a lot of people will love it.
January 23, 2021
Audiobook....read by Julia Whelan
I’m a sucker for these ....‘admission’ - type - books....
stories with students, school culture, friends, family, drama.....
PROBLEMS that need examining.....
But THIS STORY...(in reality)....was NO JOKING MATTER....
That said....in the wonderful world of fiction....young adult author, Julie Buxbaum, chose to add a little embellished storytelling-FUN-while lightly hitting readers over the head with just how messed up our values are — how messed up people are — how sad and pathetic that parents would go to elaborate lengths to get their children into competitive American universities.
“Admission”, by Julie Buxbaum was inspired by the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
The writing is great....better than I expected. Sure, this is a young adult book (I think many High School students - mostly girls would turn the pages much faster then any of their school assigned books)....but even us older folks can easily get pulled right in.
Even with parts of the adolescent drama - dialogue- friendship trials and tribulations being a little too ‘teenybopper-ish’ ....over-the-top- for me.....
I admit a few of my favorite scenes were definitely over- the-top...
with MOM a key player.
I could get serious here about the compelling aspects of this SCANDAL TALE....( but I already did that with 2019 cutthroat competitiveness, audaciousness, and investigations....reading about the actresses, business leaders, and wealthy parents that were charged in the college entry fraud)....
So... I read this book ( as it was written) with ‘comic’ aspect-enjoyment rather than tragic ( I already know it’s tragic)....
FAVORITE SCENE....involves ICE CREAM....with mom and daughter, Chloe, in the kitchen. The dramatization - spectacle was worth the entire cost of this book.
A fun - compelling read....
....average 17 year old student ( our narrator)
.... Beverly Hills private high school
....White privileged:
.....Father works for a venture capitalist; mother, a television actress, entitled
....Shady cheating-criminal-naughty-unethical-parenting.
....Friends/ best girl friend and boyfriend to Chloe: (great important casting and contrast to to Chloe
....Thought-provoking ( as much or as little as the reader wants).....
But for me....I FOUND IT ENTERTAINING....
......sappy teen dialogue in ‘spots’ ....but reflective insightful truths from our protagonist, Chloe, too.
4.5 star rating FUN!
Other - SCHOOL- type books I enjoyed in the past were:
“Prep”, by Curtis Sittenfeld
“The Admissions”, by Meg Mitchell Moore
“Belzhar”, by Meg Wolitzer
“Looking For Alaska”, by John Green
I’m a sucker for these ....‘admission’ - type - books....
stories with students, school culture, friends, family, drama.....
PROBLEMS that need examining.....
But THIS STORY...(in reality)....was NO JOKING MATTER....
That said....in the wonderful world of fiction....young adult author, Julie Buxbaum, chose to add a little embellished storytelling-FUN-while lightly hitting readers over the head with just how messed up our values are — how messed up people are — how sad and pathetic that parents would go to elaborate lengths to get their children into competitive American universities.
“Admission”, by Julie Buxbaum was inspired by the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
The writing is great....better than I expected. Sure, this is a young adult book (I think many High School students - mostly girls would turn the pages much faster then any of their school assigned books)....but even us older folks can easily get pulled right in.
Even with parts of the adolescent drama - dialogue- friendship trials and tribulations being a little too ‘teenybopper-ish’ ....over-the-top- for me.....
I admit a few of my favorite scenes were definitely over- the-top...
with MOM a key player.
I could get serious here about the compelling aspects of this SCANDAL TALE....( but I already did that with 2019 cutthroat competitiveness, audaciousness, and investigations....reading about the actresses, business leaders, and wealthy parents that were charged in the college entry fraud)....
So... I read this book ( as it was written) with ‘comic’ aspect-enjoyment rather than tragic ( I already know it’s tragic)....
FAVORITE SCENE....involves ICE CREAM....with mom and daughter, Chloe, in the kitchen. The dramatization - spectacle was worth the entire cost of this book.
A fun - compelling read....
....average 17 year old student ( our narrator)
.... Beverly Hills private high school
....White privileged:
.....Father works for a venture capitalist; mother, a television actress, entitled
....Shady cheating-criminal-naughty-unethical-parenting.
....Friends/ best girl friend and boyfriend to Chloe: (great important casting and contrast to to Chloe
....Thought-provoking ( as much or as little as the reader wants).....
But for me....I FOUND IT ENTERTAINING....
......sappy teen dialogue in ‘spots’ ....but reflective insightful truths from our protagonist, Chloe, too.
4.5 star rating FUN!
Other - SCHOOL- type books I enjoyed in the past were:
“Prep”, by Curtis Sittenfeld
“The Admissions”, by Meg Mitchell Moore
“Belzhar”, by Meg Wolitzer
“Looking For Alaska”, by John Green
April 2, 2020
A thought provoking story about privilege, complicity, and accepting responsibility. Ripped from the headlines and loosely based on the recent college admission scandal. Julie Buxbaum does a good job of humanizing the story without making excuses. As a Parent who has gone through the college admission process twice in a very competitive California environment, I found the story to be telling, compelling, and relatable. The public schools in California are extremely hard to get into if your child has a 4.0 or even a 4.4 it does not mean they are going to be a sure bet to get into any of the top colleges in the UC or CSU system. And the same is true for the private schools. It is a stressful time and as a parent you want to give your child every opportunity, and when the college admission scandal news broke it was not shocking. Unfortunate and definitely not right, but not surprising. The story is told from the perspective of high school senior Chloe. Chloe appears to have everything she wants she got into the school of her dreams, her boyfriend is the boy and she’s been crushing on forever, and she has one heck of a best friend. Then one day The FBI shows up at the crack of dawn and everything changes. It seems as though Chloe‘s mother a B-list star has paid her way into college. Now her mom might go to jail, her boyfriend has broke up with her, and her best friend won’t talk to her. not to mention she is no longer going to that school of her dreams. Sound familiar?
The story bounces back-and-forth in time, before the scandal and after. Chloe was a likable character who I really felt for. She really got sucked up into her parents dreams and did not want to disappoint them. In the book she was really kept in the dark about what was going on. She did realize things weren’t really adding up, like how did she do so well on the SAT when she was certain she bombed it? And my heart broke for her when she felt as though it was all her fault because her parents thought that she was too “dumb“ to get into college. This was something these parents clearly did not think about. The person I felt the most for in the story was Isla, Chloe‘s younger sister. Isla was smart and studious and was definitely going to get into college on her own merit, but the scandal will forever impact her as well. I liked how the story unfolded, I was definitely disappointed in some characters, frustrated with others, but very impressed with some as well. Chloe did a lot of self reflecting and had a lot of growth throughout the story. I am confident that she will rise from this and come out of it a better person. I would love to see a follow up and see where Chloe and Isla are in a few years.
This book in emojis 🏫 ✏️ 👨👩👧👧
*** Big thank you to Random House for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***
The story bounces back-and-forth in time, before the scandal and after. Chloe was a likable character who I really felt for. She really got sucked up into her parents dreams and did not want to disappoint them. In the book she was really kept in the dark about what was going on. She did realize things weren’t really adding up, like how did she do so well on the SAT when she was certain she bombed it? And my heart broke for her when she felt as though it was all her fault because her parents thought that she was too “dumb“ to get into college. This was something these parents clearly did not think about. The person I felt the most for in the story was Isla, Chloe‘s younger sister. Isla was smart and studious and was definitely going to get into college on her own merit, but the scandal will forever impact her as well. I liked how the story unfolded, I was definitely disappointed in some characters, frustrated with others, but very impressed with some as well. Chloe did a lot of self reflecting and had a lot of growth throughout the story. I am confident that she will rise from this and come out of it a better person. I would love to see a follow up and see where Chloe and Isla are in a few years.
This book in emojis 🏫 ✏️ 👨👩👧👧
*** Big thank you to Random House for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***
January 27, 2024
ADMISSION was a fictionalized version of the college admissions bribery scandal of 2019, told from the perspective of one of the teens whose mom (clearly modeled after “Aunt Becky”) fakes a disability for her daughter and bribes a test proctor to change her SAT scores. Chloe is a privileged girl growing up in Beverly Hills. She is also struggling in school and despite studying hard, can’t seem to bring her SAT scores up. I found Chloe to be a sympathetic character who was blindsided by the FBI showing up on her doorstep and all of her friends abandoning her. Did she miss some clues that something untoward may have been going on? Sure. But I think most kids trust their parents. The book is divided into Now and Then sections. I found myself skimming through the Then sections after the first few, wanting to get back to the Now sections. Some well-drawn side characters including Chloe’s sister Isla and the guidance counselor.
December 17, 2020
Julie Buxbaum's new YA novel,
Admission
, is a fictional look at the recent college admissions scandal.
Chloe doesn’t love school. She enjoys spending time with her friends and all the perks of going to an exclusive private school, but schoolwork doesn’t come easy to her, and her grades and SAT scores reflect that. She doesn’t know what she wants out of life or if she even wants to go to college.
Her mother is a B-list television actress and her dad is a wealthy businessman, and they want Chloe to go to a good college. So they hire a special college counselor to help Chloe with improving her test scores, strengthening her applications, etc. And when she gets in to the school of her dreams, she’s excited and relieved.
But the next thing she knows, the FBI is swarming her house and arresting her mother for being part of a massive college admissions bribery scandal. This threatens Chloe and her dad, too, and there’s a chance she could even be prosecuted.
Suddenly everything Chloe has held dear is in ruins. It forces her to confront her privilege, and come to terms with what she actually knew about the whole thing, and what she did about it. But more than that she needs to understand why her parents felt they needed to do this for her. Did they think she’d fail otherwise, and would that be embarrassing for them?
"Under all this lies the terrible quicksand of fear. What if they are right? What if it's true that we are terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad people? If I allow myself to dip my toes into that idea, that I am not actually the hero of my own story but a villain, I quickly find myself neck deep."
Even though this book has a very ripped-from-the-headlines feel I was really hooked on it. It’s crazy to read about the strings that get pulled for families with money, putting others at a disadvantage. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic but this still was an interesting story about how blind we are to our privilege. It also was entertaining to see how “the other half” lives.
NetGalley and Delacorte Press provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!
The book publishes 12/1/2020.
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2019 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2019.html.
Check out my list of the best books of the decade at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-favorite-books-of-decade.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Chloe doesn’t love school. She enjoys spending time with her friends and all the perks of going to an exclusive private school, but schoolwork doesn’t come easy to her, and her grades and SAT scores reflect that. She doesn’t know what she wants out of life or if she even wants to go to college.
Her mother is a B-list television actress and her dad is a wealthy businessman, and they want Chloe to go to a good college. So they hire a special college counselor to help Chloe with improving her test scores, strengthening her applications, etc. And when she gets in to the school of her dreams, she’s excited and relieved.
But the next thing she knows, the FBI is swarming her house and arresting her mother for being part of a massive college admissions bribery scandal. This threatens Chloe and her dad, too, and there’s a chance she could even be prosecuted.
Suddenly everything Chloe has held dear is in ruins. It forces her to confront her privilege, and come to terms with what she actually knew about the whole thing, and what she did about it. But more than that she needs to understand why her parents felt they needed to do this for her. Did they think she’d fail otherwise, and would that be embarrassing for them?
"Under all this lies the terrible quicksand of fear. What if they are right? What if it's true that we are terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad people? If I allow myself to dip my toes into that idea, that I am not actually the hero of my own story but a villain, I quickly find myself neck deep."
Even though this book has a very ripped-from-the-headlines feel I was really hooked on it. It’s crazy to read about the strings that get pulled for families with money, putting others at a disadvantage. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic but this still was an interesting story about how blind we are to our privilege. It also was entertaining to see how “the other half” lives.
NetGalley and Delacorte Press provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!
The book publishes 12/1/2020.
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2019 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2019.html.
Check out my list of the best books of the decade at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-favorite-books-of-decade.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
June 9, 2021
If you’re remotely of the Varsity Blues college admission scandal, Admission will be a familiar story, told through alternating “Now” and “Then” timelines.
Chloe Berringer is a senior at a private school in Los Angeles, the daughter of an actress and corporate executive, who dreams of going to college at SCC. She is a decent but unremarkable student and her guidance counselor encourages her to also apply to more realistic schools. She follows her parents’ firm direction in the application process, as they hire a private admissions consultant and arrange for special test taking accommodations, among other things. Chloe is surprised by her SAT score, which skyrocketed since her previous attempt, and is shocked when she gets into SCC. Of course, the liberties taken eventually come to light, shaming the Berringer family and threatening their privileged life.
I had a real hard time feeling for Chloe or her family — Recognizing this is a fictional story (though clearly modeled after true events), I’m a big believer in “see something, say something”. Chloe was 17, not 12, and there were plenty of red flags throughout her application journey. Her younger sister Isla’s unsympathetic “take no shit” attitude toward the rest of the Berringer family was my favorite aspect of this story.
I can’t say Admission poses an interesting moral dilemma because, to me, the lines between right and wrong in this situation are very clear. Thinking about my own grad school application process and the hard work it took to get in — without any connections or donations (which is certainly the rule, not the exception) — the white privilege and “slaps” on the wrist for those involved in the real Varsity Blues scandal remain infuriating!
I listened to Admission as an audiobook, a story greatly enhanced by the talented narration of Julia Whelan.
Chloe Berringer is a senior at a private school in Los Angeles, the daughter of an actress and corporate executive, who dreams of going to college at SCC. She is a decent but unremarkable student and her guidance counselor encourages her to also apply to more realistic schools. She follows her parents’ firm direction in the application process, as they hire a private admissions consultant and arrange for special test taking accommodations, among other things. Chloe is surprised by her SAT score, which skyrocketed since her previous attempt, and is shocked when she gets into SCC. Of course, the liberties taken eventually come to light, shaming the Berringer family and threatening their privileged life.
I had a real hard time feeling for Chloe or her family — Recognizing this is a fictional story (though clearly modeled after true events), I’m a big believer in “see something, say something”. Chloe was 17, not 12, and there were plenty of red flags throughout her application journey. Her younger sister Isla’s unsympathetic “take no shit” attitude toward the rest of the Berringer family was my favorite aspect of this story.
I can’t say Admission poses an interesting moral dilemma because, to me, the lines between right and wrong in this situation are very clear. Thinking about my own grad school application process and the hard work it took to get in — without any connections or donations (which is certainly the rule, not the exception) — the white privilege and “slaps” on the wrist for those involved in the real Varsity Blues scandal remain infuriating!
I listened to Admission as an audiobook, a story greatly enhanced by the talented narration of Julia Whelan.
April 27, 2020
I received a copy of this title via NetGalley. It does not impact my review.
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard about the big College Admission Scandal. Many wealthy parents, including a couple celebrities, used a “consultant” to cheat their kids into prestigious colleges. Admission is an account of a fictional family facing the fall out. However, if you’re hoping for more emotional insight than you’ve seen on the news – or that Lifetime Channel movie – then you’re going to be a little disappointed.
The crimes of Chloe’s parents are taken directly out of the headlines and seems to be a combination of both Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, though I definitely felt more of a tilt towards Loughlin. The story read a lot like the Lifetime movie of the scandal, except the movie was a little more interesting. The slow pace and unlikable characters made the book a chore to get through. There is even a part early on where Chloe is in English class discussing a book and is reminded that readers don’t need to like characters in literature, which feels like a cop out for not making the characters of this book more developed or empathetic.
The chapters alternate between Now and Then, with the Now chapters starting with the FBI showing up and the Then chapters starting with Chloe struggling to study for the SATs. I have to say I found the Now chapters much more interesting. Most of the Then chapters felt a little like filler that basically just highlighted all the ways that Chloe was unaware of her rich, white privilege. There are snippets of Chloe ignoring the weird things her parents were doing – telling her she has ADHD to get accommodations on the SAT, going through her phone to find a picture where she has a good tan that someone might be able to confuse for some Argentinian heritage, etc. The past chapters also chronicled her relationship with her best friend and friend-turned-boyfriend, who were both pretty underdeveloped caricatures.
I think the story would have benefited by adding some other POVs. Or even making at least one of the characters a little more calculating. Here everyone knows what they’re doing isn’t on the up and up exactly, but they also don’t think it’s really that bad. The whole point of the story seems to be to cast a light on how privileged people don’t fully grasp their privilege and it’s effect on others. All explained to us by a privileged white lady…
Overall, I found Admission pretty disappointing. The main character was whiny and unrelatable, there wasn’t really anything in the story that you haven’t already read in the news, and the overall moral of the story about wealthy, white privilege came across as kind of trite. Also, the cute romance I expect from a Buxbaum book was almost completely missing here. The one bright spot in the book was Chloe’s sister, Isla, who was the only character who didn’t feel like a complete cliche, even if she was a little unrealistic.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 2 Stars
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard about the big College Admission Scandal. Many wealthy parents, including a couple celebrities, used a “consultant” to cheat their kids into prestigious colleges. Admission is an account of a fictional family facing the fall out. However, if you’re hoping for more emotional insight than you’ve seen on the news – or that Lifetime Channel movie – then you’re going to be a little disappointed.
The crimes of Chloe’s parents are taken directly out of the headlines and seems to be a combination of both Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, though I definitely felt more of a tilt towards Loughlin. The story read a lot like the Lifetime movie of the scandal, except the movie was a little more interesting. The slow pace and unlikable characters made the book a chore to get through. There is even a part early on where Chloe is in English class discussing a book and is reminded that readers don’t need to like characters in literature, which feels like a cop out for not making the characters of this book more developed or empathetic.
The chapters alternate between Now and Then, with the Now chapters starting with the FBI showing up and the Then chapters starting with Chloe struggling to study for the SATs. I have to say I found the Now chapters much more interesting. Most of the Then chapters felt a little like filler that basically just highlighted all the ways that Chloe was unaware of her rich, white privilege. There are snippets of Chloe ignoring the weird things her parents were doing – telling her she has ADHD to get accommodations on the SAT, going through her phone to find a picture where she has a good tan that someone might be able to confuse for some Argentinian heritage, etc. The past chapters also chronicled her relationship with her best friend and friend-turned-boyfriend, who were both pretty underdeveloped caricatures.
I think the story would have benefited by adding some other POVs. Or even making at least one of the characters a little more calculating. Here everyone knows what they’re doing isn’t on the up and up exactly, but they also don’t think it’s really that bad. The whole point of the story seems to be to cast a light on how privileged people don’t fully grasp their privilege and it’s effect on others. All explained to us by a privileged white lady…
Overall, I found Admission pretty disappointing. The main character was whiny and unrelatable, there wasn’t really anything in the story that you haven’t already read in the news, and the overall moral of the story about wealthy, white privilege came across as kind of trite. Also, the cute romance I expect from a Buxbaum book was almost completely missing here. The one bright spot in the book was Chloe’s sister, Isla, who was the only character who didn’t feel like a complete cliche, even if she was a little unrealistic.
Overall Rating (out of 5): 2 Stars
April 1, 2020
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Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
The side door was the only way in for people like me:
not smart enough to get in on their own,
not quite gilded enough to buy their way in legally.
Unapologetically honest. That is the best description for Admission, and the facts that Julie Buxbaum has given us: those with money want to buy their way toward the bigger and the better, and more often than not, they accomplish it. I don't want to do the unpleasant thing and group a whole bunch of people with 'X' common denominator into the same group, but, let's face it, this “privilege” mentality happens every single day. And though it is clearly expressed that this is a work of fiction, one can't help but recall the very famous and real case that was brought to light in 2019 involving an extremely similar college scandal.
I'll be honest, I wasn't high enough on the GPA spectrum or extra-curricular activity side of school to even aspire going to a university like Yale, Princeton or Harvard (although, as an aside, I do want to visit Yale one day, because that campus is gorgeous). I did well, I was right on that 3.5 GPA line, and I'm proud of my ranking. But an Ivy League school would've laughed themselves to death if I had so much as attempted to apply to them.
I did, however, know a few students in my high school that not only wanted to attend schools like these, but they were incredibly bright, talented young men and women who would've been incredible assets. A lot of them did not make it, and while back then I felt bad since their hearts were so obviously set on this, now, as an adult, I better understand the probabilities and possibilities of why they may not have succeeded in being approved for entrance.
There were times when it was uncomfortable to read Admission, because the family around which it revolves is so entitled, without being aware of how much this term applies to them. They have every material thing that they could possibly want—or need—they have so many doors open to them for all the things that they could want to do in life, they have other people running around town fetching them coffee, or ice cream, or laundry. And yet, for some reason, they go to specialists so that they can make sure that they poop in optimal position.
No, really.
And this truly could happen out there, in the “real” world. If The Real Housewives of ANYWHERE has taught me anything, is that drama sells and if you have enough money to stop knowing what to do with it, you spend it on other people telling you how to do mundane tasks in a way that will get you best results. Cause heavens forbid we sit incorrectly on a toilet seat.
In the whole of this novel, my favorite character is Isla. This young girl, one year beneath our lead Chloe, is more in contact with the reality of the world than the rest of her family, and it is so satisfying to see her throw this in their faces as the story progresses. She helps them wake up and snap the hell out of it. Isla, who comes from this wealthy family, works hard, sweats, bleeds for what she accomplishes in life; it's one of the best lessons that Chloe learns: her little sister Isla is going to get into the school of her dreams one day because she struggled for it, not because mommy and daddy were able to pay her way to it.
This story is a perfect example of what happens when the silver spoon is ripped away from you and you crash to the ground: you suffer, you look like an idiot, and you answer to the law. We, as the other side of the coin, want this, we hunger for it, and sometimes we are a little crazed and violent in our relish of those who did wrong pay. It's all spelled here, clear as day. I'm just glad that those involved are aware of what they do. I'm glad that the author allows Chloe's mom—and dad—to stop being in denial as the face of this scandal, face what she did, and own up to it. The interview near the end of the novel, where she basically has a nervous breakdown on life TV and admits her culpability and apologizes, brought tears to my eyes.
Yes, this is a novel of disgustingly affluent individuals who take complete advantage of their status, but it's about what it means to be a human being. And as a human being you are going to make mistakes. Bottom line, emotionally, this is a fantastic novel. Buxbaum presents us with a less than perfect group of people, who are not great to read about and make you cringe every time an elite-status-related sentence spews out of their mouths—sometimes without them even realizing it, which is somehow worse—and slowly peels away at them until we get a rawer version, stripped of all pretense.
We still know that they did wrong, but somehow we appreciate it all a little more because now they have awareness. It's very real, it's very current, and it's very worth the read.
Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are mine.
The side door was the only way in for people like me:
not smart enough to get in on their own,
not quite gilded enough to buy their way in legally.
Unapologetically honest. That is the best description for Admission, and the facts that Julie Buxbaum has given us: those with money want to buy their way toward the bigger and the better, and more often than not, they accomplish it. I don't want to do the unpleasant thing and group a whole bunch of people with 'X' common denominator into the same group, but, let's face it, this “privilege” mentality happens every single day. And though it is clearly expressed that this is a work of fiction, one can't help but recall the very famous and real case that was brought to light in 2019 involving an extremely similar college scandal.
I'll be honest, I wasn't high enough on the GPA spectrum or extra-curricular activity side of school to even aspire going to a university like Yale, Princeton or Harvard (although, as an aside, I do want to visit Yale one day, because that campus is gorgeous). I did well, I was right on that 3.5 GPA line, and I'm proud of my ranking. But an Ivy League school would've laughed themselves to death if I had so much as attempted to apply to them.
I did, however, know a few students in my high school that not only wanted to attend schools like these, but they were incredibly bright, talented young men and women who would've been incredible assets. A lot of them did not make it, and while back then I felt bad since their hearts were so obviously set on this, now, as an adult, I better understand the probabilities and possibilities of why they may not have succeeded in being approved for entrance.
There were times when it was uncomfortable to read Admission, because the family around which it revolves is so entitled, without being aware of how much this term applies to them. They have every material thing that they could possibly want—or need—they have so many doors open to them for all the things that they could want to do in life, they have other people running around town fetching them coffee, or ice cream, or laundry. And yet, for some reason, they go to specialists so that they can make sure that they poop in optimal position.
No, really.
And this truly could happen out there, in the “real” world. If The Real Housewives of ANYWHERE has taught me anything, is that drama sells and if you have enough money to stop knowing what to do with it, you spend it on other people telling you how to do mundane tasks in a way that will get you best results. Cause heavens forbid we sit incorrectly on a toilet seat.
In the whole of this novel, my favorite character is Isla. This young girl, one year beneath our lead Chloe, is more in contact with the reality of the world than the rest of her family, and it is so satisfying to see her throw this in their faces as the story progresses. She helps them wake up and snap the hell out of it. Isla, who comes from this wealthy family, works hard, sweats, bleeds for what she accomplishes in life; it's one of the best lessons that Chloe learns: her little sister Isla is going to get into the school of her dreams one day because she struggled for it, not because mommy and daddy were able to pay her way to it.
This story is a perfect example of what happens when the silver spoon is ripped away from you and you crash to the ground: you suffer, you look like an idiot, and you answer to the law. We, as the other side of the coin, want this, we hunger for it, and sometimes we are a little crazed and violent in our relish of those who did wrong pay. It's all spelled here, clear as day. I'm just glad that those involved are aware of what they do. I'm glad that the author allows Chloe's mom—and dad—to stop being in denial as the face of this scandal, face what she did, and own up to it. The interview near the end of the novel, where she basically has a nervous breakdown on life TV and admits her culpability and apologizes, brought tears to my eyes.
Yes, this is a novel of disgustingly affluent individuals who take complete advantage of their status, but it's about what it means to be a human being. And as a human being you are going to make mistakes. Bottom line, emotionally, this is a fantastic novel. Buxbaum presents us with a less than perfect group of people, who are not great to read about and make you cringe every time an elite-status-related sentence spews out of their mouths—sometimes without them even realizing it, which is somehow worse—and slowly peels away at them until we get a rawer version, stripped of all pretense.
We still know that they did wrong, but somehow we appreciate it all a little more because now they have awareness. It's very real, it's very current, and it's very worth the read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2021
I read Julie Buxbaum's latest in one sitting. I was so taken with Chloe's story I couldn't put this book down! It navigates from Chloe's mom's arrest to the past when Chloe is doing her college applications. I promise you'll be taken with this ripped from the headlines story that touches on privilege, class and the struggle to be true to yourself.
April 16, 2023
I would have been impressed with this if it was written pre college admissions scandal of 2019. But this is basically “torn from the headlines” and full of regurgitated stories of what happened in real life. Unfortunately the lack of originality and spin on a true story made me feel like I was just rereading about the scandal.
I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
December 17, 2020
***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of ADMISSION by Julie Buxbaum in exchange for my honest review.***
5 HUMUNGOUS STARS achieved without any felonious cheating or bribery
What if you were an average high school senior among the elite? What if your younger sister, best friend and your not-so-secret crush were brainiacs who barely had to study? What if you knew you weren’t good enough?
Chloe believes her low self-esteem is warranted. After her actress mom is arrested for fixing her SAT results and college admission, now the world knows too. Chloe blames herself for her mom needing to go to such extreme and illegal measures. If she were smarter, her mom wouldn’t have felt the need.
Julie Buxbaum’s ripped-from-the-headlines fictional story ADMISSION, aside from being compulsively readable, gave me an entirely different perspective on the real life scandal playing out in the news. Initially, I saw the true story as one of privilege and entitlement, spoiled kids who never had to work for anything. ADMISSION is not that story.
Chloe’s privileged life is not her fault. While not the best student, she’s not a slacker. She loves her volunteer work because unlike school, reading to kids comes easier to her and she excels. Loving school isn’t difficult when learning comes easy with the added perks of constant external validation. Those kudos are not Chloe’s experience.
Her mom may seem like the villain, for cheating on Chloe’s behalf, especially when we see poor minority mothers sentenced to years in prison for enrolling their children in better public school districts by falsifying residency. Beneath both of these crimes, love of children motivated poor decision making.
Before reading ADMISSION, I judged Felicity Huffman harshly. I didn’t consider a wide variety of possible reasons. I didn’t know one of her daughters had a learning difference, which affected her standardized test taking and grades. I didn’t know Felicity’s daughter’s level of suffering from her mother’s lack of faith in her, self-blame and the possible lifelong damage to their relationship. Federal prosecutors better ask jurors if they’ve read ADMISSION during voir dire or else acquittal will be guaranteed at trial.
Through complex characters and beautiful storytelling Buxbaum caused me to open my mind, google and develop empathy and a broader perspective. I never felt as if Buxbaum was lesson teaching or spoon feeding me opinions. I was fully immersed in Chloe’s journey, experiencing her feelings and going through her trials and triumphs.
Buxbaum’s books get better and better. She’s a must-preorder writer for me.
My strongest recommendations for ADMISSION.
ETA: the audiobook is wonderful too
5 HUMUNGOUS STARS achieved without any felonious cheating or bribery
What if you were an average high school senior among the elite? What if your younger sister, best friend and your not-so-secret crush were brainiacs who barely had to study? What if you knew you weren’t good enough?
Chloe believes her low self-esteem is warranted. After her actress mom is arrested for fixing her SAT results and college admission, now the world knows too. Chloe blames herself for her mom needing to go to such extreme and illegal measures. If she were smarter, her mom wouldn’t have felt the need.
Julie Buxbaum’s ripped-from-the-headlines fictional story ADMISSION, aside from being compulsively readable, gave me an entirely different perspective on the real life scandal playing out in the news. Initially, I saw the true story as one of privilege and entitlement, spoiled kids who never had to work for anything. ADMISSION is not that story.
Chloe’s privileged life is not her fault. While not the best student, she’s not a slacker. She loves her volunteer work because unlike school, reading to kids comes easier to her and she excels. Loving school isn’t difficult when learning comes easy with the added perks of constant external validation. Those kudos are not Chloe’s experience.
Her mom may seem like the villain, for cheating on Chloe’s behalf, especially when we see poor minority mothers sentenced to years in prison for enrolling their children in better public school districts by falsifying residency. Beneath both of these crimes, love of children motivated poor decision making.
Before reading ADMISSION, I judged Felicity Huffman harshly. I didn’t consider a wide variety of possible reasons. I didn’t know one of her daughters had a learning difference, which affected her standardized test taking and grades. I didn’t know Felicity’s daughter’s level of suffering from her mother’s lack of faith in her, self-blame and the possible lifelong damage to their relationship. Federal prosecutors better ask jurors if they’ve read ADMISSION during voir dire or else acquittal will be guaranteed at trial.
Through complex characters and beautiful storytelling Buxbaum caused me to open my mind, google and develop empathy and a broader perspective. I never felt as if Buxbaum was lesson teaching or spoon feeding me opinions. I was fully immersed in Chloe’s journey, experiencing her feelings and going through her trials and triumphs.
Buxbaum’s books get better and better. She’s a must-preorder writer for me.
My strongest recommendations for ADMISSION.
ETA: the audiobook is wonderful too
December 25, 2020
Money makes you weak because it tricks you into thinking you’re strong
Sometimes authors surprise you. I had labeled Julie Buxbaum as someone who wrote cute YA contemporaries, but with her new release, that mindset has been totally eerased from my mind. Admission is definitely not a cute YA novel, it delves into topics that need to be adressed
Chloe Berringer often complains that her life lacks colour, there are no adventures in her life and nothing out of the ordinary. But when the FBI knocks on her door in the morning, her wish for something new in life quickly diminishes. When the headlines in popular news channels proclaim the crimes that her mother committed, all she wants to do is lay low. But wherever she turns, she’s greeted with “JOY FIELD, SITCOM STAR, ARRESTED ON MULTIPLE FRAUD CHARGES IN COUNTRYWIDE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL.”
Chloe’s college application was rewritten, her scores were inflated and her ethnicity changed, just so that she could get into whichever school she needs. The important thing that needs to be understood is that a white author has penned this novel, and it is not about the privileges that whites have over others, instead it focuses on how all those privileges make you blind and force you to do things that are immoral.
Chloe is portrayed as someone who had ADHD in her applications and given extra time on her SATs. Even though she knows that all her conducts are wrong, she decides to play the silent spectator. Guilt and shame are gnawing her heart out and she is also faced with the realization that her best friend Shola who is black had to work so hard to ensure a spot in college, while Chloe had an upper hand.
This novel can be really upsetting if you are not reading it the way it should be read. Yes it is about people with financial privileges bribing to make their way in, but it has deeper meanings. (I’m not spelling them out, because it is evident in the novel when you read it and reflect upon it. It is about how parents think they are doing the right thing for their children, but in reality they aren’t.
Bribery, scandal, lies, white superiority, money and muscle power form the heart of this novel, ripped from the headlines of the Varsity Blues Scandal of 2019
(I know this is a short review and DEFINITELY not my best work, it's just that I have a lot of work to do, and had to type this up in a jiffy. Please try to understand...)
January 12, 2021
I’ve decided that it was ultimately irresponsible of me to finish this book, and for the author to write it, and the publisher to publish it, etc.
the author: there are better things to write about than a redemption arc for some poor little rich girl.
publishers: there are better things to publish and give a platform to than a redemption arc for some poor little rich girl. like, for instance, marginalized authors and stories. or practically anything else.
myself: there are better things to read and devote my time to than a redemption arc for some poor little rich girl. like, for instance, marginalized authors and stories. or practically anything else.
The 'lessons' Chole, our main character, learned are bland and pointless. They don't SAY anything really. And she gets off scot-free and happily ever after. Emily May put it really well in saying there were opportunities to explore nuance here that was left unused.
I want to mention that, most blatantly offensive to me, there is a Black best friend named Shola who is literally a prop. Her only role in the book is to be poor and fodder for Chole to recognize privilege. She has no characterization, motivation, or purpose other than to be an extended metaphor for Chole's privilege and the only consequence of Chloe's actions (in that the climax of the book is Shola 'unfriending' Chole). It's so infuriating. Black characters deserve more.
I considered just deleting this book from my shelves but wanted to give a warning. I'm committing to continuing to read more diverse and marginalized stories this year, and less about people who's stories, frankly, don't deserve my sympathy or precious time.
the author: there are better things to write about than a redemption arc for some poor little rich girl.
publishers: there are better things to publish and give a platform to than a redemption arc for some poor little rich girl. like, for instance, marginalized authors and stories. or practically anything else.
myself: there are better things to read and devote my time to than a redemption arc for some poor little rich girl. like, for instance, marginalized authors and stories. or practically anything else.
The 'lessons' Chole, our main character, learned are bland and pointless. They don't SAY anything really. And she gets off scot-free and happily ever after. Emily May put it really well in saying there were opportunities to explore nuance here that was left unused.
I want to mention that, most blatantly offensive to me, there is a Black best friend named Shola who is literally a prop. Her only role in the book is to be poor and fodder for Chole to recognize privilege. She has no characterization, motivation, or purpose other than to be an extended metaphor for Chole's privilege and the only consequence of Chloe's actions (in that the climax of the book is Shola 'unfriending' Chole). It's so infuriating. Black characters deserve more.
I considered just deleting this book from my shelves but wanted to give a warning. I'm committing to continuing to read more diverse and marginalized stories this year, and less about people who's stories, frankly, don't deserve my sympathy or precious time.
May 25, 2020
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Admission was an interesting book. I wont lie to you at one point I was a bit bored with everything. Especially when it came to the little flashbacks because this point.. all of Chloe's "friends" ghosted the shit out of her or left her completely alone. So yeah, I didn't really care about her crush and how things were kind of going her way.. when they really weren't.
Other than that, Chloe was an okay character. Not the brightest person out there but it also didn't feel like she even tried at school. I get that studying is hard and not everyone can do it correctly but that's why the world has tutors and studying habits. Also her dream college where all she wanted to do was going to parties, meet people, and possibly lose her virginity aren't great reasons to go to any college.
At some point, Chloe started to think something was wrong. Especially when it came to her SAT scores. It also didn't help that her parents were acting weird and suspicious throughout most of the book. Heck, I even agreed with how Shola was feeling/acting when everyone was acting over-privileged. Yet, I don't agree with how Shola handled their friendship.
Again, here friends weren't the best because of how they handled things. Yeah, her parents screwed up - a lot of parents did. It sucks.. but they shouldn't place the blame on her. The whole thing was kind of sucky and I felt bad for Chloe.
In the end, it was an okay book with a bittersweet ending.
Admission was an interesting book. I wont lie to you at one point I was a bit bored with everything. Especially when it came to the little flashbacks because this point.. all of Chloe's "friends" ghosted the shit out of her or left her completely alone. So yeah, I didn't really care about her crush and how things were kind of going her way.. when they really weren't.
Other than that, Chloe was an okay character. Not the brightest person out there but it also didn't feel like she even tried at school. I get that studying is hard and not everyone can do it correctly but that's why the world has tutors and studying habits. Also her dream college where all she wanted to do was going to parties, meet people, and possibly lose her virginity aren't great reasons to go to any college.
At some point, Chloe started to think something was wrong. Especially when it came to her SAT scores. It also didn't help that her parents were acting weird and suspicious throughout most of the book. Heck, I even agreed with how Shola was feeling/acting when everyone was acting over-privileged. Yet, I don't agree with how Shola handled their friendship.
Again, here friends weren't the best because of how they handled things. Yeah, her parents screwed up - a lot of parents did. It sucks.. but they shouldn't place the blame on her. The whole thing was kind of sucky and I felt bad for Chloe.
In the end, it was an okay book with a bittersweet ending.
November 13, 2020
dnf page 125 (~40%)
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I really wanted to like this one! I am a huge fan of college admissions in general, and I found the USC admissions scandal to be really interesting. I thought that this book would offer a unique spin on that, but I don't think it was for me. Please note that I only read about 40% of this book, so my opinions do not reflect the rest of it. However, I do feel as if I did read enough to develop an opinion about the beginning and overall trajectory of the novel.
The entire first 125 pages, nearly echoes the entire real-life admissions scandal, so it was a little boring to hear a story so similar to what I was already familiar with. The entire plot is about the MC's parents being charged for artificially raising her SAT score & by getting her into a college by bribing a coach, which is *extremely* similar to the real thing that happened with Loughlin and USC. I was just hoping for a twist on that story in some way, rather than a near direct copy of it.
I wasn't particularly a fan of the characters either. I suppose I only read the first 100 pages, so they definitely could have changed for the better. I felt that the main character, Chloe, was too shallow and underdeveloped. She felt too cliche, fitting the "average oblivious rich-kid who likes to party and doesn't know anything outside of her own little bubble" stereotype. Additionally, Chloe was a little too naive for my own tastes, and I felt that too much of the story focused on her getting dragged along by her parents while not understanding a single thing about what was happening.
The main love interest and romance wasn't my favorite either. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, since I don't think I've read enough to make any judgements, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that I didn't like him either. Like Chloe, he felt a little too shallow and boring.
Overall, I had high hopes for this book, but it fell flat. While it might be the right book for others, it unfortunately wasn't for me.
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Note that I did receive this book from the publisher for free, in exchange for a photo on my bookstagram, instagram.com/universewithinpages. I was not asked to read or write a review for this book, and all opinions are my own.
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I really wanted to like this one! I am a huge fan of college admissions in general, and I found the USC admissions scandal to be really interesting. I thought that this book would offer a unique spin on that, but I don't think it was for me. Please note that I only read about 40% of this book, so my opinions do not reflect the rest of it. However, I do feel as if I did read enough to develop an opinion about the beginning and overall trajectory of the novel.
The entire first 125 pages, nearly echoes the entire real-life admissions scandal, so it was a little boring to hear a story so similar to what I was already familiar with. The entire plot is about the MC's parents being charged for artificially raising her SAT score & by getting her into a college by bribing a coach, which is *extremely* similar to the real thing that happened with Loughlin and USC. I was just hoping for a twist on that story in some way, rather than a near direct copy of it.
I wasn't particularly a fan of the characters either. I suppose I only read the first 100 pages, so they definitely could have changed for the better. I felt that the main character, Chloe, was too shallow and underdeveloped. She felt too cliche, fitting the "average oblivious rich-kid who likes to party and doesn't know anything outside of her own little bubble" stereotype. Additionally, Chloe was a little too naive for my own tastes, and I felt that too much of the story focused on her getting dragged along by her parents while not understanding a single thing about what was happening.
The main love interest and romance wasn't my favorite either. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, since I don't think I've read enough to make any judgements, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that I didn't like him either. Like Chloe, he felt a little too shallow and boring.
Overall, I had high hopes for this book, but it fell flat. While it might be the right book for others, it unfortunately wasn't for me.
---
Note that I did receive this book from the publisher for free, in exchange for a photo on my bookstagram, instagram.com/universewithinpages. I was not asked to read or write a review for this book, and all opinions are my own.
March 18, 2020
I have read and loved all of Julie Buxbaum's YA novels and her latest, ADMISSION, is no exception. It is a thought provoking fictionalization based on the recent college admissions scandal. It is timely and relevant while still being compulsively readable.
The story is structured with an alternating pre and post scandal timeline. This format worked well in unraveling what it means to be complicit. It doesn't sugar coat the consequences or fallout. At the same time the story implores you to resist reducing Chloe to a catch all meme and see her as a person. While I don't have much empathy, Buxbaum was able to humanize the characters- even the parents. It was beautifully balanced with heft and humor.
As a parent of teenagers, I appreciated that the story was told from the students perspective. I loved watching Chloe's self-awareness evolve. In particular, her realizations of privilege and not making excuses for her role in the scandal.
I'll be gently pressing this into the hands of my teenagers. I love when a book can entertain and inform without being heavy handed.
Merged review:
I have read and loved all of Julie Buxbaum's YA novels and her latest, ADMISSION, is no exception. It is a thought provoking fictionalization based on the recent college admissions scandal. It is timely and relevant while still being compulsively readable.
The story is structured with an alternating pre and post scandal timeline. This format worked well in unraveling what it means to be complicit. It doesn't sugar coat the consequences or fallout. At the same time the story implores you to resist reducing Chloe to a catch all meme and see her as a person. While I don't have much empathy, Buxbaum was able to humanize the characters- even the parents. It was beautifully balanced with heft and humor.
As a parent of teenagers, I appreciated that the story was told from the students perspective. I loved watching Chloe's self-awareness evolve. In particular, her realizations of privilege and not making excuses for her role in the scandal.
I'll be gently pressing this into the hands of my teenagers. I love when a book can entertain and inform without being heavy handed.
The story is structured with an alternating pre and post scandal timeline. This format worked well in unraveling what it means to be complicit. It doesn't sugar coat the consequences or fallout. At the same time the story implores you to resist reducing Chloe to a catch all meme and see her as a person. While I don't have much empathy, Buxbaum was able to humanize the characters- even the parents. It was beautifully balanced with heft and humor.
As a parent of teenagers, I appreciated that the story was told from the students perspective. I loved watching Chloe's self-awareness evolve. In particular, her realizations of privilege and not making excuses for her role in the scandal.
I'll be gently pressing this into the hands of my teenagers. I love when a book can entertain and inform without being heavy handed.
Merged review:
I have read and loved all of Julie Buxbaum's YA novels and her latest, ADMISSION, is no exception. It is a thought provoking fictionalization based on the recent college admissions scandal. It is timely and relevant while still being compulsively readable.
The story is structured with an alternating pre and post scandal timeline. This format worked well in unraveling what it means to be complicit. It doesn't sugar coat the consequences or fallout. At the same time the story implores you to resist reducing Chloe to a catch all meme and see her as a person. While I don't have much empathy, Buxbaum was able to humanize the characters- even the parents. It was beautifully balanced with heft and humor.
As a parent of teenagers, I appreciated that the story was told from the students perspective. I loved watching Chloe's self-awareness evolve. In particular, her realizations of privilege and not making excuses for her role in the scandal.
I'll be gently pressing this into the hands of my teenagers. I love when a book can entertain and inform without being heavy handed.
February 28, 2020
Five GLORIOUS stars. I loved this so much! Julie Buxbaum is a YA Queen, and her latest installment did not disappoint. She dove into the story of the college admissions scandal and somehow made it a coming-of-age family drama that sucked me in from the first page and didn’t let go until I had flown through the whole thing. The alternating timelines between pre- and post-scandal was a really nice plot device that kept the story moving, and really gave her the opportunity to show our characters’ growth.
All of my thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy– I can imagine you’re going to be seeing this one everywhere once it releases!
Merged review:
Five GLORIOUS stars. I loved this so much! Julie Buxbaum is a YA Queen, and her latest installment did not disappoint. She dove into the story of the college admissions scandal and somehow made it a coming-of-age family drama that sucked me in from the first page and didn’t let go until I had flown through the whole thing. The alternating timelines between pre- and post-scandal was a really nice plot device that kept the story moving, and really gave her the opportunity to show our characters’ growth.
All of my thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy– I can imagine you’re going to be seeing this one everywhere once it releases!
All of my thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy– I can imagine you’re going to be seeing this one everywhere once it releases!
Merged review:
Five GLORIOUS stars. I loved this so much! Julie Buxbaum is a YA Queen, and her latest installment did not disappoint. She dove into the story of the college admissions scandal and somehow made it a coming-of-age family drama that sucked me in from the first page and didn’t let go until I had flown through the whole thing. The alternating timelines between pre- and post-scandal was a really nice plot device that kept the story moving, and really gave her the opportunity to show our characters’ growth.
All of my thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy– I can imagine you’re going to be seeing this one everywhere once it releases!
December 9, 2020
Its gonna be a no from me.
I had a tough time getting into this story. I thought that Chloe was naive to the point of frustration so it made it hard for me to feel sorry for her even though nothing happening was entirely her fault. But her entitled parents and wishy-washy friends left a sea of unlikeable characters and no one for me to latch onto. The story was okay and fun in 'ripped-from-the-headlines' sort of way, but I fear that I'm liking each of Julie Buxbaum's books less and less.
I had a tough time getting into this story. I thought that Chloe was naive to the point of frustration so it made it hard for me to feel sorry for her even though nothing happening was entirely her fault. But her entitled parents and wishy-washy friends left a sea of unlikeable characters and no one for me to latch onto. The story was okay and fun in 'ripped-from-the-headlines' sort of way, but I fear that I'm liking each of Julie Buxbaum's books less and less.
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July 9, 2021I love Julie Buxbaum's books - they are entertaining but also have great characterization and emotion. I think she could take pretty much any situation and find the humanity in it.
Did this book make me feel uncomfortable in the way that I think it should have? I'm still not sure.
Admission is a book about the college admissions scandal that broke in the spring of 2019. The story that the book tells feels ripped from the headlines down to the tiniest details. Chloe's (the main character's) mom was a Felicity Huffman/Lori Loughlin amalgam and the book's storyline seemed to be drawn from those two cases. If you followed those stories (and I did!) I think you'll find this one very familiar.
Admission begins with the FBI coming to arrest Chloe's mother, which got things off to a dramatic start. But then the book started using a now/then (before the arrest and after) timeline I struggled with. Watching "then" Chloe worry about her college applications and her dating life when you knew all the completely unethical things she and her mom were up to felt a bit ... weird. I'm not sure the "then" chapters added much to the story except to emphasize how happy Chloe was before she and her parents got caught.
Chloe clearly DID know that her college admissions results weren't fairly earned and that what she and her family were doing was wrong. But she - and they - did it anyway. Watching her suffer the personal consequences of her actions, I wasn't sure how this book was trying to make me to feel. Glad that her life was being ruined? Empathetic that her life was being ruined? Outraged at the way entitled celebrities gamed the system? Guilty that the book made me feel empathetic toward her (I honestly didn't feel that empathetic, except that she was young, and an accomplice in a scheme of her parents'.)
Reading Admission also made me realize how much has changed in the world between March 2019 (when the scandal broke) and December 2020. In some ways worrying about college admissions felt like a weird relic from a past life.
I guess I'm glad that, in 2020, these are no longer the kind of characters who deserve our empathy and a platform. BYE!
Read more of my reviews on JenRyland.com! Let's be friends on Bookstagram!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
Did this book make me feel uncomfortable in the way that I think it should have? I'm still not sure.
Admission is a book about the college admissions scandal that broke in the spring of 2019. The story that the book tells feels ripped from the headlines down to the tiniest details. Chloe's (the main character's) mom was a Felicity Huffman/Lori Loughlin amalgam and the book's storyline seemed to be drawn from those two cases. If you followed those stories (and I did!) I think you'll find this one very familiar.
Admission begins with the FBI coming to arrest Chloe's mother, which got things off to a dramatic start. But then the book started using a now/then (before the arrest and after) timeline I struggled with. Watching "then" Chloe worry about her college applications and her dating life when you knew all the completely unethical things she and her mom were up to felt a bit ... weird. I'm not sure the "then" chapters added much to the story except to emphasize how happy Chloe was before she and her parents got caught.
Chloe clearly DID know that her college admissions results weren't fairly earned and that what she and her family were doing was wrong. But she - and they - did it anyway. Watching her suffer the personal consequences of her actions, I wasn't sure how this book was trying to make me to feel. Glad that her life was being ruined? Empathetic that her life was being ruined? Outraged at the way entitled celebrities gamed the system? Guilty that the book made me feel empathetic toward her (I honestly didn't feel that empathetic, except that she was young, and an accomplice in a scheme of her parents'.)
Reading Admission also made me realize how much has changed in the world between March 2019 (when the scandal broke) and December 2020. In some ways worrying about college admissions felt like a weird relic from a past life.
I guess I'm glad that, in 2020, these are no longer the kind of characters who deserve our empathy and a platform. BYE!
Read more of my reviews on JenRyland.com! Let's be friends on Bookstagram!
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!
November 30, 2021
3.5 stars
A good fiction YA account of the admissions scandal that happened a few years ago in the US. It’s told from the perspective of a wealthy high school senior struggling with her SAT’s and uses two time lines - before the family is caught/charged and after.
A good fiction YA account of the admissions scandal that happened a few years ago in the US. It’s told from the perspective of a wealthy high school senior struggling with her SAT’s and uses two time lines - before the family is caught/charged and after.
April 4, 2021
In the Afterward Buxbaum explains that the inspiration for this book came from the 2019 Admissions scandal. I was not at all surprised to hear that she was one of the many people outraged at the gross entitlement of the celebrities indicted. I wasn't surprised because her personal contempt for the crimes committed is clear throughout the book, and sadly her main character suffers for it.
I wanted to like Chloe, but Buxbaum made it impossible—not because Chloe's a privileged white girl, but because she's supposed to be a "woke" privileged white girl. At times she's completely oblivious and other times she's so "woke" she's preaching about immigration policy, and racial injustice. So which one is it? Is she spoiled and sheltered? or is she a political activist who's well versed in the endless injustices that plague the world?
Chloe from the very beginning is extremely self-deprecating. She's not as pretty as her mom, or as smart as her sister, or as hard working as her best friend. She's not good enough for her boyfriend, and certainly not good enough for any of the schools her parents want her to go to and it's all just very very let-me-play-my-tiny-violin-for-you annoying.
If you're going to write as story about a spoiled rich girl whose entire world view is shaken by the gross misuse of her privilege then write that! Own the entitlement! Up front say, I didn't think it was a big deal! I didn't care/think about the people I'd be hurting! Everyone can relate to that. That's human error for ya. But don't create a character who admits her guilt, confesses to being ignorant by choice, constantly rags on herself, preaches about things she has no business preaching about considering her lack of ethics, and expect me to like her or feel any pity for her.
This book could have been so much more. Buxbaum could have written a complex character, with lots of flaws, and juicy ah-ha moments. But instead she wrote a caricature. She wrote a villain who knows she's a villain, and it was boring. When chloe's mom owns up at the end, and lets all her secrets fly, I sort of wanted that for Chloe. For the record, I think Chloe was being entirely too harsh on herself, and so was everyone else. I wanted Chloe to stand up for herself against her ex boyfriend, ex-best friend, and the whole world and be like, yeah snitches what my parents did was wrong, and yeah I shouldn't have ignored the warning signs but it was their plot and not mine. The only thing I'm guilty of it not wanting to disappoint my parents and not wanting them to go to jail. hate me if you want but I'm not hating myself.
That's what I would have liked to see. Instead, Chloe gets what she deserves... no forgiveness, apparently. And she's cool with that because she's awful and we're cool with that because she's repeatedly told us how awful she is and everyone who has money is awful and everyone who is white is awful and everyone whose ever made a mistake is awful and deportation is awful and yeah the list goes on and on. It was just a weird story with a lot of missed opportunities to humanize the people behind the headline—the people the media demonized so brutally. This could have been a story about self-reflection, empathy, forgiveness, and the importance of having open dialogue with those different from you but unfortunately it was not any of those things.
I wanted to like Chloe, but Buxbaum made it impossible—not because Chloe's a privileged white girl, but because she's supposed to be a "woke" privileged white girl. At times she's completely oblivious and other times she's so "woke" she's preaching about immigration policy, and racial injustice. So which one is it? Is she spoiled and sheltered? or is she a political activist who's well versed in the endless injustices that plague the world?
Chloe from the very beginning is extremely self-deprecating. She's not as pretty as her mom, or as smart as her sister, or as hard working as her best friend. She's not good enough for her boyfriend, and certainly not good enough for any of the schools her parents want her to go to and it's all just very very let-me-play-my-tiny-violin-for-you annoying.
If you're going to write as story about a spoiled rich girl whose entire world view is shaken by the gross misuse of her privilege then write that! Own the entitlement! Up front say, I didn't think it was a big deal! I didn't care/think about the people I'd be hurting! Everyone can relate to that. That's human error for ya. But don't create a character who admits her guilt, confesses to being ignorant by choice, constantly rags on herself, preaches about things she has no business preaching about considering her lack of ethics, and expect me to like her or feel any pity for her.
This book could have been so much more. Buxbaum could have written a complex character, with lots of flaws, and juicy ah-ha moments. But instead she wrote a caricature. She wrote a villain who knows she's a villain, and it was boring. When chloe's mom owns up at the end, and lets all her secrets fly, I sort of wanted that for Chloe. For the record, I think Chloe was being entirely too harsh on herself, and so was everyone else. I wanted Chloe to stand up for herself against her ex boyfriend, ex-best friend, and the whole world and be like, yeah snitches what my parents did was wrong, and yeah I shouldn't have ignored the warning signs but it was their plot and not mine. The only thing I'm guilty of it not wanting to disappoint my parents and not wanting them to go to jail. hate me if you want but I'm not hating myself.
That's what I would have liked to see. Instead, Chloe gets what she deserves... no forgiveness, apparently. And she's cool with that because she's awful and we're cool with that because she's repeatedly told us how awful she is and everyone who has money is awful and everyone who is white is awful and everyone whose ever made a mistake is awful and deportation is awful and yeah the list goes on and on. It was just a weird story with a lot of missed opportunities to humanize the people behind the headline—the people the media demonized so brutally. This could have been a story about self-reflection, empathy, forgiveness, and the importance of having open dialogue with those different from you but unfortunately it was not any of those things.
December 7, 2021
This book was so god-awfully preachy. Every few pages I gotta hear about the evils of sexism and racism- and assorted political shit that had NOTHING to do with the topic, like Levi making a remark about being afraid of getting shot at school because "this is America", and a nice little bit about the cruelties of illegal immigrants being deported.
And when I say this preaching happened every few pages, I do mean every few pages. The virtue-signaling was absolutely relentless, and was worked into the story with all the strength of a jackhammer trying to cut a wedding cake. It's a 2020 YA novel, I expected a few preachy, clumsy remarks about various -isms; I did not think it would be peppered throughout the whole book.
Oh, and of course they talked about classism, which actually had some merit given the topic- but what really pissed me off was the constant implication that "rich" intertwines with "white". In the ACTUAL College Admissions Scandal, several parents arrested were not white. If you are going to base your story off of an ACTUAL CASE, you kind of look like a fool when you misrepresent certain facts to make a sociopolitical point.
This book was obnoxious. Absolutely obnoxious. Every ten seconds I was rolling my eyes or saying "Oh, shut up". Authors posturing about how very Woke and Aware they are when writing a story is unspeakably annoying to me. It really does come across like you're trying to get a pat on the back for having Good Opinions.
And when I say this preaching happened every few pages, I do mean every few pages. The virtue-signaling was absolutely relentless, and was worked into the story with all the strength of a jackhammer trying to cut a wedding cake. It's a 2020 YA novel, I expected a few preachy, clumsy remarks about various -isms; I did not think it would be peppered throughout the whole book.
Oh, and of course they talked about classism, which actually had some merit given the topic- but what really pissed me off was the constant implication that "rich" intertwines with "white". In the ACTUAL College Admissions Scandal, several parents arrested were not white. If you are going to base your story off of an ACTUAL CASE, you kind of look like a fool when you misrepresent certain facts to make a sociopolitical point.
This book was obnoxious. Absolutely obnoxious. Every ten seconds I was rolling my eyes or saying "Oh, shut up". Authors posturing about how very Woke and Aware they are when writing a story is unspeakably annoying to me. It really does come across like you're trying to get a pat on the back for having Good Opinions.
January 18, 2021
*Overdrive app *
Finished 3/4 of this during a crazy work day 😳 🙃. Parts of it were like watching a train wreck and it was hard to tear myself away.
Julie Whelan knocked it out of the park with narration. Each voice was distinct and never pulled you out of the story when voices switched. It all flowed smoothly.
Finished 3/4 of this during a crazy work day 😳 🙃. Parts of it were like watching a train wreck and it was hard to tear myself away.
Julie Whelan knocked it out of the park with narration. Each voice was distinct and never pulled you out of the story when voices switched. It all flowed smoothly.
January 13, 2021
Something Weird Is Going On: Who Did Aunt Becky Bribe? By Felicity Huffman. With Dwight Schrute.
May 7, 2021
One can never be too rich, too thin, or read too many stories about the college admissions scandal!
This fictional account of the college admissions scandal does not disappoint.
The book portrays one family in the scandal - focusing on two MCs: Joy Fields (the mom), a B-list actress who achieved fame in an old sitcom and made the fateful decision to hire the infamous "side door" private college counselor, and Joy's daughter Chloe, a senior with abysmal SAT scores who attends an elite private high school. Also spotlighted is Isla, Chloe's highly intelligent, ambitious and overachieving younger sister.
The book is told from Chloe's POV, alternating between "then" and "now". The book is fast-paced and very well written -- with a great flow and superb character development. Many sensitive issues are addressed (race, privilege, cheating) and all are brilliantly woven into the author's compelling storyline.
This book is categorized as a "YA" book but I felt that the author's messaging/humor was more directed towards adults.
It's important to note that I did have a problem with the author's decision to generate sympathy for the students involved in the scandal. Yes, the students' "perfect worlds" fell apart when FBI agents came knocking, but I found it difficult to believe that these students were clueless about the college applications that they had signed off on.
I listened to the audiobook read by Julia Whelan, one of my favorite narrators. Julia gave an outstanding performance.
This was my first Julie Buxbaum book and I will definitely be reading future titles by this very talented author.
This fictional account of the college admissions scandal does not disappoint.
The book portrays one family in the scandal - focusing on two MCs: Joy Fields (the mom), a B-list actress who achieved fame in an old sitcom and made the fateful decision to hire the infamous "side door" private college counselor, and Joy's daughter Chloe, a senior with abysmal SAT scores who attends an elite private high school. Also spotlighted is Isla, Chloe's highly intelligent, ambitious and overachieving younger sister.
The book is told from Chloe's POV, alternating between "then" and "now". The book is fast-paced and very well written -- with a great flow and superb character development. Many sensitive issues are addressed (race, privilege, cheating) and all are brilliantly woven into the author's compelling storyline.
This book is categorized as a "YA" book but I felt that the author's messaging/humor was more directed towards adults.
It's important to note that I did have a problem with the author's decision to generate sympathy for the students involved in the scandal. Yes, the students' "perfect worlds" fell apart when FBI agents came knocking, but I found it difficult to believe that these students were clueless about the college applications that they had signed off on.
I listened to the audiobook read by Julia Whelan, one of my favorite narrators. Julia gave an outstanding performance.
This was my first Julie Buxbaum book and I will definitely be reading future titles by this very talented author.
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