Nilufer Ozmekik's Reviews > Admission

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.