Admission

With the Olivia Jade's of the world making headlines for their rich families cheating their way into college, Admission was an interesting and relevant read. I'll be honest - the whole Jade scandal has always irked me beyond measure because I don't come from a rich family, and I had to work my butt off to get into college (and I ended up going to a decent school, but not a USC or anything like that). So when I read that Admission follows a similar storyline, I was interested. What's the psyche of a student who cheats their way into school? Why does this happen so often?

Chloe was a character was interesting enough, though I didn't particular feel invested in her or her story. I'd love to see a book that follows this idea where I come to ROOT for the character, thus turning my biases of these rich families cheating on its head. I'd like to see a book where I sit back, perplexed as to how I actually feel emotion for someone who cheated when that's something I'd never do - even if I had the means to (which I am far from having!). But Chloe just wasn't incredibly relatable or investment-worthy to me. She was pretty run-of-the mill. So yes, the story itself? Interesting and relevant. Though my notions of this issue remain the same.

I was excited to get this book from the library to read and dug right in. This college admissions scandal story is told from the perspective of the student whose parents cheat to get them into the college of their choice. While this sounded to me like a juicy ‘ripped from the headlines' story, it is more accurate to say it's a coming of age story of sorts. The author does a good job of bringing the reader along with the young woman who experiences shock, denial, anger, and eventually grows as a person to understand all the many layers of wrong that happened. She loses so much and finds her real self at the end.

Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for this ARC

Admission by Julie Buxbaum is about Chloe Berringer. She has a charmed life, her mother is a television star, she is at an excellent school, and she was accepted into her dream college, SCC (a stand in for USC). That all falls apart when she opens her front door to find the FBI standing on her front porch ready to arrest her mother. It turns out her mother is of a college bribery scandal.

This book is very timely and ripped from the headlines. It casts a sympathetic eye towards the characters, but doesn't excuse them from their actions. I appreciate that Buxbaum gave the perspective of the child who had their life ruined by their parents' actions. Chloe had to question whether her parents thought she was stupid or less than or couldn't make it into college herself. Additionally, the side characters were interesting, particularly Chloe's best friend, Shola and her sister, Isla.

This book will surely be a popular checkout for teens and curious adults.