Prep

Ok.I liked the Book.
But.
Through the end, when she was messing around with Cross, I just wanted to slap her. Honestly, How stupid can you get? He doesn't talk to her for 3 and a half years. And all of a sudden he wants her??? And why'd they keep it going for so long?? Especially if he said she kissed like a fish. And she was waaayy too easy. Which I didn't like. And the ending was very long. And I didn't like the edition of the Article where she bad-mouthed her school.
Also.
I think Lee was very stupido. It seemed to me like Martha and Cross liked each other, but maybe I'm reading too far into a friend relationship. Yet, doesn't it seem odd that he would buy Martha a flower?
Thirdly, what was up with the names? Was that feeding into an asssumption that rich people name their kids weird stuff? It made it hard for me to figure out which were boys and which were girls.

Been there. Done that.

This book is brutal and I could not put it down. Talk about nailing the internal narrative of a high school student. Set right before cell phones became ubiquitous. They still used the hallway payphone. Ah, simpler times! I loved getting to know these characters all through Lee's eyes- and the writer took her time with it. This book is often described as the female Catcher in the Rye. This is so much better. And the criticism I so often saw about this book is that nothing happens. Well- 4 years of boarding school is what happened. Yes, Lee was often ridiculous in her fears and made bizarre assumptions, but everyone can relate to what the reader knows is her social anxiety. We can all relate to that high school crush that literally consumed your every waking moment. Her thoughts on her teachers and parents were so painfully accurate. This book has some cringey moments but man did I love it.

This was a very uncomfortable read. I did not particularly enjoy reading the book, but I cannot deny that it was a very well written, very loving and very unflinching way of looking back at a younger self (whether fictional or not). At times, I have to admit, it hit a bit too close to home, which is probably why I didn't always enjoy the experience.

I tried, I really did. I made it to parents' weekend, hoping that maybe seeing her parents in her beloved Ault would snap her out of her selfish and proud attitude.

It didn't work when a teacher told her that people actually want to be friends with her, but she refuses to talk to them. Giving haircuts didn't make her personable. Even when she actually makes friends, she treats them line shit.

I could not handle this character anymore. I give up.

Incredibly evocative, there are a number of unexpected turns in this book which kept it fresh for me. Lee is pretty unsympathetic because she spends most of the book stuck, stuck in her own head, her own fears. I can see why that perspective might have put some readers off, but to me, it made the moments of contrast with her dad, her older self all the more poignant. The chapter with Parents' Weekend is worth a star all by itself.

The first thing to note about the book is the cover. I'm not a judge-the-book-by-its-cover kind of person, but there's something intensely embarrassing about reading a book with an embossed pink belt on the cover. I ran into a friend while carrying my copy and he asked what I was reading: “not a chick-lit rom-com” I answered, defensively.The only problem being, it kind of is. Lots of obsessing over what people are or aren't wearing, who is or is not dating whom and whether or not each character is popular. The attempt is to make it a self-aware, self-referential chick-lit rom-com, peppered with an introspective, if flawed protagonist.Which brings us to the crux of the issue: this would be fascinating, were it new territory. However, it's far from it. The flawed but introspective teenage protagonist who makes sense of the intricate, unexplicable world called teenagehood has already been done, most notably and incomparably by [b:The Perks of Being a Wallflower 22628 The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313063835s/22628.jpg 2236198]. And also, while there's always room for another quality book in any genre, Lee Fiora has a lot more emphasis on the flawed than on the introspective. In fact, mostly, the best adjective for her is dumb. Its hard to imagine how she got into boarding school in the first place, much less on a scholarship. And every time she criticizes herself, you just want to agree with her: Yes, you're an idiot; yes you suck academically; yes you push away everyone who wants to be friends with you, of which there seem to be shockingly many, given that you're cruel to your friends, never make social overtures and push away everyone who wants to be friends with you.There was an attempt at a message about family and how hard it is to leave your family as a teenager, but Lee's family was so much more flawed than she was that I found the fact that she ever talked to them at all just another annoying quirk of hers (her father slapped her across the face in public. Last I checked, child abuse is rather unforgivable and never excusable)The bits that the book does well, on the other hand, it does very well - a sentence or two about the bond of a true friendship; the description of the sense of commingled sadness and joy when someone unexpectedly really and truly knows you; the episodic and fragmented nature of teenage experiences.

This was definitely worth all the hype.

Such a great book! Totally resonated with me since I went to prep school. Writing is good too.

Even though Sarah gave this a 2, Jimmie just absolutely insisted that I read it, so I figure I'll give it a try.

Lee Fiora needs a good talking to, and perhaps therapy, although neither would save this downer of a book.