Admission by Julie Buxbaum

The Quick Cut: A ripped from the headlines story that centers around a girl whose parents cheated to increase her SAT story. 

A Real Review: 

Thank you to Delacorte Press for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

   College. For some, it is a definite. For others, its another four years of education that feels like torture. However, for those who want to get their higher education degree, the pain begins much sooner. You start the process of ensuring you get great grades and take that required SAT or ACT test to prove you are worthy of the spot in their program. If you were struggling, would you cheat to make it there? Or would your parents go behind your back and do it for you? This is the case for Chloe. 

 Chloe has it all: an amazingly smart best friend, a mom who is a B list celebrity, she's dating the boy she's had a crush on for years, and she's going to the college of her dreams. Unfortunately, it all comes crashing down on her when the FBI show up at her front door and arrest her mother. Suddenly all that prestige disappears and what is left is a social pariah that everyone is ripping apart. How did she get here and where did it all go wrong?

 I get it, this is one of those stories where you relate with what is happening because its something we've all heard about. There are very few people who haven't heard about the college admissions scandal that hit multiple celebrities and high class families. When it comes to stories that relate heavily to real life situations, I expect the story to provide some new insight that you would not have seen elsewhere. Considering how much I loved the author's book "Hope and Other Punch Lines", I had high expectations that she would nail bringing a new light to this territory. Instead, what's given is an unlikable lead character in a situation that only highlights her low level of moral strength. 

 Chloe as a lead character is someone who fits the definition of a stereotypical celebrity's child. She goes to a high class school, has raised expectations of her future, and has parents who are more than a little self centered. So when her SAT score continues to stay in the 1200 range, she is devastated on the prospect that she won't get into the college she wants to. However, when her parents hire someone to help and get Chloe a medical accommodation to take the SAT again, this time the score balloons to 1440. Rather than insist something must be wrong (she even questions it!), she takes what her parents give her and say that her work finally paid off. Really? That's all the fight you're going to put up? This is your life. She never learns a lesson or really gets something out of what happens. I get that there are people out there who function like this, but they're not the type of people who should have books written about them. 

 A disappointingly shallow story. 

My rating: 2 out of 5