Review of Admission by Julie Buxbaum

Buxbaum, Julie.  Admission.  Delacorte, 2020.

 

Life is perfect for Chloe Berringer.  She’s living her best life as a senior at Wood Valley High School, the best private school in Los Angeles, and she has gotten into a great college.  She is going to the prom with Levi Haas, the boy she’s had a crush on since seventh grade.  Her best friend, Shola, is super-smart and fun to be around, and she can always depend on her.  She isn’t the smartest person at her school, but she gets by.

 

One day, at 6:30 in the morning, Chloe opens the front door to her home to find the FBI there…and they have guns!  Her mother, sit-com television star Joy Fields, is arrested for bribery in a college admissions scandal.  Chloe is shocked, but didn’t she have nagging doubts about all the preparations her parents were helping her with to get accepted to college?  She wondered why her college essay was rewritten and was about a different topic than she wrote about, but she didn’t question it enough.  She wondered how her SAT score could have gone up so much in such a short amount of time, so she thought it must be a mistake, but she didn’t speak up.  She wondered how her mother could find a private consultant that seemed so sleazy and never pushed her to try harder.  Why didn’t he want her to take her SAT test at the testing center?  She wondered all these things and knew her parents, especially her mom, wanted the best for her, but she never questioned them.

 

Now Chloe’s life is ruined, and her future is in danger.  Shola doesn’t want to hang out with her anymore; Levi has dropped her and has found another date for prom.  The mother of the young boy she was tutoring in reading no longer wants her to see him. Her dream school has now rescinded their offer of acceptance to her, and if she goes back to her high school, she will face public shaming. Wealth and privilege will not help her now.  She discovers her mom was participating in some underhanded dealings to give her a leg up on the competition, in order to secure her acceptance to college.  People are mad at her and her mom for using money and privilege to give Chloe this advantage.  While Chloe got into college, Shola, who works much harder and is smarter, is waitlisted, just like many other students.  

 

With her mom facing a trial and prison time, Chloe must now work to mend her and her family’s life back together.  She must learn not to take people and her privilege for granted and accept responsibility for her part in being complicit and redeem herself.

 

Admission is based loosely on the true-life scandal “Operation Varsity Blues”, and it hits all the same notes--doctoring an essay and photoshopping a sports photograph, concealing money behind a charity, and changing poor entrance exam scores.  False documentation of a learning disability is provided, which gives Chloe extra time on the SAT test.  Her mom is arrested and must go to trial, just like in the real college admissions crime. 

 

Ms. Buxbaum provides observations on how entitlement gives the elite the ability to work the education system and give themselves an advantage over others, who are usually more deserving.  However, she doesn’t preach; she lets the reader work though the problem with Chloe.  When Chloe realizes that her whole college application has been altered, she begins to wonder if her parents didn’t have confidence in her ability to get into college on her own.  This lowers her self-esteem, especially when she realizes that she may have been complicit in the crime.  Ultimately, Chloe let the masquerade go on because she did not want to disappoint her parents.

 

Give Admission to seniors preparing for college and those who are interested in the college admission scandal.  I highly recommend it for high school and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis!

 

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for allowing me to read and review this book.

Review of This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey

Carey, Anna.  This Is not the Jess Show.  Quirk Books, 2020.

Jessica Flynn is a seventeen-year-old junior who plays clarinet in the high school band.  She comes from a nice family; her mother is an interior designer, but her dad isn’t around all the time.  She loves Swickley, NY, the small town where she has grown up.  Jess has three good friends, Kristen and Amber, and Tyler, who she realizes is now her first crush.  The only sad thing in her life is that her sister, Sara, has Guignard’s disease, a terminal illness.

 

Jessica begins to notice some strange things happening around Swickley.  She realizes that many of her school classmates and townspeople are absent with the flu.  She can hear strange chanting in the distance, but no one else seems to notice.  A black object with an apple on it falls out of Amber’s backpack, and she pretends not to know what it is.  And the weirdest thing of all is, her dog, Fuller, seems different; he acts like he doesn’t know her.

 

Jess feels like someone is always watching her, and she eventually realizes that she a character on a reality show called Stuck in the 90s.  She decides to escape, although the cast is trying to prevent her from leaving.  As she is being hunted down by the network, she gets help from sympathetic cast members and learns the year is actually 2037!  She concludes that her whole life has been a lie, and she never wants to go back to 1998.

 

This Is Not the Jess Show has been billed as The Truman Show for teens.  Author Anna Carey has written a fun, engaging read that is a real page-turner.  The way the story unfolds is rather unremarkable in the beginning, until Jess finds out that she has been living a lie her whole life.  Jess seems very naïve at first because she is fooled by changing characters and people playing multiple roles in her “life”.  However, when she discovers that she has been misled, she shows what a strong character she is by running away.  This only adds to the show’s drama because the network is milking her escape and using social influencers—shades of today-- to poll viewers as to possible outcomes.  

 

The addition of the 90s nostalgia and memorabilia to the story enhances the authenticity of the reality show.  The story has some surprising twists and turns, and the ending sets readers up for the next book of the duology.  Hand this book to readers who enjoy 90s bands and nostalgia and reality shows.  I recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for allowing me to read and review this book.

Review of Eliza Starts a Rumor--An Adult Read

Rosen, Jane.  Eliza Starts a Rumor.  Berkley, 2020.

Eliza Hunt has run The Hudson Valley Ladies' Bulletin Board for years.  She is happily married and has raised her two children, who are now in college.  Much to her dismay, she discovers that someone has started another bulletin board called Valley Girls, which is not competing with hers!  She has been giving out parenting advice for years and feels so threatened by the new offering that she writes a gossipy "rumor" post on her board.

It is through this post that she comes to be friends with Alison Le, a lawyer raising her infant son alone, and Olivia York, who thinks her husband is cheating on her.  Eliza's best friend from high school, Amanda Cole, and her daughters have recently moved back in with her father across the street from Eliza.  Amanda has left her movie-producer husband, who has been accused of scandals involving many women.  Allison has made a friend on the bulletin board who may not be who she thinks, and Eliza is having trouble even walking outside her front door!

Eliza Starts a Rumor has a unique plot--dueling bulletin boards for women!  The characters are well-developed and have a lot of interaction.  The books explores current social issues of the #metoo movement, rape, agoraphobia, PTSD, infidelity, and self-mutilation, so the book is very current.

It was so refreshing to see women bonding and supporting each other throughout this book. Despite some of the heavy topics, the book has some hilarious moments and is a quick, cute read!  This book will make its appearance on June 23.  I recommend it to public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for allowing me to read and review this book!

Review of Fat Boy vs the Cheeleaders by Geoff Herbach

Herback, Geoff.  Fat Boy vs the Cheerleaders.  Sourcebooks Fire, 2014.

Sixteen-year-old Gabe “Chunk” Johnson lives in Minnekota, MN with his controlling dad and former body-builder grandpa, who moved in after Gabe’s mom ran off with an architect to Japan.  Gabe’s favorite thing about school is playing the trombone in the Minnekota Lake Area High School Band.  Every day he buys multiple bottles of Code Red Mountain Dew from the school’s soda machine because he thinks the proceeds are funding summer marching band camp.  Unfortunately, Gabe’s soda habit, lack of exercise, and his dad’s junk food purchases have caused him to gain a lot of weight.

One day, Gabe notices that the prices on the soda machine have increased.  He finds out later that the proceeds are now going to the school’s voluptuous new dance coach and dance squad, formerly the cheerleaders, instead of the band.  Consequently, band camp is cancelled for lack of funding.  The band director flips out and does some crazy things and is dismissed by the school board.  Helped by his friend and coworkers, RCIII, Chandra Gore, other band members, and band alumni, Gabe declares war on the cheerleaders and leads a rebellion to regain control of the soda machine and reinstatement of the band director.

Along with his cause, Gabe also gains a girlfriend, gets help shaping up and eating right from his grandpa, and helps the school acquire funding for the summer marching camp.

This book is extremely character-driven.  There are a lot of stereotypes in this humorous novel, and Geoff Herbach destroys some of them.  RCIII, for instance, is a black, talented athlete, but he enjoys hanging out with the band students!  The Goth girl, Chandra “Gore” Wettinger, is actually very nice and sensitive, contrary to what other students think about her and her past.

I can totally relate to this story because I was in band beginning in seventh grade and continuing all through college.  I also have three band directors in my family, so I understand the funding issues bands deal with.  Gabe is such a loyal, hardworking band member, and he thinks his director is pretty cool.  He epitomizes the typical band student and loves music.

I loved Gabe’s grandpa.  He inspires Gabe and sticks by him; he is a great positive role model.  He cheers Gabe, lifts him up, and supports his weight loss and fitness attempts.  He gives him advice because Gabe’s father is still trying to overcome rejection from his ex-wife.

Readers looking for a humorous read will enjoy this story.  It is refreshing and delightful to see and such an underdog become a hero!  I recommend this book for eighth grade readers and high school  and public libraries.  I give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Reviewer's Note:  The copy reviewed was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review of Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose

         Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose, edited by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil.  Sourcebooks/Fire, 2013.

“Tonight I got arrested.”  This is the first sentence of journals kept by Mary Rose, a young teenage girl who is fighting addiction to drugs and alcohol.  She has a tragic home life; her father left Mary Rose and her mother when she was very young.  Her mother always seems to choose boyfriends over Mary Rose and her sister.  Her mother’s boyfriends are both physically and mentally abusive.   By the age of fifteen, Mary Rose is an addict, has experienced sex, and has been gang-raped.  Her loneliness leads to boredom, bad hygiene, drugs, and alcohol.

Mary Rose longs for friendship, love, and acceptance, but she continuously chooses the wrong kind of people to befriend.  She is in and out of rehab clinics and hospitals; she reveals later in her journals that she has cystic fibrosis.  Many of the children she has known through in hospitals have died; the life expectancy of CF patients is only thirty-two years of age, and that is for someone who has taken care of himself.

So Mary Rose lives her life on the edge, trying to experience everything she can as fast as possible because she doesn’t know how long she will be around.   She writes to Nobody since no one will ever read what she has written, or so she believes.

Mary Rose’s journals were found after her death in her bedroom closet by her friend and given to the editors.  They actually did no editing per se, only cut out some of the entries.  Because Mary Rose died as a minor,  her mom had to go to court to have her father removed from Mary Rose’s estate; he would not give permission for the diary entries to be published.  After he left Mary Rose and her mother, he did not pay one penny in child support, and the editors did not think he should benefit from any of the proceeds of the book.

Mary Rose’s writing takes place over a course of about three years and is brutally honest; even though she had to drop out of school in second grade due to her illness, she was a brilliant writer.  In her diary, she talks of despair, guilt, loneliness, and the physical pain of cystic fibrosis.  She dreamed of being an rich actress or a famous writer but knew, in her heart, that she wouldn’t live long enough.  She had seen friends as young as eleven pass away and had looked death in the face several times before she finally succumbed to complications due to CF in 1999.

I recommend this book with caution for high school and public libraries.  It contains profanity, underage drinking, drug abuse, and many sexual situations.  Readers who enjoy books by Ellen Hopkins or read Go Ask Alice will devour this book.  Thank you to Sourcebooks/Fire which allowed me to read and review this book.  I give it three out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Shallow Pond by Alissa Grosso

Grosso, Alissa.  Shallow Pond.  flux, 2013. 

The Bunting sisters have lived in Shallow Pond, Pennsylvania all their lives and people constantly mistake one sister for another.  The oldest sister, Annie, has raised the two younger girls ever since their mom and dad passed away.  The youngest sister, Barbara, nicknamed “Babie”, is a senior in high school and wants nothing more than to graduate and leave Shallow Pond forever.  Babie’s best friends are always trying to pair her up with guys at school, and when a new, handsome orphaned guy named Zack Faraday arrives at school, Jenelle and Shawna decide he would be the perfect date for Babie for the town’s winter carnival.

Although Babie feels an instant connection with Zack, she has no desire to have a relationship that might cause her to want to stay in Shallow Pond.  She doesn’t want to end up like Annie, now twenty-six, who was dumped by her boyfriend, Cameron Schaeffer, when she was a high school senior, or like her other sister, Gracie, now twenty-one, who works as a cashier in the town’s only grocery store.

Cameron Schaeffer has recently returned to Shallow Pond after losing his job, and Gracie has fallen in love with him.  Babie is not happy with Gracie over this development because she was hoping that Cameron and Annie would reunite.  When Cameron leaves town unexpectedly, Gracie hurries to find him.

Annie has been sick, and when she begins to get even worse, her sisters rush her to a hospital where she is treated by one of their father’s friends.  It turns out that she has a mysterious genetic illness and could soon die.  This revelation releases a series of events that take the book in a totally different direction!

Told in first person by Babie, this novel started out very slowly and repetitious.  The same scenes kept reoccurring—Babie hates Shallow Pond, and her friends love it.  Babie doesn’t want a boyfriend, but she is drawn to Zack.  Babie talks to Zack and then runs away from him.  Finally, about midway through the book, the plot began to branch out.  

Science fiction fans and readers who love a good romance will enjoy Shallow Pond.  I recommend it for high school and public libraries.  I give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Beta by Rachel Cohn

Cohn, Rachel.  Beta.  Disney Hyperion, 2012.

The island of Demesne, created from an underground volcano, is said to be the most desirable and exclusive place on earth.  It has the purest air; the scenery has the perfect aesthetic; and the water around it has healing properties.  It is inhabited by the most rich, famous, and wealthy people in the world.

Clones on Demesne are created in order to serve residents on the island and to create an atmosphere of happiness and fine living.  The clones have been fitted with a brain chip so that they can mimic human feelings, a GPS wrist chip for tracking, and a facial brand, which designates their type of service.  They don’t need human food; their only nutrition is special strawberry shakes, which are loaded with chemical components.

Elysia is a sixteen-year-old clone—created in a lab—as a Beta, an experimental teenage model. Elysia’s “first”, her original human, had to die and her soul had to be extracted in order for Elysia to become a clone. Elysia is purchased by Mrs. Bratton, the wife of the governor of the island, to replace her rebellious teen daughter, who has gone off to college on the mainland.  She is also to serve as an athletic trainer to the Bratton’s son, Ivan, who will soon be joining the elite private army training on the mainland Base and to help care for the Bratton’s young daughter, Leisel. 

Elysia is having flashbacks about a handsome young man from her first’s past and thinks she may be defective.  However, she doesn’t want to tell anyone because she feels she has many privileges other clones do not.  What she eventually figures out is that clones are actually an oppressed society ruled and owned by the wealthy; clones can be forced to do anything and are easily disposed. 

There is growing tension on Demesne.  The privileged teenagers are secretly using ataraxia, an illegal drug that gives its users a profound feeling of dreamy happiness and contentment.  There are growing protests against using clones as servants and rumors of a group of clone “Defects” planning an insurrection so that they can gain their freedom.

Elysia’s choice about what she should do with her life is ultimately made easier by the events unfolding on the island and how she feels about her adoptive “family” and her relationship with a boy.  Although she has done some planning, some last minute decisions could end up causing her death.  I don’t want to say more than that for fear of revealing too much!

What a wonderful new dystopian series this is!  The lush world- and character-building that Rachel Cohn has created gives the reader wonderful descriptions of the luxurious Demesne, its surroundings, and its inhabitants.  I so want to visit this island; unfortunately, I could not afford it! 

Beta’s main character, Elysia, is a very strong female protagonist.  Since she doesn’t understand context, she takes everything very literally, which only adds to her likability.  Her character grows from someone who is innocent and unsure of herself into a mature, self-assured young woman.

The humans on the island take the clones for granted and think they are quite superior to them.  There is also another group, aquines, which have been genetically engineered to produce a new kind of human race.  They are peaceful, religious zealots and mate for life.  Demesne citizens also look down upon these aquines as inferiors.  It’s no wonder that there is such strife on the island!  The author is able to capture the disdain that the privileged feel toward both groups.  Readers will feel it oozing from the story.

Beta is a wonderful book, filled with a caste hierarchy, greed, wealth, control, and class warfare.  There are some real surprises thrown in—things that were extremely unexpected.  The novel slows down a little near the middle, but gradually picks up speed and ends in a cliffhanger!  Readers will not be able to put the book down!

There are three additional books planned for this series.  I recommend it for high school and public libraries.

**Reviewer’s note:  The copy reviewed was an ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.