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 Her dream school has now rescinded their offer of acceptance to her, and if she goes back to her high school, she will face public shaming.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 Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien

Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien; Roaring Brook Press, 2011.

In this second installment of the Birthmarked series, Gaia Stone continues in her role of midwife, but her beliefs are put to extraordinary tests. While running from The Enclave with her infant sister, Maya, Gaia is “rescued” by Will, an Outrider, and taken back to Sylum, a dystopian commune ruled by a blind Matrarc named Olivia. People are trapped in Sylum because there is something in the atmosphere that will kill them if they try to leave. Gaia learns that Sylum is run by women, although they are outnumbered by men. The courting rules are strict, and even a touch or a kiss could bring death for a man, even if he is not the one at fault. A woman who is in the gene pool may ask a man to marry her, and they are encouraged to have as many children as possible.

Gaia is accused of putting Maya’s life in danger by traveling, and the sickly infant is given over to a couple to raise as their own child. A prison on the outskirts of town houses male “criminals”, and it is there that Gaia discovers Luke, from The Enclave, being held there. Once per month, Sylum has a holds a contest where single men compete against each other for the right to live with a woman of his choosing in a cabin for thirty days. Luke wins one particular contest, and he chooses Maya, even though she is an infant, to live with him. Ultimately, he also chooses Gaia, because someone must take care of Maya. Gaia also brings along her friend, Mx Josephine and her infant daughter, Junie, because Maya needs to be nursed. Gaia ends up being part of a love triangle and must choose which path her life will take.

Prized is a fabulous read! The descriptions of Sylum, its rules, and its citizens blew me away! The class system used in Sylum and the customs followed by its inhabitants made me keep turning the pages as fast as I could! There were so many twists and turns in this plot; all I wanted to do was sit and read!

The men in the book were extremely chivalrous, hoping for women’s attentions, and, eventually, marriage, which was considered very sacred. Most of the women in the book were strong, developed characters, as were the main male characters. Gaia is strong-willed and believes in helping others, many times at the cost of hurting herself.

It was a great idea to have men take women’s last names when they marry, unlike the conventional manner in which it is usually done. Additionally, many of the terms in the novel were plays upon other words--Sylum for asylum; cuzines for cousins; Matrarc for matriarch; and so on, giving implied meanings to similar words in the novel. The autopsy scene was chilling and shocking, as was the pact between Gaia and Will not to divulge its results.

The book had a surprising, but satisfying ending, and readers can look forward to a third installment of the Birthmarked series! Also, the cover art is exceptional—beautiful and intriguing! This book will be released on November 8, 2011. I recommend this novel for high school and public libraries.

Note: This review was from an advanced reader’s copy of the book obtained from NetGalley and read on iPad.