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 Her dream school has now rescinded their offer of acceptance to her, and if she goes back to her high school, she will face public shaming.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 The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

Forest, Laurie.  The Black Witch.  Harlequin Teen, 2017.

After their parents are killed, Elloren Gardner and her brothers move to a small town and live with their kind uncle, who serves as their guardian.  Their uncle does not want the siblings to become “wandfasted”, a type of ceremonial betrothal, until they have finished their studies.  Elloren looks just like her grandmother, Carnissa Gardner.  She has been told that she has no magic powers, unlike her famous grandmother, who was the prophesied Black Witch and had level five magic—the most powerful known.

Elloren’s political aunt, Vyvian Gardner, tells Elloren she will pay for her to attend the prestigious Verpax University and whisks her away to her spacious castle.   At a party given in her honor, Aunt Vyvian introduces Elloren to Lukas Gray, a handsome, eligible Gardnerian bachelor, because she wants Elloren to wandfast to him.  She refuses, so her aunt makes her life miserable at Verpax, forcing Elloren to live with two winged “demon” icarals, work in a kitchen where she is taunted by “low-class” Urisk servants and shunned by a mysterious, handsome Kelt.  Much to her horror, she is also forced to become lab partners with a male lupine in one of her classes.  There’s no way to avoid other races because Verpax accepts everyone!

Elloren is also bullied by the jealous Fallon Bane, who wants to wandfast to Lukas Gray, and is the person everyone believes might be the next prophesied Black Witch.  Elloren slowly begins to realize that everything she has been told about other races is veiled in lies, and Gardnerian history is not as she has been taught.  All races are looking for the next Black Witch and the coming of the new, powerful, evil icaral, both of which have been foretold.  As Elloren comes to trust her misfit roommates and classmates, she must ignore everything that she has learned about hate, judgment, and fear.

This recently released novel by Laurie Forest is the first in a new series by the same name.  This is Ms. Forest’s debut novel, and she has burst upon the scene amidst some controversy.  While some have heralded her novel, others have scorned it for its handling of prejudice and racism.  I happen to be among those who think it is a brilliant fantasy story.

The world-building in The Black Witch is lush and descriptive.  Verpax University is somewhat reminiscent of Hogwarts Academy.  The characters are well-developed, even down to the secondary characters.  After viewing Ms. Forest’s Pinterest page and her Twitter tweets, it is easy to see how much thought and research went into her characters' descriptions.  The prose and dialogue are beautiful and captivating.  I especially like the lupines and their blunt, literal outlook on life.

The main themes in the novel are prejudice, racism, xenophobia, and propaganda.  The different races in the book have been taught that all other races are evil, calculating, and inferior, and their race is the only one which is superior to all others.  Elloren, her friends, and her brothers learn slowly to ignore what they have been taught for many years and accept and befriend those different from them.  Although Elloren is not quick to realize that others’ views have influenced her opinions, there are more sequels to come so that she will be able to grow more in the future.  That she was able to work with others to bring about change was welcome and refreshing.

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This novel is a real page turner!  I highly recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it 5 out of 5 fleur de lis!