There's no excitement like having a favorite author release a new book. I adore Julie Buxbaum's YA novels, but sadly Admission was just an average read for me.

My main disappointment? There's not much plot or surprise. If you read the summary on the book flap you've more or less read what happens in the book. Chloe unexpectedly got into the college of her dreams but it turns out her mother was involved in a major college admissions bribery scandal. The book is mostly about the emotional ramifications of Chloe's situation and its affect on her family. It is largely a story about privilege, entitlement and what money can and can't buy. This message is repeatedly and overtly mentioned and while it's true and important, it's not earth shatteringly deep or nuanced.

The good... Julie Buxbaum's writing is always excellent and she's a master storyteller. The subject matter felt very timely and held my interest well enough. I also enjoy the double meaning of the title. There's the obvious connotation, the admissions process of applying to college, but also Chloe's admission of guilt, that she was complicit and actively chose to not acknowledge that something was wrong. I just wish more happened with the story.

Recommend for: Readers easily swept up by celebrity scandals who enjoy family drama novels

May not be for you if: You're hoping for a charming YA read. You need relatable or likable characters.

"Admission" was a great exploration of wealth and privilege through the eyes of a teenage girl. I think it will be eye-opening for a lot of young people to read and will help them interrogate their own ethics and internal biases. I'm not sure I completely bought the mother's remorse in the ending, but it was still entertaining and would make a great addition to most YA collections.

Flew through this in a few days! The suspense was very high in this one. Throughout the book you find yourself alternating between rooting for and rooting against the Berringer family. You get an idea how privileged these kids are, while also sympathezing for them because nothing that happened was their fault. Definitely makes you think how many incoming college freshman are only there because their parents bought a building or otherwise paid their way into the school. I'm sure this happens every year. Such a quick, captivating read!

This is a "ripped from the headlines" fictional account of a family caught up in a college admission scandal. Chloe is a mediocre student from a privileged upper class white family. Her mom is a popular actress and her dad runs a venture capital firm. They live in Beverly Hills and seem to be the perfect family who has it all. She's just not interested in school and doesn't put in any hard work to make good grades. Of course, her parents want the best for her and have the means to pay. They hire a college admissions coach to help her get into her dream school. Cheating, bribes, and lies lead to her mom getting arrested by the FBI.

It was interesting to see Chloe change over the course of the story. She’s smart but doesn’t think she is. Her family is rich but most of the time she takes that for granted. She’s a lazy student and it takes her awhile to realize that. But she has a good heart. She forms a real bond with a little boy she tutors after school and that helps her see how privileged her life is. As the scandal engulfs her family, she questions her decisions and her complicity. She realizes that she must choose her own path to her future and do what’s right for her, even if it differs from her parents’ expectations.

I think this will be popular with teens since the story played out in real life with a popular actress. Teens going through the admissions process will understand the pressure Chloe and her friends fee to get into their dream schools. This is a solid pick for high school libraries.

3.5 stars

I received this as an arc on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley and Delacorte Press.

While I loved the alternating 'Then' & 'Now' chapters there were a few times where it just lagged for me. A realistic take on the admission scandal while being fictional and relying more on the family dynamic. It's hard to feel bad for the situation the parents put everyone in but I did enjoy how everything was handled and seeing the family come together by the end.

Chloe's life is turned upside down when she opens her front door early one morning to find men in FBI jackets there to arrest her mother. Chloe finds out that her parents have been accused of participating in a giant college scandal, to get Chloe into her dream school. Told in dueling timelines, Chloe must come to terms with the fact that her mother is guilty, her role in the plot, what it says about her that her parents felt the need to do this, and her privilege.

An interesting enough read, but nothing very substantial. I was disappointed by the lack of introspection or criticism of the main characters - it's never in doubt that they were just "doing the right thing for their children" which is infuriating given the real-world sentencing of Lori Loughlin et al. and the sentencing discrepancies between privileged and underprivileged people in the criminal justice system. I'm sorry, but I'm not at all inclined to be sympathetic towards people who think the rules don't apply to them, and I don't think the author did nearly enough work to win me over.

This is the second YA book I’ve read by this author, and my critique is the same - she doesn’t write effectively in a teenage voice.
The story itself is entertaining, as a fictionalized version of the recent “rich people” college scandal. Not gonna lie, I enjoy a bit of schadenfreude as much as the next person, so reading about some comeuppance was fun. Buuut...it’s written in first person, told by seventeen-year old, Chloe, who is reluctantly dragged into the infraction by her wealthy, celebrity parents. As with her previous novel, Tell Me Three Things, I don’t buy the teenage characters. The dialogue is wrong, the interactions with each other are wrong, the text messaging is terrible, and it distracts me the whole way through.
I think the author should either:
a) stop writing as a teenager
or
b) have a teenager seriously edit her manuscript.
Thanks to #netgalley and #delacourtpress for this ARC of #admission in exchange for an honest review.

Julie Buxbaum deftly handles a ripped-from-the-headlines college admissions scandal story without trying to make us feel too sorry for the privileged people behind it, The characters are sympathetic and realistic. Kids will love this.

Great read, This book had a lot of interesting twist that young adults never really think about. Sometimes, I thought it was a little slow for high school level, but I think they will enjoy the story line.

Chloe leads her normal life, as only someone as priviledged could, and is preparing to head to college when her mother is suddenly facing charges of frauding the admission system for her college.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

The story happens in two timelines, the before the FBI raid in Chloe's house and the present while she faces the risk of her whole family going to prison. I'm not usually a fan of two timelines and I won't say I loved it here but I also think it was a great way to show it all. Chloe is a very oblivious character, but was she really unaware of the whole scheme? Did she know something? What happened to her friends that they're not with her?

I've read two of Buxbaum's novels and this is probably my least favorite. At the same time, it still held the quality you'd expect from her. It was just not comfortable to follow Chloe's opening her eyes at last, or rather her whole family's. Considering there was a recent scandal involving a real-life actress (as Chloe's mom is), that also made too attached to reality, when I prefer escaping it. It's not that raw, it's still a fluffy read to be honest, but it did make me freak out to watch the family go deeper into the fraud and know it'd come back to bite them.

For those who like Buxbaum's romances like I do, there is one here and they're as cute as those in her other books, but it's definitely not the focus.

This book is the kind that is worth reading with a partner or a book club, because it'll be great food for thought. How much can a person know without knowing? And would you stick with a friend who did what Chloe did? Just some examples of discussions this will feed you. It's not your feel-good coming-of-age.

Admission is basically Olivia Jade fan fiction and I for one am here for it! If you were obsessed with the varsity blues/college admissions cheating scandal, this book is for you. The book follows Chloe, a high school student and SCC admit who is caught up in scandal when her B-list celebrity mother is found out to have paid for her admission to college. It flashes between before and after the scandal comes to light. Admission is well-written, timely, and addictive. I highly recommend it for people who love books about entitled high schoolers and family scandals, two of my favorite genres.

This was a fascinating read, even though it was all truly fictional. Based on the recent college admissions scandals in the worlds of the rich and famous, Julie Buxbaum wrote an engaging story from the perspective of the child of what happens when the rich use money to their advantage. I enjoyed Chloe’s character...her friends, not so much. But all in all, I enjoyed the read!

A very timely read. As with other books by this author, I am looking forward to adding this to my class library.

DNF @ 35%

I can't read anymore of this book. I didn't have super high expectations while going in, but I also didn't expect to be so worked up over a book either. I'm sure the main character Chloe will better understand her privilege and all that by the end of the book, but I'm not interested in that development because a part of me just feels like she should have known. I don't feel bad or empathize with her because what she did to get into the mess she's in was on her. When there were signs, such as getting a 240 point increase on her SAT score, she should have talked to someone about it. I'm not sure if I couldn't relate to the characters because I'm not part of some high class society or a parent, but my parents always preached to me about hard work and learning things to do on my own. Personally, this book was not for me and I couldn't go on reading it.

Thank you for kindly sending me an advanced copy of this book, I hope other readers were able to get more from it than I was.

Although fictional, this was a fascinating look at how having money can jade our view on life. I was angry for most of the novel because of the real-life news scandal of celebrities paying for their children to have guaranteed access to Ivy League schools. The author mentions these stories were the muse of this story. Along the way, I felt some big feelings for the daughter(s) being caught up in their parents actions. I appreciated the diverse characters that were written in for a glimpse at those that work to earn their way.

Thank you to the publisher through Netgalley for an advanced copy.

Admission is a young adult novel that mirrors the admission bribery scandal of overprivileged, rich kids that have everything handed to them by parents who are willing to cheat the system to push their children above everyone else. Chloe Wynn Berringer was thrilled to be going to the perfect school while dating her dream guy. She had a famous mother and strong friendships. Then at a blink of an eye, her entire world comes crashing down and nothing makes sense.

This relevant story shines a light on the characters who played a key role in the unraveling of their lives. It was written in real time and the past until it finally catches up to the current moment that it began. You see the realization of how life can snowball and spiral out of control without paying attention.

I really enjoyed Chloe's character and her evolution as she reflected on what was happening and how life wasn't really what it seemed. Could there be something positive from so much loss?

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's Delacorte Press for allowing me to read this book for an honest review.

4 out of 5 stars - If you ask me, I'll tell you to read it.

This books is a fictionalized version of the "Varsity Blues Scandal" that tore through headlines about parents paying for raised test scores and fake athletic abilities to get their kids into great schools.

This novel takes the perspective of a child who didn't know it was happening, and the toll it takes on her life and relationships. It was written in a style that showed before and after the story broke in alternating chapters, showing what was known and perhaps what should have been known. It also shows what this sort of thing can do to relationships within a family and those of friendships and romance once the story broke.

I really enjoyed the book, and I will be looking for other stories from the author in the future.

Thanks to Random House Children's Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this Advanced Readers Copy.

Admission was a great fictionalized version of the college admissions scandal and I would definitely recommend reading it. It took a good look at privilege and what it's like for people with a lot of money. The book also touched a little on white privilege, but it didn't quite reach what I think the intended goal was.

Chloe started off being a sympathetic character, but towards the end, I was a little disappointed with her choices. I did feel for her when she lost pretty much everything that was important to her. The ending itself was good, I liked how things turned out for each of the sisters.

Julie's writing is great, and her characters were diverse (personality-wise). Each character felt wholly developed, and the Now and Then chapters wove together perfectly. Sometimes I'll read books with flashbacks and feel like they're two completely different stories, but Admission wasn't like that at all.

I'd give this book 4.6 stars overall. It was very good, but there's always room for improvement.

LOVED THIS ripped from the headlines story. The inside look into the College admissions Scandal was shocking. I felt bad For and also disgusted by the MC and her family. The best fiction feels like nonfiction and Admission is one of these books.