Admission is one of those “ripped from the headlines” type books that offers a glimpse into the recent college admission scandal. I am always a sucker for any book that allows me to live a rich person’s life vicariously, so I was excited to read this!

While the depictions of the rich kid life in CA was fun, about half way through, I was a little worried that the main character, Chloe, was getting the typical “not my fault!” edit that I’ve heard offered as a defense from people talking about the real life situation. The author took great pains to establish her as a likable, if ignorant, bystander. And (spoiler), even if Chloe didn’t get actual consequences (like jail time or fines), I appreciated the frank discussion about privilege that she and her best friend have several times before the book ends. (It made me think about my own ignorance to privilege!) I also ended up loving Chloe’s mom, despite being prepared for her to be the villain of the story.

Admission is a well-written, quick read, and I think it’s the perfect book to add to your pool bag this summer!

Thank you so much for giving me an eARC of this title.

I am sending this message to let you know that I will not be reviewing this title. I read close to 35 percent of this title. I cannot connect with the plot and some of the inclusions of this book. I feel like some of the information that was given was misinforming and a little insensitive. I found myself struggling to appreciate the characters and direction. This book is just not for me. I do wish it all the best, and I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Kind regards,

Brittney

#Admission #NetGalley
What a great book for parents and young adults! It is a learning lesson in the damage and effects of trying to beat the systems.

I truly enjoy all of this author's writing. It is fast paced, quick witted, fun characters, and interesting environments. I will read everything she ever publishes.

This book was the same. Read it in one sitting. Was a timely and fascinating story. Not based on the true story, but inspired by, so don't think you're reading a true accounting of the College admissions scandal.

This was 3 1/2 stars for me. It was very readable, but ultimately, I just didn't connect with the characters. I found them not very likable, but that could have been part of the plot.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. It's a good read. Just won't be my favorite from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Delacorte Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I love Julie Buxbaum and was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to read another one of her novels! To have such a hot-topic as the plot was a good choice! I had such a good time with this book. Chloe was an incredible main character, and following her story as she deals with such an incredible situation made me never want to put it down!

Admission is about Chloe, a high school senior who is struggling to demonstrate enough success in school to get accepted into a worthy college, one her parent will be proud of. Living a life of privilege as the daughter of a successful actress, who has built a reputation playing wholesome, honest roles, Chloe's perceptions of the world are turned upside down when the FBI arrests her mother.

Learning that her mother has been charged with fraud related to Chloe's acceptance into the college of her choice, leads her to question the morality of her family, and pushed herself to understand what exactly she knew, and didn't know, about the scheme. The situation will test her relationships with classmates, her sister, and the world at large.

Lifted right from the headlines, Julie Buxbaum has brought a current event to life in a way that will guide readers to empathize with others, even in light of bad choices. Chloe's naivety and trust in her parents is believable. Her younger sister's wit and drive are also believable, and in fact, help propel the story forward in a way that Chloe could not do herself. Tied into the scandal and Chloe's reflections are real world issues relating to race, immigration, addiction, wealth, and the concept of entitlement. That's a lot to pack into one contemporary story, told in less than 300 pages, and yet, it's done well. The result of Buxbaum's ability to craft characters who are likable, characters a reader wants to listen to.

Admission is a timely book, but it will reach teens for many years to come.

I was given a copy of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review,

This book is exquisite. It's obviously inspired by the College admission scandal and there are many borrowed elements from that. No one person is duplicated and actually, in every instance, the characteristics of each are spread between a multitude of characters.

We follow Chloe through two time frames. One from the time she opens the door to the FEDs and another from the time it became apparent she was not going to get a passable SAT score on her own.

The cast is set with knowable characters and the whole thing really paints more of a mirror than a portrait. Chloe, in spite of everything, is a sympathetic character. She didn't stack the social deck this way, she's not even guilty of trying to stack it further for her own gain. She's just privileged. She's not a bad person. The book begs the question, who deserved what, and why do others get to decide.

I loved this. Highly recommend!

This novel highly relates to the college admissions scandal that made headlines over the past two years. It follows the lives of the rich and privileged who will stop at nothing to make college dreams come true for their children. The novel offers a really interesting perspective into the mind of the students that were part of the scandal. Chloe (fictional main character) has always struggled to feel as smart as her sister, and the novel does a great job of illustrating how she navigates the months after the arrest. It is a great example of watching characters grow throughout the course of the novel.

This book is like one of those cheesy pulled-from-the-headlines movies except it’s not cheesy it’s amazing! I devoured this book in the same way that I devoured all of the articles about Operation Varsity Blues when the whole thing exploded last year!

You’ll love this book if:
• you were fascinated and scandalized by the college admissions scandal
• you like fictionalized stories based on true life drama
• you like stories about a teen discovering who she is amidst a crazy and terrifying time in her life

Chloe is your average girl living a not-so-average life. On the one hand, she finds school and studying difficult, has a cool best friend named Shola, has a super smart sometimes annoying younger sister, just wants a boyfriend, and doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. On the other hand, she has a famous actress mom, lives in a mansion, can buy whatever she wants, and lives in Beverly Hills. She has a privileged life and kind of knows it, but doesn’t really, truly understand her privilege. Her best friend Shola, who is black and lives in a different town and studies very hard to be where she is in life, tries to remind Chloe of this fact, but Chloe can’t see it until it literally comes knocking on her door one morning in the form of FBI agents.

Watching Chloe’s life transform in the wake of this scandal and seeing her eyes open up to her privilege and understand that maybe she was inadvertently complicit in all this is what makes this book so fascinating to read. You like Chloe and you root for her because she’s a relatable person, but you also want to not like her because she’s rich and you know she should’ve realized what was happening and done something about it. But then you think about yourself and what would you do if you were in the same position with overbearing parents — if you knew but didn’t know; if you just had a suspicion.

The book moves back and forth between Then and Now and you get to see how Chloe’s life and the lives of everyone around her change. It’s an interesting book that I would definitely recommend!

*Review copy courtesy of NetGalley.

I received this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review. This book is really relevant today. There are so many people accused of these crimes and it was interesting to see what it could be like from the other side. and I was a little frustrated with Chloe, who knew something wasn’t right, but didn’t say anything.

As soon as I heard about Admission by Julie Buxbaum, I had to read it. I've been fascinated by this story since it appeared in the news, and Julie does a great job stepping inside of it. She made me empathize with the characters and gave depth to a group of people often depicted as caricatures. I appreciated the pacing of the story until the very end; the last few chapters sped up so quickly, it felt like an ending was just tacked on. This would have made an excellent two-book series. Regardless, I'd recommend this book to anyone who has been following the headlines!

This is a great ripped-from-the headlines look at the college admissions scandal from the inside of one family. I loved it and kept reading to see what was going to happen next, even though I more or less knew what was likely to happen considering we’ve all been reading about the scandal. Buxbaum manages to make the scandal fresh. I was invested in the characters and cared about them as people. I was a higher education reporter for many years so I have followed the scandal closely and imagined the books and movies that would be based on it. Buxbaum must have written this very quickly to get it out to the public while the scandal is still unfolding. Kudos to her to being able to do that while still making it very compelling and well written.

I loved the take on “college admissions scandal.” I’ll admit when the news broke in real life I didn’t have strong opinions either way.
This book was fiction, but based on what happened and I really enjoyed the behind the scenes take on everything. I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen. My mouth physically dropped when I found out the reason the scandal happened in the book. Definitely going to be recommending this one, and worth the read!

First I would like to thank Net galley and publishers for the advance read on this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit I have been so intrigued with the admissions scandal within the last year that I was so excited to see this YA book based around a similar plot. I was immediately sucked in from the first page and could not put the book down. I loved how the book did a flashback and present day in a then and now chapter format that alternates.

Chloe the main character was developed in a believable manner and made me angry for what was happening around/to her. I found I was more intrigued with Isla her sister as she was the true gem of this story. I appreciated how the author told this story from a young adults perspective. I know my students will be chomping at the bit to read this book once it is released. They are so intrigued by this scandal that I know it will fly off my bookshelf. I give this five out of five stars!!

A peek into the “lives “ of the college cheating scandal . Loosely veiled Lori Laughlin and daughters adds a bit of humanity to a crazy story. This book was graciously provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fast-paced and emotional, this was a story that I didn't want to put down. The characters are well developed, and the stress and pressure that Chloe, her sister, and her friends all feel will definitely resonate with teens. I really appreciated how this book unfolded, with Chloe telling her story through memories alongside the current events until they met seamlessly. This story is timely and addresses topics like white/wealthy privilege in a captivating way.

Chloe Berringer has everything she could possibly want: an amazing best friend, a cute friend turned boyfriend, a loving family, and privilege for days. But she doesn’t have the grades, SAT scores, or burning passions to get her into the kind of college her parents think she needs to attend. Their solution? Throw money at the problem. But when Chloe’s B-list celebrity mother is arrested by the FBI early one morning, it turns out that the expensive college counselor is part of a massive scam her parents bought into and that Chloe got into college not as herself but as a Latina pole-vaulter with an essay she didn’t write and SAT scores she didn’t earn.

Clearly based on the real life college admissions scandal, this was an interesting but not surprising read. Chloe was almost aggressively directionless, in a way that was certainly realistic but also very frustrating to read. She is forced to confront her privilege, but due to the nature of the plot, we never get to see her do much about it.

Five GLORIOUS stars. I loved this so much! Julie Buxbaum is a YA Queen, and her latest installment did not disappoint. She dove into the story of the college admissions scandal and somehow made it a coming-of-age family drama that sucked me in from the first page and didn’t let go until I had flown through the whole thing. The alternating timelines between pre- and post-scandal was a really nice plot device that kept the story moving, and really gave her the opportunity to show our characters’ growth.

All of my thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy– I can imagine you’re going to be seeing this one everywhere once it releases!

**Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Kids for the advanced review copy. This in no way affects my rating of the book**

Julie Buxbaum has been an autobuy author for me since I finished What to Say Next. She always manages to write characters who seem authentic and who suck the reader into the pages and refuse to let go until the last page. This book is no exception.

Chloe Wynn Berringer seems to have it all. She's the daughter of a sitcom television star, she lands the boy of her dreams, she has the perfect best friend, and she just got accepted to Southern California College, her dream school. But that was before the FBI showed up to arrest her mother as part of a college bribery scandal.

It's very apparent that the mother is based, at least partially, on people from the real college scandal (particularly Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin). It would have been very easy to write the parents in a harsh light, based on personal feelings about the morality of the crime they committed. Buxbaum, however, doesn't do this, and instead, writes nuanced characters, which blurs the line for the reader between righteous indignation and understanding their point of view. The interest of the book isn't to condemn the real life counterpart, but to allow you, as the reader, to think about how the affected child (or siblings of that child) may feel about the situation.

Buxbaum makes two particularly interesting points to this regard in Admission. She talks about when a person no longer is thought of as a person by the general population, but as "a meme". That they're so far removed from how we view our lives that we cease to empathize. She also says "People forget that about novels. It's not our job to like our main character. It's our job to try and understand them." And I think she does a great job of this with Chloe, our protagonist.

Chloe is the stand-in for all of the kids whose parents cheated their way into college for them. She is intriguing and compelling as a main character. You feel for her as she starts to question what is happening or if her parents think she's too stupid to do the work herself. I appreciated the dive into what makes someone an accomplice and when does suspicion become knowledge. To go back to that meme quote from earlier, Chloe also reminded me of some of the memes I saw surrounding Lori Loughlin's daughter when the news first broke. It really made me think about the way we treat people based on status and whether or not initial reactions are fair.

Additionally, I liked the way relationships were developed in the book. Chloe and her best friend, Shola, have both a deep and superficial friendship, depending on the way you look at it. Her relationship with her sister, Isla, and the student she volunteers with, Ceasar, are also really well-written.

All in all, I give this book a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars. It was gripping from beginning to end and very thoughtful about its source material. This book is 10,000% worth your time to go pick up.

Popsugar reading prompt: A book with a pink cover

Julie Buxbaum is an amazing writer and every book she has written, I have LOVED. Admission is no different: chock full of real-life based characters involved in a crazy (yet actually very possible) situation. This book is basically a fictionalized story of current Hollywood stars and college admissions scandal participants Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, combined. The story is written from the POV of high school senior Chloe, daughter to a famous actress and business mogul living in Los Angeles. Chloe is just beginning the very stressful and lengthy process of applying to colleges and is doubting herself and her academics because of her less than perfect SAT scores and merely average grades. Any family who has been through this process knows how difficult it is and how it can adversely affect even the best student's self image and confidence. Famous, rich families are no different, or at least they shouldn't be..... Also, Chloe attends an elite school where most of the students strive for outstanding grade, are involved in multiple activities/sports and are expected to attend an number of top-notch universities. Not only are her two closest friends both of this mindset, but so is her incredibly brilliant younger sister--all which does not fair well for Chloe's own average-ness or quest for mediocrity. Chloe's parents are introduced to a private college admissions advisor who does everything possible to get her into her dream school (SCC--definitely a make-believe USC)--for a large price, which they pay. Chloe retakes the SAT and scores much higher than she had initially. Her essay is edited by the admission advisor's staff without her actual knowledge and there are several bold faced lies on her application as a whole. Her entire application is submitted by someone else, and although she does have some idea what is going on....Chloe basically chooses to ignore any inkling she feels of wrongdoing on her or her family's part. Sadly, someone else doesn't ignore it, and her mother is arrested and charged with several crimes related to her college application and amazingly much-improved SAT score, that, surprisingly, she actually did not get all by herself. Chloe blames herself because she coasted through high school without really trying and did the bare minimum. Her family starts to fall apart. Lawyers are constantly in their home. Her mother is facing jail time. She loses all of her friends. Her sister helps her as much as she can, but is also having a really hard time with the family breakdown. Sadly, Chloe feels like she forced her parents to pay for her inflated application because she just isn't smart enough to do it on her own and they had no choice. The ending of the book is one I would like to see in real life in the case of Lori Loughlin who claims she is innocent and was only trying to be a good mother and do what was best for her kids. Right. We'd ALL like to have an IN to a prestigious college and be able to get our kid in without suffering through the process, but that's not how it works. No matter how much money a person has. Eventually Chloe and her family start to recover from the entire scandal, and in spite of losing friends, jobs and fame, they begin to heal. Chloe starts to find her way as a young adult. Her sister excels on her own. Ironically, my own daughter was applying to colleges last year and had an excruciating time applying and then waiting to hear back from the colleges, in spite of her spotless academic record, four years of extracurricular & sports and almost perfect test scores which everyone seemed to think would get her into all of her top choices. This scandal seriously hurt the chances every high school senior applying to college last year. Colleges really clamped down and it was harder than ever to secure a spot especially at the Ivy Leagues and the more prestigious colleges out there. I personally think that these parents should be punished because what they did was WRONG and it hurt many others, and if their kids knew what was going on (really, how could they not???), it is really, really sad because all the hardworking, honest seniors from last year really took the brunt of the fall here. I read this book in one day and I highly recommend it to everyone! Buxbaum is an amazing author. I absolutely can not wait to read her next novel.........thanks TONS to NG for the ARC!!!