Julie Buxbaum does it again. She can write a flawed character like nobody's business. This timely story about a girl and her family becoming entangled in a college admissions scandal was intriguing and well-paced.

The flashes between life before and after the scandal provided context and made the characters seem more human. Even though they were wealthy and famous, they were still just a flawed family. Chloe coming to terms with her privilege showed real growth, and I found her character arc touching and believable.

Julie Buxbaum highlights a topic that is relevant today; the college admissions scandal. The main character, Chloe, is daughter of a B-list actress and a mediocre student who attends a private school in LA. Chloe is a likable character, although I went back and forth between feeling empathy towards her and being annoyed at her naivety. As someone who has followed the real-life college admissions scandal from the beginning, this novel gave me a different perspective on the situation.

I enjoyed Buxbaum’s writing style and the alternating timeline of the story (partially “now” after the scandal and partially told “then” prior to the scandal).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of Admission in exchange for an honest review.

A very timely novel revolving around a rich family who are involved in the college admission scandal. It was interesting to see the impact of this scandal from the perspective of a teen at the center of it as well as her close friends and little sister. With the recent scandal plastered all over the media, the teens' stories haven't been heard. This novel takes a hard look at entitlement and culpability. Another great read from Julie Buxbaum. Loved the nameless nod to Felicity Huffman. :-)

This book! What a fun, quick ride. I loved the parallels with the real life admissions scandal going on right now. The author threw in so many little Easter eggs and it was so much fun to find them!

The pacing of the story was perfect. I really ended up loving the main character despite her flaws. I loved the powerful message at the end. All in all, I learned more than I thought I would from this.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4. Thanks for the chance to read this early. I’ll be posting a full review on my IG account closer to pub date.

A strong 3.5 stars. I love Julie’s books and was intrigued by the personal understanding that it gave me in regards to the current college admissions scandal, but it moved a bit slow for me. I didn’t crave it, but I did enjoy the experience.

Great story about privilege and being white and navigating the college system. Slight romance and loved the family. I loved that it showed the real things that happened. I love Isla and her half brother and his addiction. Great story and loved that it showed the real people in this real controversy. It almost seemed that the mother was like aunt Becky but she made the better choice.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy/

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Full Review Coming Closer to Release Date.

I really enjoyed this book. I've been fascinated by the college admissions scandal and I think this book used it as a really effective plotline. I thought all the characters were well-developed and intriguing.

I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Chloe and Isla and I think the book explained how Chloe could simply not know that this was happening. I also like that it doesn't really have a happy ending. She lost her best friend and her boyfriend. She realizes that she's privileged and oblivious and it isn't a victim-less crime.

This was really one of the better YA books I've ever read. It tackles a current issue. It studies it from a teen perspective. It does so with depth, understanding and humor and it doesn't make light of the situation. It was really good.

"Under all this lies the terrible quicksand of fear. What if they are right? What if it's true that we are terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad people? If I allow myself to dip my toes into that idea, that I am not actually the hero of my own story but a villain, I quickly find myself neck deep."

This YA novel imagines what it would be like to be a kid whose parents cheated and broke the law to get you into college. Told in the first person through 17-year-old Chloe's eyes, we bounce back and forth in the timeline: Then and Now.

Do Chloe's parents think she's too stupid to get into college without their actions? What were they thinking? What's the fallout of cheating on your SATs and pretending to be a champion pole vaulter?

We get that and some additional extremely privileged teen stress in this book as Chloe comes to realize just how ridiculously good she has it, even when her life hits rock bottom.

Fans of Buxbaum's other YA work will enjoy some cameo appearances from characters from Tell Me Three Things and some references to things from her other books.

Buxbaum realizes that it's going to be tough for the reader to like or care about Chloe and her family. She uses a teacher discussing Crime and Punishment to tell us, "...we know Raskolnikov's capable of monstrous things. We don't have to like him. People forget that about novels. It's not our job to like our main character. It's our job to try to understand them. Let's be honest, most people are deeply unlikable."

I didn't quite like Chloe, but I did come to understand her and her parents a bit more. I wish the book included more of her friend, Shola, and perhaps explored her perspective a bit more (Shloa comes from a different, far less privileged background and calls Chloe on her BS regularly).

If you're wanting to get in the head of a rich white girl and imagine what being at the center of the college admissions scandal might be like, you might enjoy this one. There was a bit of schadenfreude on my part, I'll...admit...to that. I read this while on vacation, and I think it makes a good beach read.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's for providing me with an electronic review copy in exchange for my review.

Just finished Julie Buxbaum’s latest book Admission, and while it was not my favorite of JB’s books (Tell me Three things will always reign supreme,) it was still an enjoyable book.
Admission tells the story all of us who have been fascinated with the college admissions scandal want to hear, but from the inside. The book starts off at the beginning when Chloe Wynn Berringer gets an wakeup call with the arrest of her mother, who apparently has paid a lot of money to get Chloe into the college of her dreams…or at least the college Chloe thinks is her dream. The best part of this book is that Chloe is written like every other teenage girl in that she is ordinary. She doesn’t have some master skill or breathtaking beauty that makes all of her flaws seem ok. She is just like everyone else, she doesn’t know what the heck she wants to do with her life, she doesn’t even know what she should want to do, but she does know that she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents. Julie Buxbaum does a great job of helping you relate to a character that for most of us everyday people cannot relate to. She is spoiled, entitled (not intentionally so), and just coasting through life hoping that her future will just land in her lap. Chloe is generally a relatable and likeable character because she is kind, generous and a normal kid whose mother just happens to be famous. The book does a great job of walking you through Chloe’s feelings and thought processes through what has got to be one of the most world shaking moments of her life. She asks herself questions that, you dear reader, are asking yourself like. “How could you not know?” “Are you really that dumb to not figure it out?” “What are you going to do?” and the doozy “Can deliberate ignorance really be bliss?”
I always judge a book based on how much the desire to read the book pulls me from my everyday life. Is it so good that my family is fending for themselves and eating pizza for dinner? Well this book was good, very good, but it was more of an “I want to finish my book, but I will heat up some leftovers in the microwave for you, while I continue to read”. The writing was great, the book flowed really well, and at no point did I check my percentage read to see how much I had left to read. I give this book a 4 out of 5 and would recommend to anyone who loves Julie Buxbaum’s previous books or YA in general.

#admissions #JulieBuxbaum #reader #books #bibliophile

This story is based off the college admission that rocked Hollywood recently. Admission is based on Chloe, a high school senior, who is applying for colleges. The story is told in then, as she is taking the SATs and applying for college, and now, as her mother has been arrested and she faces the fallout of the scandal. I did like how this story focused on the high schooler and what she experienced throughout this process.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this text in exchange for an honest review.

One of the best things about this book is how real and honest it felt. Chloe felt like a real person who was dealing with college, parents, school, and not quite feeling like she was good enough. But my favorite character was Isla. She was no nonsense and was the little voice that tells you everything you did wrong. I so enjoyed reading this book and watching Chloe grow and understand her privilege and what it has given her.

I know so many people who would enjoy reading this for the scandal and honesty that it brings college admissions and those who work hard vs. those who have the right "look" or "wealth." It not only speaks to the people who are caught up in a scandal like this, but those who lived and shared alongside them. The friendship that Chloe has and struggles with really tells a story of how to lose something, but gain more. I so loved this book and can tell many others will as well.

Written so seamlessly and with an edge of perfection, Admission will skyrocket into the charts and most likely get a Netflix nod just like Missy!

The opening quote of the book from Seinfeld truly sets the tone for the book— “it’s not a lie if you believe it.” Brilliantly laid out in “then” and “now” segments, Admission starts when Chloes world dissolves around her as she finds herself and family at the center of a college admissions scandal. The then segments follow life before, as Chloe travels through her senior year struggling academically and wholly unaware of what she wants in life. Tied together with the future posts, she delves into what she might have truly know about her parents illegal activity but choose to look the other way or be unapologetically clueless.

In a nail biting, anxiety driven frenzy I binge read this book watching for the train crash that was inevitable and to see who the survivors would be that climbed out of the flames. Much like the real scandals of recent years, which Buxbaum admits to being quite obsessed over, the carnage of Admission is real, the emotions ugly and the necessity to not look away is astounding.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC

I must admit that I wasn't expecting too much from a ripped-from-the-headlines story that was written so close to the actual events happening. However, this book is great! The writing is truly top-notch, and the characters are excellently developed and explored. I highly recommend this novel!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley, Delacorte Press and Julie Buxbaum for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

How far would you go for your kids? In this novel, Julie Buxbaum creates a fictional story based on the college admission scandal that hit the news recently. It's pretty obvious that it was inspired by Lori Loughlin and her family. It was interesting to see the fall out from the child's perspective and left me with a lot to think about. There's a lot to unpack in this story - white privileges, social classes, drug addiction, ethical dilemmas and legal consequences. I love Julie Buxbaum's writing but I think this plot is too close to what's already out there in the news.

Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy. Wow!! Such a fresh perspective on this scandal. I love the character of Chloe and how she lives in her "aggressively ignorant" world. Told in alternating time periods "Then" and "Now", made me want to keep reading. Highly recommend this book to the High School students I work with as a fictionalized true life example of this scandal. I also think this would fit into a coming of Age curriculum, considering how Chloe's eyes were opened to her own possible culpability.

A great book. describing a fictional twist on the current admissions scandal facing celebrities/colleges in the US. It was interesting take seeing it from the high school aged girl effected by the scandal. I highly recommend!

Based loosely off the real life public scandal, Admission offers a fun and deeply challenging YA retelling of the events through the eyes of average-in-every-way-except-privilege teen, Chloe. I enjoyed Buxbaum’s “Tell Me Three Things” for its quick and witty prose, a talent that is also evident in this novel.

I think the reason this book works so well is because even in the midst of a scandal only plausible by privilege, Chloe is still a teenager who experiences the universal feelings of first love and insecurities. The glam and almost cartoonish life of “Then” is only more crushing compared to the high tensions of “Now”. It is as if Buxbaum has painted the alternating chapters in shades of shades of gold and silver, only to be stripped away to a devastating gray.

I appreciate Buxbaum’s attempt at trying to capture all the ways Chloe is privileged compared to her peers, but think it fails in that it points out its “wokeness” in a way that’s almost unrealistic. It’s as if she feared that her readers would hate her main character if she was consumed by her privilege, but to have leaned into that ignorance would have been a more interesting (and I believe, logical, albeit risky) take.

Still, I enjoyed this for what it was: a well paced, thought provoking, “what if?” and “what’s right?” novel, that had me questioning my morals for days after reading. I look forward to reading the rest of Buxbaum’s works.

Julie Buxbaum does it again...she writes a YA book that is perfect for everyone!

Chloe Wynn Berringer has the seemingly perfect life...a famous mom, wealth, she attends the premier private school in LA, shes been accepted to the college of her dreams, she’s dating her longtime crush, and she has a best friend who is always there for her.

This all changes one morning, when the FBI show up at Chloe’s house and take her mom away in handcuffs because of her alleged involvement is a college admissions scandal.

Will life ever be the same for Chloe again?

In today’s day and age of high stakes testing, social media, etc. being a kid is not easy, no matter where you come from. Throw in some status obsessed parents and it’s bound to be a recipe for disaster. Buxbaum hits on this perfectly!

3 stars. While the writing was fine, the story was lacking for me. I guess I expected this to be more loosely based on the real-world scandal. Instead, it felt a little too similar to me in that I could just read the news. I guess I appreciated that the main character seemed less self centered than her real-world portrayal, but the ignorance was just frustrating. I understand it was likely intentional, but I felt it was shoved down the reader's throat too much.

I've liked this author and this won't necessarily stop me from reading her work, but this really felt like a cheap take at a story in the news; there was so many ways to make this story different, and I'm disappointed it wasn't.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.