I think Julie did a really good job of giving the college admission scandal new life and new dimension. I'll admit when watching the news I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the inner turmoil of the kids who were admitted in the course of the scandals. Julie really took us into the heart and soul of Chloe through the before and after of this scandal.
It wasn't my favorite work of hers but that's just the fault of scandals in general not being my favorite subject to read about. I don’t enjoy it when a family’s life is torn apart, even when they were responsible for it. I will give Julie credit for the fact that I was a fan enough of her previous works to read this and she did well enough to keep me going all the way through. The real strength I feel were in the small moments and in digging into Chloe and her character arc. The big college admission scandal was the vehicle that got this book going and was a centerpiece, certainly but it wasn’t what made me linger and enjoy it. That honor belongs to the dialog and the character work. Again, it wasn’t my favorite by this author but that was more because of the subject and less about the writing itself. It was still a solid read and I enjoyed myself.

I had a tough time getting into this story. I thought that Chloe was naive to the point of frustration so it made it hard for me to feel sorry for her even though nothing happening was her fault. But her entitled parents and wishy-washy friends left a sea of unlikeable characters and no one for me to latch onto. THe story was okay and fun in 'ripped-from-the-headlines' sort of way, but I fear that I'm liking each of Julie Buxbaum's books less and less.

Chloe is a high school senior living in Los Angeles. Her mother starred in two popular television shows as well as Hallmark movies. Her mother also engaged in an elaborate scheme of cheating and bribery in order to help Chloe get into college.

The narrative alternates between Then and Now, exploring the dual perspectives of the events that preceded Chloe’s mother’s arrest as well as what she and her family do after being implicated in the scandal.

Chloe is a sweet girl, but her naivete is her biggest fault. She knows that something is “off” with the changes the private admissions counselor suggests, but she accepts her parents’ explanations. She does discover more blatant evidence at one point, but it’s after the applications have been submitted, and she doesn’t speak up. I don’t mean to suggest that she shares very much of the blame for being caught up in the scandal, but she’s not entirely unaware either.

For the most part, Chloe is a likeable protagonist. She’s aware of her privilege, but she still makes a couple of insensitive comments, not realizing that things aren’t as simple as she perceives them to be. She’s a good friend, and a decent student, with a handful of extracurriculars. There’s no reason why she couldn’t get into any number of colleges on her own merits—just not her first choice school.

Admission is a completely fictional version of the real-life college admissions scandal, and that factor made the reading experience more interesting, even if it was only loosely based on facts. I don’t want to give away too much, but I will say this: just because Chloe is a sweet girl who was not a co-conspirator, she still faces consequences… which is the right message to send to readers.

I would absolutely recommend Admission. This was an exciting book to read and I found it difficult to put down. The dual timeline puts the reader into the mindset of knowing what happened, and having to go back and explore *how* it happened. I am looking forward to reading more from Buxbaum in the future.


I received a copy of this book from Random House/NetGalley

I’m not usually a big YA reader, and at first I found Chloe’s voice to be superficial, but by the end I was so invested in the story. First of all, this book mirrors the real college admissions scandal in a lot of ways (although names were never named): Chloe’s mom is a B-list actress famous for a family sitcom in the 90s (like Lori Laughlin), one of the other kids was a girl known for her YouTube and has been known to say she doesn’t care about college (Loughlin’s daughter), and at one point Chloe even mentioned “the blond lady...married to the shaggy guy from Shamless” (Felicity Huffman). If you were obsessed with the details of the real life case then this book is for you! This book also had amazing character development: even though Chloe had a black best friend who would try to educate her on her ignorance it really took this scandal to show Chloe the privilege she took for granted, and how people like her parents think they deserve the world without working for it. Her guilt and emotional journey she went on felt real, and by the end of the book Chloe actually became someone I would want to know! Not to mention I loved her family’s dynamic. While this is definitely a YA read I think it’s accessible to just about any reader, and it tackles some big issues really well.

I have read five Buxbaum books, almost all earning 5-stars from me, but sadly, Admission was a DNF for me. I tried to read it twice. When I picked it up the first time, it was closer to the original publishing date, and I chalked it up to being in the thick of the pandemic. I tried again in November, and I just could not get invested in this book. I wasn't taken in by the story, nor did I find myself developing any emotional attachment to the characters. As always, the writing was great. Buxbaum is a fantastic novelist, but I just never felt myself embracing this story.

OOF. Let’s do this. Admission, as you may have gathered, is a novelization of the real-life college admissions scandal, uncovered by FBI Operation Varsity Blues (not really relevant information, but I just think the name is fun). Unusually for recent YA, Admission has more basis in fact than fiction. If you recognize the general synopsis, that’s because it’s basically the same chain of events as followed by Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. College admissions is such a tough and emotional world for real-life teens, and I was interested in seeing how Buxbaum would approach centering an unlikeable, maybe-even-culpable protagonist in the novel. I was disappointed at best and saddened at worst by the result. Let’s do positives first, though.

The dissonance between the now/then timelines did great things for the book’s atmosphere. Seeing how perfect Chloe thinks her life is before the arrests happen is a tonal clash with her family’s bleary-eyed misery in the aftermath. For readers, knowing what’s coming provides a sense of anticipation and a reason to invest in Chloe’s story. Less of a “rooting for” invest and more of a “Get it TOGETHER, girl! Can you not see this shady stuff happening?” kind of invest, though.

In the beginning, Buxbaum did well in humanizing the Berringer family. This became less believable as the book went on though, which I’ll get into later. Part of this is construction, but it’s also partly my bias. I had a hard time finding it in me to feel anything for Chloe’s mother especially—it’s difficult to be reading a book where the outward presentation is that the main characters are protagonists, but I view them as antagonists. This brings us neatly to my next point, where the negatives start.

I think Admission should have had a different protagonist. Chloe is maybe supposed to be relatable because of her mediocrity—she’s not that smart and doesn’t have any special talents. Readers are supposed to say, “hey, just like me!” or something. This justifies Chloe's whining about the people in her life with genuine talent or ability, like her sister Isla, boyfriend Levi, and best friend Shola. I found this grating, though, and would have much more easily enjoyed a novel from the perspective of Shola, who might have a more interesting perspective on Chloe’s life. She’s Nigerian, part of a minority at their uber-white private school, and her family isn’t wealthy like Chloe’s—no bribery in Shola’s admissions process, just straight-up achievements. I imagine there were a lot of eye rolls in her house at Chloe’s antics (and I’ll be honest, I’m pretty privileged too, but I recall having done the same at the legit otherworldly privilege and wealth-blindness of some people I know).

This is all to say, I get what Buxbaum was trying to do here. As a reader, though, all I wanted to do was scream at Chloe’s occasional classism and racism (which she gets called out on). I was just incapable of believing in her innate goodness when she has to consider whether she was complicit in her mother’s crimes. What level of ignorance is okay to excuse? How much can I, as a reader, allow her to shove under the rug before it stops being a character choice and becomes unforgivable? I decided the answer was “some ignorance,” but Chloe exceeded my expectations there. I mean, some of her choices are truly reprehensible. Getting an ADHD diagnosis for accommodations on the SAT… I mean, sure. That’s actually a pretty common practice amongst wealthy families for a whole host of reasons, which I won’t get into here. (I also won’t get into how it makes life for those of us who actually have ADHD that much harder because we’re already seen as lazy and unmotivated without the added concern of whether we’re “faking it” or not). That’s not something fully under Chloe’s control. All she had to do was accept the word of the psychologist as true, and it’s hard not to trust a psychologist. But picking an application photo where she has a deep tan in order to fake an Argentinian background… WHAT?!?! That’s a conscious decision! It would be so easy to just… not do the terrible thing! At that point, it’s pretty hard to feel anything for Chloe given that I thought she had to have understood that her actions were wrong.

I bet by now you’re wondering why I’m giving Admissions four stars. In short, it’s because I can appreciate a book that makes me think. I got to use my brain and consider my own worldview while reading, which I’ve been reticent to do during this pandemic. As you may know, I’ve been gravitating towards comfort reads, and I like that Admissions was able to drag me into thinking critically. So there. 4/5 stars for Admissions, even though I disliked large portions of it. You should read it. I’m curious to see what everyone else will think, so please come back and comment once you do!

Admission is a fictional version of the college admissions scandal and it delivers! As soon as that scandal broke, I was pulled in and fascinated – I couldn’t stop reading about it. My beloved Aunt Becky and Lynette Scalvo! In a scandal! Honestly though, the privilege. So back to the book. Chloe is a high school senior who struggles a bit academically (I know that game). She has average grades and cares more about her social life than her future. Her mom, who is a B-list TV actress is determined to do whatever (WHATEVER) it takes to ensure her daughter gets into an acceptable (to her) school.

This book dives deep into it all. I loved how Chloe’s smart younger sister kept pushing her in the right direction, morally. Her best friend, a Nigerian scholarship student, also helps Chloe to check her enormous privilege, not just in the scandal but throughout the flashbacks too. While Chloe had no idea that the scandal was in the works, she does everything in her power to take corrective action. The ending doesn’t wrap up with the best possible scenario that most books would, and I loved that. It felt authentic and like what would happen in real life.

Admission is more than just a YA book. If you’re like me and have had any interest in the college admissions scandal, I highly recommend picking this one up. I got through it in a little over a day because I couldn’t put the thing down. I can’t wait for my physical copy that I pre-ordered to arrive. Happy Pub Day to this gem!

With Admission, Julie Buxbaum brings us another achingly honest and thought-provoking book that is also extremely relevant to our time. Based on the shocking college admissions scandal that broke last year, Buxbaum does an amazing job of humanizing the people whom the media portray as black-and-white monsters.

Chloe Berringer lives a charmed life. The daughter of a wealthy businessman and a B-list celebrity, she and her sister want for nothing. A private chef cooks their meals, their mother’s assistant constantly runs their errands, and they each have an army of private tutors. And despite being an average student, she’s just made it into the college of her dreams. Now, something about that doesn’t seem right, but she chooses to ignore that nagging in her gut and instead turn her thoughts to prom with her new boyfriend.

But when she opens the door one morning to find herself face-to-face with a wall of FBI pointing guns, she knows that something is very, very wrong. It turns out that she did not earn her admission to SCC—her parents bought her way in, and now her mom, dad, and possibly even Chloe herself are facing jail time.

The novel alternates between two timelines, Then and Now. Now starts with her mother’s arrest and follows through the trial and the aftermath. Then starts with the beginning of senior year and follows Chloe as she studies for the SAT and applies to different schools. Chloe isn’t very smart and doesn’t like to spend a lot of time on school, unlike her best friend, but she knows how important a good college is to her parents, so she tries her best to study hard and go along with the special advisor her parents hired to help her, even though she has a bad feeling about him.

Like with all of Julie Buxbaum’s lovely books, what stands out is how real the characters are. Some readers find it hard to sympathize with Chloe because of how privileged she is without even realizing it. I, however, really related to Chloe. Growing up, I was nowhere near as rich as Chloe, but I had a bigger house than all my friends, and I was often judged or resented because of this. This upset me, because it felt like I was being shunned for something that wasn’t my fault. Chloe feels the same way. She never asked for wealthy parents. She never asked to go to the best schools. She never asked for what money can buy her, and over the course of the book, she learns that in the end, money can’t buy what’s really important.

Chloe isn’t dumb or lazy, she just prefers thinking about her crush and prom to slogging through Crime and Punishment. She feels like a real teenager to me, with real feelings, desires, and relationships. She also wasn’t purely likable or unlikable—she had moments where I empathized with and enjoyed her, and moments where I really disliked her.

Her mom also came alive in this book. During the college admission scandal that this book is based on, it’s so easy to look at the parents with judgement. That judgement is deserved, and Buxbaum does not excuse her actions. Chloe’s mom knows she’s done the wrong thing and that she must now serve the time. But the novel also asks the question, “how far would you go to do the best for your kids?” and this question allows readers to understand and empathize with her mom more.

This novel explores deep topics like guilt, privilege, and what it means to be complicit in a way that feels real and honest. I love losing myself in Buxbaum’s books, and this did not disappoint.

At first I was excited to read this book because I was intrigued about the how it would compare to the recent college scandal, but I was rather disappointed with the story. On one hand it was very similar to the scandal in real life, but on the other the characters were so shallow they didn’t seem believable. We spend pretty much the entire book with the main character Chloe in denial and wallowing in self pity because everyone hates her. Can a person really be that ignorant of everything going on around her? It was also frustrating that she couldn’t seem to comprehend why her boyfriend broke up with her or her best friend was mad at her. You also have Chloe’s mother the celebrity who walks around without remorse for what she did and in denial that there might actually be consequences for her actions. To top it off the pacing of the story felt rather slow and it was difficult to get through the whole book.

This book started out intriguing, but very similar to the college admission scandal that was publicized in the last year. I was skeptical that it was going to be much different. The writing and main character held my attention and in the end I really enjoyed this book! I'll be recommending this to friends and family!

The college admission scandal that rocked the country is the subject of Buxbaum's latest novel Admission. Chloe Wynn Berringer, daughter of a Hollywood celebrity, has been accepted at the college of her dreams, even though she's pretty sure she doesn't qualify. Then the FBI comes to arrest her mother for tampering with the admissions process and the nightmare begins. Will Chloe be arrested as well? What did she know and when did she know it? Is she complicit in her mother's crime? As Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman head off to prison as the result of an investigation known as Operation Varsity Blues, it is interesting to read a similar fictional story told from the student's point of view. Not wanting to disappoint her mother, Chloe willing participates in some questionable activities in the quest to get into the college of her mother's dreams. Is she guilty as well?

Admission by Julie Buxbaum had me hooked from the first page. My hands were glued to my e-reader, and I pulled anall-nighterr reading. The family scandal with lots of drama makes it easy to get lost in.

Overall, an interesting premise, but we are not exactly following the most interesting character in the situation somehow. She felt too much of a lot of things. Too naïve, too self-focused, too one-dimensional.

I love Julie Buxbaum's books - they are always entertaining and also have great characterization and a lot of heart and emotion.

This book was ripped from the headlines (based on the college admission cheating scandal that broke in March 2019) down to the smallest details. The main character's mom was a Felicity Huffman/Lori Loughlin amalgam, and the storyline seemed to be drawn from those two cases.

The book used a then/now storyline format that made Chloe, the main character, pretty hard to emphathize with. Yes, her parents were the one who came up with the idea to falsify her college application and cheat on her SATs, but Chloe DID know what was going on and DID know what she and her family were doing was wrong. But she - and they - did it anyway.

The book did a good job of showing that this very privileged family suffered the consequences of their actions. Hopefully it will provide YA teen readers with lots of topics for discussion!

Buxbaum is an easy read, I just fly through her books. This novel was compelling. However the author leaned heavily on the news story it was based on, which was distracting. I felt like I needed to know more about the main character. Buxbaum can create great characters but Chloe in her wishy-washy realness was hard to get to know.

Julie Buxbaum did not choose an easy topic, that much was obvious from the get go to me. You have this family steeped in privilege and while you do want to allow the reader to connect to the characters, you don’t want to redeem them or excuse their actions. I am not quite sure how, but Buxbaum managed this balancing act phenomenally.

With an alternating Now and Then POV, you get to explore the events that led up to Chloe’s life and that of her family imploding, while at the same time seeing the very concrete fallout from it. I didn’t really wonder whether Chloe knew what was going on or not, but I enjoyed the debate on what it means to be complicit. Buxbaum managed to humanize her without sugarcoating that she is the villain in a lot of people’s stories. I feel like a lot of authors have that need to not just give their characters a redemption arc, but also one that absolves them of their wrong-doing, which thankfully wasn’t done here. I don’t want to say you empathize with what happened, because I was downright disgusted by some of the conversations that family had, because screw them for their entitlement, but it made you understand how their thought process was and that weirdly made sense in turn.

I don’t think this is one of those books where you fall in love with very many characters, however, I have found great pleasure in the way friendships and family are portrayed. I liked how inconsequential the romantic love interest was, because in the end, it’s very doubtful that it would be a priority in such an extreme situation. Instead it focused on so many different kind of relationships and I especially appreciated the one between Chloe and her best friend Shola as well as the one to her sister Isla (both of which were my favourite characters if I am being completely honest).

While definitely not the easiest of topics and quite frustrating to read about sometimes, it was still a page turner I quite enjoyed. I’m glad that no excuses were made and consequences were implemented. It once again made me really, really, really glad that I did not have to deal with the stress of going to university/college in the US though.

Talk about a timely, thought provoking, incredibly relevant book! I think we’re all aware of the recent college admissions scandal and this book was basically ripped straight from the headlines. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just a gossipy read because it’s much more than that and takes a deeper look at several issues that I wasn’t expecting it to.

The family portrayed in this book are not likable at all, but they’re incredibly realistic and very well drawn. Chloe herself struggles with so many issues stemming from the scandal, including doubting her self worth, her own culpability and examining her own privileges that she’s always known existed, but to what extent? And at the cost of who exactly? See, she didn’t totally know what her parents were up to in the time leading up to her testing and application process. But she also didn’t totally not know. It flips back and forth between the lead up to her moms arrest and the days and months afterwards and it slowly tells the tale of a mother who will ignore her own morals, rules and any boundary in her way to get what she wants for her daughter. It also really examines Chloe’s behavior and the author doesn’t hold back at all. Chloe’s best friend, Shola is Black and attends their high school on a scholarship and with the backstory unraveling it’s quite clear just how privileged Chloe is and how unaware she is of her huge leg up in life. There are also several instances where she uses racial micro aggressions and I thought the author really handled it in an honest and true to life way. Overall this was a sobering read and one that really made me think, Chloe was an extremely messy character who fascinated me and the whole book definitely had me invested throughout. Highly recommended by me!

“I think, I’ll be angry tomorrow. I think, I’ll never forgive her. I think, Maybe tomorrow I’ll gather the courage to ask, What have we done? But thinking is different from feeling, and at this moment there’s no space inside for any of it.”


This book was inspired by the famous college admission scandal.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this but I was extremely curious because I’ve been following the real life case of Lori Laughlin.

The author shows us what it’s like to be white and privileged. But it also gives you a different perspective on the scandal.

I found myself sympathizing with the family, while also dealing with some anger.
It’s a very thought-provoking read.
I definitely enjoyed this book. It’s my first by this author and I love her style of writing. It was a quick and easy read! I highly recommend it especially if you followed the tabloids when it all went down

How far would you go for your kids?


“Money makes you weak because it tricks you into thinking you’re strong.”


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.

Julie Buxbaum, best selling YA novelist is back. Her latest work, Admission, will be released from Delacorte Press on December 1st. I was given an advanced reader copy by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book is pretty familiar. A few years back, in America, the news broke that many children of privilege were admitted into elite colleges and universities because their parents paid for test scores, transcripts and extracurricular activities to be falsified. This meant that, essentially, they were taking a spot from a more deserving student. Everyone remembers this story because it involved a few famous actresses. The outrage, rightfully so, was palpable.

What everyone forgot, during that time of righteous indignation, was that behind the selfish acts of rich, white elites, were children who most likely, had no idea what was going on. Buxbaum asks readers to take a step back from that feeling of rage, and to think about these crimes from the perspective of the children.

The book focuses on Chloe, the daughter of a woman clearly based on "Aunt Becky" herself. She's a B list actress who's made a name for herself doing lots of bad, but beloved TV shows, and Hallmark Christmas movies. The story begins with the FBI knocking on the door, then flips back and forth between the events after the knock. and the months leading up it

Buxbaum's strength as writer comes from giving us a flawed lead. It's clear that Chloe wasn't in on the deception, but it's also clear that she's willfully ignorant. Her heart's often in the right place, but she remains clueless to much of the situation that's going on around her. Shola, her hard working, genius of a best friend, offers readers some of the best counter points to Chloe's ridiculous life of privilege. Shola comes from a working class family. She shares a bedroom with her younger twin siblings, and needs every scholarship dollar she can get. The interactions between the girls is often sweet, but there are moments where Chloe's smallminded, myopic view of things take the reader's breath away.

Buxbaum throws readers just enough humor with Ilsa, the smarter younger sister who seems to be at once above the fray, and the only one who actually knows what's really happening. There are some meta moments as well when we learn that Chloe's mom loses a role to Felicity Huffman. Later, Chloe says she doesn't want to read The Picture of Doran Gray because, she "has no interest in spending 320 pages with a spoiled narcissist." Pretty hysterical.

Conclusion

Buxbaum proves once again that she is a first rate YA novelist. She gives readers insight into characters and makes them want to simultaneously give Chloe a hug, and smack her on the back of the head for being so awful. While readers may not feel more sympathy for Aunt Becky after reading this novel, they may take a beat and think about the kids who were involved, and how their lives were changed forever through no fault of their own.

Parents have a lot of influence in the lives of their children and maybe, just maybe, after reading this, a kid, or parent, will take a minute to realize what kind of examples are being set.

Julie Buxbaum's new YA novel, Admission, is a fictional look at the recent college admissions scandal.

Chloe doesn’t love school. She enjoys spending time with her friends and all the perks of going to an exclusive private school, but schoolwork doesn’t come easy to her, and her grades and SAT scores reflect that. She doesn’t know what she wants out of life or if she even wants to go to college.

Her mother is a B-list television actress and her dad is a wealthy businessman, and they want Chloe to go to a good college. So they hire a special college counselor to help Chloe with improving her test scores, strengthening her applications, etc. And when she gets in to the school of her dreams, she’s excited and relieved.

But the next thing she knows, the FBI is swarming her house and arresting her mother for being part of a massive college admissions bribery scandal. This threatens Chloe and her dad, too, and there’s a chance she could even be prosecuted.

Suddenly everything Chloe has held dear is in ruins. It forces her to confront her privilege, and come to terms with what she actually knew about the whole thing, and what she did about it. But more than that she needs to understand why her parents felt they needed to do this for her. Did they think she’d fail otherwise, and would that be embarrassing for them?

"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."

Even though this book has a very ripped-from-the-headlines feel I was really hooked on it. It’s crazy to read about the strings that get pulled for families with money, putting others at a disadvantage. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic but this still was an interesting story about how blind we are to our privilege. It also was entertaining to see how “the other half” lives.

NetGalley and Delacorte Press provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

The book publishes 12/1/2020.