I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review on my blog. I have read two other books by this author and enjoyed them, which is why I thought I would love this book. Unfortunately, the story was problematic for me and seemed to rely too much on real life events rather than be a good work of fiction. Thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to read and review.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I went on my Instagram story to give a short review after I finished reading and I’ll just reiterate what I said there. This book took a lot of time and space to explore the implications of privilege, specifically racial and socio-economic privilege, which I thought was really fitting. This book wasn’t admission scandal fanfiction (even though there were some similarities). I really recommend picking this book up and giving it a good read!

This was a fun read. I loved the drama of the scandal and how we get Chloe’s perspective before and after the FBI comes knocking on the door. This is a pretty timely novel that takes inspiration from the most recent college admissions scandal and views it through a fiction lens. Buxbaum explores what happens to the family behind the scandal, as well as how it affects others in ways those involved don’t understand. It always astounds me to what lengths some people will go to maintain an image or status once they’ve got it or how they feel like they have to always be better and do better (it’s the white privilege and entitlement for me).

Chloe’s growth as a character seemed appropriate and I really enjoyed the story overall. It did drag in some spots but I couldn’t put the book down in the last 40% because of how the drama escalated.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

I just didn’t enjoy this novel 1/2 as much as I did Tell Me Three Things. I realize the whole point was to paint the daughter as spoiled and privileged but she was just to whiny and one dimensional to care about her character. I didn’t care about the mother either.

Buxbaum does a great job at talking about all the issues related to the college admissions scandal that was in the headlines for a while a la Lori Loughlin who I kept seeing as I was reading this book. I think this book will be a great read years down the road when it isn't so fresh in people's memories. It tackles white privilege, class and entitlement and it will unfortunately still be super relevant in 15 years or so. It has a sprinkling of humor throughout but I struggled with it just because the real life stories kept entering in my head as I was reading it and I had FEELINGS about all that nonsense. I do think it's a great YA read about the college admissions scandal which is what I appreciated most about this book. Not all teens will read the news articles but it hits on a lot of important issues and I think this book is a great way to get teens considering and talking about some of those social issues.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's/Delacorte Publishing for gifting me an ARC of this title.

I love that my first glance at this book gives you a double meaning. Admission - being admitted in to college or admitting something. Specifically, this book deals with the recent college admissions scandal that has been in the headlines for months, albeit a fictionalized account. So clever, right from the book's title.

Admission was an engaging read. The main character, Chloe, is someone you have mixed feelings about. She's a privileged white girl. In the first chapter, we learn that her parents have bought her way into college and they've been caught doing it. Exactly what Chloe knows about it though unfolds throughout the novel as the timeline flips back and forth from the beginning of the year to the present.

Chloe has some redeeming qualities. She has a heart, she is compassionate. She recognizes she has privilege solely from the color skin she was born with and tries, although perhaps not too intensely, to be aware and make changes because of that. She also is rich, a privilege, a gift. Her best friend, Shola, certainly doesn't have the luxuries Chloe has like a family chef and maid, coasting through high school, and not having to rely on financial aid to determine colleges. Shola tries to keep Chloe in check, and although we don't see Shola's POV, I can only imagine that this would be exhausting.

Buxbaum was able to really dive into the thoughts, emotions, and actions of the teenagers involved in this. Its a nuanced situation to say the least and she covers it. You somehow feel both irritation for Chloe and anger at her for her intentional unawareness. I thought the book was entertaining, captivating, and deep. To be fair, I can certainly see how I also have a privileged perspective while reading this. I'm by no means rich, nor did my parents bribe or lie for me to get admitted to college, I certainly had far less obstacles than many others my age.

Chloe Berringer is a senior at the most prestigious (most expensive) private high school in Los Angeles. The SAT pressure is on full blast and her beautiful, celebrity mother and handsome, successful father are playing the helicopter parents from hell. As Chloe’s grades appear mediocre at best her mom hires a highly recommended college consultant get the job done. Chloe is more focused on her longtime crush and spending weekends with her best friend but figures whatever makes her parents happy is just fine by her. The morning the FBI comes banging down the door is the day her life is no longer her own. This high priced college assistance turns into the college scandal of the decade. Chole’s mother is facing federal charges along with a slew of other rich, entitled parents who were claim they were naively trying to help their beloved offspring. Not only has Chloe lost everything she loves, she faces the fact that her parents did not believe she could succeed on her own. They have risked her future and that of her sister’s to ensure their own bragging rights. Loosely based on the recent admissions scandal that rocked the nation, this fictionalized account was unputdownable. Highly recommend this fast paced, well written read!! Will definitely be following this author going forward!

It’s hard to believe that the original event that spawned the idea for this novel happened over two years ago. One of the things I liked about this novel is that it answered a lot of the questions I had about why this happened in the first place. I do not know how close to the truth they are considering it wasn’t written by anyone involved in the real scandal. It still did, however, connect some dots.

I certainly felt connected to Chloe. She had absolutely no clue what her mom was up to but got thrown under the bus with her when everything hit the fan nonetheless. The scandal shakes up her world completely making her question everything including her past, her present, and her future.

I strongly suggest that you pick up this book. Whether you were interested in the original scandal or not the novel certainly helps give the reader a fuller picture. Leaving you to decide where you stand.

This is a story that we all know. If you were paying any attention at all over the past year or so, you remember "operation varsity blues," which ended up with a few famous people in prison for a little bit for essentially lying to get their kids into college. This is a fictionalized account of that.

Chloe's mom is not unlike Lori Loughlin (but a lot more likable) and when she is arrested by the FBI for mail fraud (among other charges), Chloe's life is totally upended. She didn't know about the things that were done on her behalf and she is incredibly hurt by this because there's no great way to learn your parents think that you're not smart enough to get into college on your own, without them actually lying and making you seem more intelligent and more athletic than you are.

I think we all have some kneejerk reactions to this story and some blanket judgments and, while I don't think it made me like the real life participants anymore, I did have some grace for Chloe and her family.

This is also an incredibly fun story, one that I couldn't stop reading. If you need some escapist entertainment, this is definitely for you.

Recommended.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I graduated from a private college over ten years ago. I am a teacher and am still paying off my private loans and will do so for several more years-and that’s if I don’t go for a masters. So when the college bribing scandal broke out last summer, I was peeved. Is it possible that I could have gotten more money in scholarships that others took away? Were there other people that could have attended, but a rich child without the academic record have taken their place?
Admission alternates between the before and after of the news breaking regarding a similar event in a fictional family in California. And while I still was irate at the parents, this story gave a sympathetic look at an (entitled) child who seriously didn’t intend for this to happen. While navigating senior year and her first major relationship, Chloe doesn’t realize that the things that have happened (accommodations for the SAT, a jump in scores, someone else writing and submitting applications on her behalf) are not kosher-not until the week or so before her mom is arrested.

4.5 stars. LOVED. I totally binged this! Total brain candy but I devoured it. Julie does a great job of making you empathize with the characters while also wondering HOW they did what they did.

Taking inspiration from the recent college admission scandal, this book was such a wonderful surprise. The split time frame in the book allowed a current and past look at the plot and made me want to keep reading chapter after chapter. It was such clean writing that it was easy to read and easy to create bonds with the characters. It honestly made me look at the real life college scandal in a new light. I’m definitely more sympathetic to it all now. I am looking forward to reading more books from this author soon!

I ended up DNF'ing this one at 30%.

I was eager to read this, as I love Julie Buxbaum (she wrote one of my favorite YA novels, Tell Me Three Things). Admission takes on the college admissions scandal, and I had high hopes. The writing is wonderful, but something about the privileged white rich girl not getting what she wanted rubbed me the wrong way.

Maybe it is the product of 2020, but it felt, dare I say it, privileged.

This was really good and full of drama. I appreciated the perspective from the daughter of a scandal. I also liked the information on privilege that the author addressed in this. Engaging, and interesting story!

A bit of honesty at the start of this review. I think, like many people following the news, I have turned this college cheating scandal into a story, and not a thing that happened. The impact on all of the students who have been rejected or waitlisted, the futures/hopes/dreams that were taken by this. It is a monstrous thing, when you really think of how many kids have been cheated out of a future they rightfully earned.
Chloe Wynn Berringer has a life of privilege, and she knows it but does not comprehend it at the start of the novel. Her father works for a venture capitalist, and her mother is a clear Lori Loughlin stand-in, a long-working actress of television and television movie fame. Chloe's parents believe that she can get into SCC, a school that even her prep school counselor calls a longshot. Chloe is shocked to get admitted, and the real shock comes when she finds out her parents paid her way in. This is not a spoiler, because the book is about Chloe's attempts at taking responsibility for her role in their crime, and learning how to become the adult in spite of this.
This novel does a good job of showing privilege without being preachy. Admission succeeds at bringing the reader into Chloe and her classmates' senior year, and the pressure that American students feel every year when they are dealing with what- for the lucky ones- is often their first true facing of disappointments. The college application process is such a nightmare that I was involuntarily taken back to my own time of stress. Yikes! Admission is a great read for high school students, and it made me have a lot of empathy for the real-life cheating criminals that I had lost. I do not think their weak jail sentences and fines are enough punishment, but I do hope they are actually feeling guilt like the characters in this book.
Chloe is mostly unlikeable in this book, as she obsessed over Levi and hangs out with her best friend Shola. I know teenagers are entitled by nature, but wow. Shola is a champ for stomaching Chloe's comments in their friendship. I will not spoil them here, but they are appallingly self-centered and the kind of entitled white girl statements that are hard to read through. Admission manages the near-impossible, humanizing Chloe and her parents. I really liked the inclusion of Chloe's younger sister Isla, because it is good to know that there are children who have everything handed to them that still work for it. I felt the same about Chloe's love interest Levi, who wants to go to Harvard but works hard for it. I wish that we had spent more time with Shola, as she kind of gets the smart black sidekick treatment. We see her only through Chloe's adoration, but I wish we went deeper.
I would recommend this book for anyone like me, who thinks the College Cheating Scandal parents should be paying for this forever, and wants to have compassion for their children anyway. We do not get to pick our parents, and so I can only hope that these kids have the same reflections and growth that takes place in this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for the ARC, it was a great read that made me think!

I've been a fan of Julie Buxbaum since reading "Tell Me Three Things." This book was different than her other ones, but still really good and super interesting. If you're looking for a scandalous family drama/ coming of age novel, definitely pick this up!

I would to thank PRH Global for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my personal opinion.

Description Summary:Despite having one of the most clueless MCs in YA, it is sadly a grim reflection to perhaps a big portion of the privileged rich kids. Makes a fantastic discussion book.

Score: 3.5/5

"Money makes you weak because it tricks you into thinking that you're strong".

This is exactly what this book is about. Of course I'm pretty sure the whole world knew about the admissions scandal because it does shed a garish light on privilege, corruption, and integrity of these so called "prestigious" institutions. Honestly this is one of the most important discussion books for teens, and is one book I would definitely recommend be taught in high schools. There are so many themes that pop up that includes, the education system, standardized testing, racism, and entitlement.

I cannot though with Chloe freaking Berringer. She is one of the most clueless human beings in existence it's terrifyngly alarming. The author tried really hard to make us readers sympathize with her, but ultimately I couldn't. I may have felt sorry but whatever consequence and punishments that came out of this is justified and she deserves it.

This is not poorly written. However, I did not like the characters so I couldn't enjoy the story. There were. Few moments I enjoyed and I found myself imaging different ways the story could be told where I would have enjoyed it more. There's just so much I think should've been changed around. The story itself isn't terrible but as is in its final form, I dont feel like there's anyone to root for and there's not much heart. The revelations of guilt and acceptance are too little too late.

<i>Admission</i> isn't a bad book, but it was only a so-so fit for me as a reader. This is one I probably would not have read if I hadn't enjoyed Buxbaum's romance arcs in the past, and, because of the cute cover, I hoped this would have one. Spoiler: it does not.

Mostly, though I think this novel does what it sets out to do (capture the nuances of the college admission scandal and the white privilege that soaks all of it, or at least this is what I assume the goal was lol), I finished and went...so? The author's note says this isn't based off of any real, specific person, but the characters and much of the plot seem based exactly off of Lori Loughlin, though with only one daughter illegally gotten into college. And, <spoiler>with a much shorter prison sentence because real life is trash</spoiler>. I feel like I could have just read the articles and gotten the basic idea in an hour or less, rather than this entire novel.

Part of me admires that Julie didn't do that much to make Chloe sympathetic. Chloe doesn't work hard, she's entitled and privileged, she regularly says unaware, awful things to her Black best friend, and she <spoiler>pretends she had no idea when she really had full confirmation for all of the Now sections of the book</spoiler>. That makes the novel feel honest. It also makes me not give a shit about the outcome at all. It's a tricky subject to pull off, especially for a reader like me who is generally in it for characters. I don't know if I would have finished had I not read the audiobook version.

This novel might have had more impact and felt fresher if it had been from Shola's point of view, on the outside but deeply affected by everything. Obviously, that's not a book Buxbaum probably could have done justice too, so I get why it's focused on the privileged white girl, but that take just seems boring, honestly.

If you're really interested in the college admissions scandal and what it would be like to be at the center of it, I'd recommend this, but otherwise maybe not.

This is a well paced, dual timeline, story of our protagonist, Chloe and her family as she is going through the college admissions process. I found the alternating perspectives between the “Then” and “Now”, meaning before the scandal was exposed and afterwards. The story is clearly based on the college admissions scandal that swept up many families and university coaches as well as the ringleader, the college admissions coach. Chloe is a high school senior who has spent the summer working through this admissions coach and tutors to try to bolster her application by improving her SAT score. She sits for the exam with ill-gotten disability allowances. She feels that she still did poorly on the test but is more interested in other adventures of high school than worrying about her future. On the day her results are in, she is surrounded by her parents and she opens her results to find that she did well, much to her surprise. She improved her score significantly. She questions this but is reassured by the adults around her and goes on with life.
The after story centers around what will parents do to obtain what they think is best for their children? How much does the privilege of money and minor fame buy you? How complicit are the other people in the family to the illegal acts of one? Should the children have understood their parents actions and stopped them? These are all questions that were evident in the real cases.
My favorite part of this novel is the growth that comes to Chloe as she suffers the punishment for her parents choices. Seeing from the inside perspective of how a family copes with this was really well done.
Definitely recommend!
#Admission #NetGalley #RandomHouseChikdrens