Exit Tickets is a grounded and unflinching look at a school year that feels both specific to 2007 New York City and familiar to anyone who has worked inside a stressed public system. Chanko captures the emotional weight teachers carry and the complicated dynamics that form when vulnerable students collide with adults who are grieving or overwhelmed. I admired the honesty in the multiple points of view and the way the novel shows how small choices ripple through a community that is already stretched thin. The atmosphere is vivid, the characters feel real, and the story raises important questions about responsibility, care, and the limits of good intentions. While the reading experience did not fully land for me on every level, I appreciated its sincerity and the effort to portray the difficult spaces where education and humanity meet.

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I love books that take you into another world you wouldn't normally get to see or experience. The author spent time as a teacher at urban schools, and it definitley shows in this book. Taking place over one school year, it follows a group of teachers, students, principals, parents and more as they navigate both the school day and all their own personal issues and challenges that take place outside of school. It was suspensful, hopeful, frustrating, and upsetting all at once.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel chronicles the stories of students and faculty in a New York City school. It's gritty and difficult.