Admission by Julie Buxbaum

This is a fictionalized story of the college admission scandal. This story, however, follows Chloe Wynn Berringer, the child of a beloved B-list celebrity. She has it all, a kick-ass high school education, everything she could ask for, great friends, and a ticket to the college of her dreams. But that all changes when she gets a knock at the door, and opens it to a world of news, lawyers, and the FBI. Suddenly her perfect life is ripped from her, and all because her parents decided that money could talk and could also buy her way into college.

I remember when this scandal first broke. I was in the college admission process throws myself, and I followed this on the news as if it were a Netflix series. I remember being filled with anger at the situation, and specifically the parents involved in the case. When I heard about this novel, I was very excited to dive in and see what this book had in store. And I was not let down.

The easter eggs and the events that lined up in this novel were brilliant. I remember reading things and getting excited about them because I was there when the news broke or when it happened. The plot of this novel just spoke to me. I felt incredibly connected. I could not help but feel enthralled by what was happening in the story.

The author did a great job at not villainizing the main character but rather highlighting the mistakes this young girl made. And this main character is flawed. She is annoying, bratty, and privileged. But she grows throughout the novel. And the parents are not painted as innocent. I was angry at these fictional parents, just as I was angry at the actual parents. And the side characters were painfully realistic. I could not help but feel awful for the people this scandal affected. My overall feelings for these characters are complicated, which is the point of the book.

This novel flips back and forth from past and present, and I loved how both timelines lined up by the end of the book. The plot was juicy, and the organization of the novel worked perfectly with the writing. I was pleasantly surprised at this; I was afraid that the dual timeline would be distracting to the actual events from the scandal, but that is not the case.

I am overall very happily surprised with this novel. I think that if you followed this scandal when it happened, you would enjoy this book. And if you have no idea what the college admission scandal is, I recommend looking it up and then seeing if this would be the story for you. But I personally really enjoyed this novel.