Book: Admission

By: Julie Buxbaum

Published: December 1, 2020

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 342

Genre: YA Contemporary

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About Admission

Admission follows Chloe. The story takes place in her Junior and senior years as she navigates high school, SATs, and getting into college. For the life of her, she struggles to make a decent grade on the SAT. She knows that she isn’t that smart. At least not as smart as her sister or her best friend. But she wishes she could at least do well on the SAT for her parent’s sake. They are pushing for her to get into a certain school that she knows she doesn’t belong to. When her parents start to take matters into their own hands is when things start to change for her.

What I thought

I have been reading a lot of meh books lately. Don’t get me wrong though the story isn’t necessarily bad or anything.

I do have to admit that I kind of like Chloe’s and her mom’s growth in the story. A lot of stories don’t have a lot of growth in them and when they do it’s very limited. I love a good book where you see a ton of growth rather than just a little bit. They both change for the better as well. I state that because a lot of characters change for the worse. They start to realize just how wrong things are.

My main thing is that I really don’t care for the back and forth between the past and present. There are very few things from the past that are relevant to the present. Part of me wishes that the author would have just stuck with the present and maybe limited what was actually relevant to the story. To me, a lot of the story could have been cut back or twisted differently. I feel like most of it was to make the book longer and to drag it out.

My other issue is that I enjoy Chloe’s sister more than I did her. I’m not a fan of the idea of liking a character that’s not even a main character. If she had a bigger part then I would be more understanding. I found myself rooting for her more than I did Chloe. On top of that, I didn’t like Chloe all that well. She was a bit of a dumb character and not very likable in my opinion.

Even though parts of the book are fast-paced and kept my interest for the most part I’m not happy with how things ended either. I’m glad that things ended up on a happier note for Chloe but there are other things I wish would have ended better for her.

So, would I go out of my way to recommend Admission? In short, no. I’m sure there are many out there who would enjoy the story but if I’m asked for recommendations then this would not be the first book I think of.

If you enjoy books like these then make sure to check out Oona Out of Order.