I love “ripped from the headlines” sorts of novels, and Admissions most certainly qualifies as one. However, as it’s written from a kid’s POV, this novel also qualifies as YA, which I haven’t been reading too much of lately. That’s changed though, since I have decided to venture outside my comfort zone and write my own YA novel. So, I thought it would be smart to read whatever YA novels look intriguing and well done. Admissions by Julie Buxbaum was a good place to start.
This novel is obviously based off the real-life college admissions scandal, where wealthy parents paid to have their kids’ SAT scores doctored, and they also paid bribes to make their kids shoe-ins for college admittance by lying about their sports involvement, their ethnicity, and they’d have their college essays ghost-written. Television stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin were two of the more famous culprits implicated in this scandal. However, while this novel is inspired by the real-life scandal, the characters are fictional.
As I read the book, I also checked out the Netflix pseudo-documentary about the scandal, which reenacted the transcripts of Rick Singer’s phone conversations with parents, but used actors like Matthew Modine to play Rick Singer and other lesser known actors to play parents implicated in the scandal. Neither Felicity Huffman nor Lori Laughlin were mentioned. Anyway, if the historical accuracy of Operation Varsity Blues is to be trusted, and I expect that it is, then Julie Buxbaum really did her research, because everything in that documentary is reflected in the novel.
That’s not to say that the novel isn’t creative. The main character, Chloe, is almost unbelievable as the unassuming daughter of a 90’s sitcom star who has everything. Chloe knows she’s unexceptional; she’s not beautiful and talented like her mother, nor is she savvy like her father, nor is she a genius like her younger sister, nor does she stand out like her best friend. Yet Chloe never seems bitter about any of this, instead, she studies for the SATs and tries to prepare her parents for what feels inevitable, that she will only be accepted into second or third tier schools. She remains “aggressively ignorant” throughout the whole college admissions process, refusing to see what her parents are very obviously doing. Then, when the scandal breaks, Chloe refuses to defend herself to any of her friends, as she seems convinced that everything is all her fault.
Chloe calls herself a monster and grows ashamed of her own sense of entitlement. Yet, she remains a compelling protagonist as she learns about both herself and the people she loves, and about the levels of privilege and sacrifice.
Julie Buxbaum somehow manages to make the reader feel bad for Chloe, when her real-life counterparts were so universally hated. Admissions is a lot of fun to read and also gives you a lot to think about. I strongly recommend it!
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