LitPick Review
When parents bring children into this world, it is assumed they will provide for them and love them unconditionally. With that, it is also assumed they will teach them responsibility and to work hard to achieve goals in life. As children transition into adulthood, it can be challenging to let them take on adult responsibility, and sometimes parents struggle with that transition. In this story, a mother experiences that struggle and goes too far in assisting her daughter with her college acceptance.
“Admission” by Julie Buxbaum is a story written about Chloe Barringer, daughter of famous actress Jocelyn Fields. Despite growing up in a family with wealth and fame, Chloe is a high school student with below average academic performance. She is, however, a student who has dreams of attending a prestigious college. In effort to achieve that dream, her mother used her wealth to secure Chloe’s acceptance to the school of her dreams. It was a quiet transaction until news breaks that Chloe’s mother is one of the many people involved in a college admissions scandal. Chloe’s world is instantly flipped upside down, turning both her personal and academic life into sheer chaos.
Senior year is supposed to be the best year of high school, and Chloe was enjoying the highlights of that year in every way until the day when the FBI came to her home and arrested her mom for being involved in an illegal college admissions scandal. Chloe’s life went from “living the dream” to living a highly publicized nightmare.
Life for Chloe’s entire family went into lockdown. Those who once admired them were now disgusted by them. Their family reputation crumbled, and their home became consumed by lawyers who were working diligently to keep Chloe’s parents from pending jail sentences. Would Chloe be considered an innocent bystander in a court of law? Would the college dream that was so real a short time ago now be a mere memory in her future?
“Admissions” by Julie Buxbaum is an intriguing novel filled with drama, heartache, deceit, and the reality of consequences with life decisions.
Opinion:
“Admission” by Julie Buxbaum was a book I was so very excited to read as I adore her writing style. Her storytelling simply absorbs the reader! The storyline of this book was one which I was intrigued by for I have been very attentive to the college admissions scandal that has been recently highlighted in the media. The thought of a fictional take on this real life event grasped my interest immediately.
Chloe was the main character and although a child who grew up in the limelight of fame, I was surprised at how insightful she was to the seriousness of the legal struggles her family was facing. She knew that this was a situation that her parents’ fame would have little influence over, and she feared it may cause more harm and that the consequences would impact their life as they knew it.
In addition to enjoying the individual personalities of the characters, I really enjoyed how the relationships among the characters changed throughout this storyline. Every relationship that Chloe was involved in prior to this scandal becoming known was changed... some for better, some for worse. This caused me to pause and think beyond the characters and about the real people who were affected by this scandal. Their lives were changed forever.
When I selected this book, I had hoped I would gain different perspectives into the manner I viewed the college admission scandal and the people it involved. I was very pleased that it did just that. I feel I am able to view the real story with different perspectives and look at facts presented in a different way. I recognize that this book is fiction, but it allowed me to derive further questions to inquire about the nonfiction scandal I have been following.
I truly enjoyed reading Admission by Julie Buxbaum, and I very much look forward to reading more books written by her in the future!
