Book Review: Secrets Revealed In The Admissions

I received this book for free from complimentary review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore
Published by Doubleday on August 18th 2015
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 320
Source: complimentary review copy
Amazon / IndieBound
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The Admissions reveals the inner-workings of an upscale family living in a prized suburb of San Francisco.  Seventeen year old Angela is the beloved first-born to Nora and Gabe.  She’s been groomed since the age of two for a college career at Harvard.  When the story begins Angela has just begun her senior year of high school.  She is the anticipated valedictorian, runs competitive cross-country, participates in a myriad of extra-curricular activities and is getting her college application ready to submit.  Ten year old Cecily is a talented Irish dance competitor and the peacemaker of the family.  Eight year old Maya is in second grade, but she still cannot read, much to her family’s chagrin.

With each chapter focusing on a different character, The Admissions slowly builds to a denouement that leaves no one in the family unscathed.  Thoroughly enjoyable, shocking on some accounts ~ did you know that some high school students and their parents hire summer overseers to plan the best use of the student’s summer? To the point of recommending a student bypass family vacation so he or she can squeeze in one more activity that will look good on college applications?

Although I’m a huge fan of long books, this one came in at only 320 pages but felt longish.  Normally the longer the better, but in this case, I wanted to know what happened to the family.  The introduction is shocking and left me anxious to discover what happened, but it took about 3/4 of the novel to get to the point where I learned the outcome.  So, while not necessarily a bad thing, I kept getting impatient.  BUT I resisted reading the ending first.  I sure wanted to though!

One side note that I very much loved about The Admissions ~ Angela is in an AP Honors Lit class and is constantly using SAT words to replace cliched phrases and average words.  I learned a few new words just reading The Admissions; words like piquant –engagingly provocative; indefatigable – incapable of being fatigued; ignominy – deep, personal humiliation and disgrace. {definitions from Merriam-Webster}

College admissions + family drama + long-held secrets = humorous, provocative novel

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Recommended for readers who enjoyed Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford or Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple or warm, humorous, modern-day family dramas.  The Admissions will have you looking at your own family problems in a whole new way.   It will also have you reminding family members that the fall out from any secret kept is much worse than the fallout from admitting something up front.  The takeaways from this novel are spot on!  I know I was thankful to a. not live in an upscale suburb of San Francisco, b. not be a teenager ever. ever. again. and c. that all families have problems, just different ones.

Learn more about the author at MegMitchellMoore.com.

The Admissions is included in the She Reads “Books of Fall.”  Visit SheReads.org to read what other bloggers are saying.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me a copy to review.