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alylentz's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book is definitely not for everyone but it was FOR ME. One of the handful of books I've read that's compared to The Secret History that lived up to that claim for me. I also really loved the playlists and think that overall social media was incorporated in a way that felt really accurate and also didn't date the story. The prose will probably wear on some people and I do think this book could stand to be a little shorter, but I think the teen characters feel really authentically drawn and engaging, to the point where it's emotionally hard to read at points. But overall, I know I'll keep thinking about this book and I was really impressed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
dizzzybrook's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Since no one else wants to say it, I guess I will. This book is 544 pages of excessive and graphic depictions of minors jerking off and having sex. Foster Dade could have been an incredible opportunity for Jenkins to comment on toxic masculinity, how porn influences men's empathy towards women, and how such topics influence our relationships and mental health throughout youth, but what we get is rather another "boys will be boys" driven book that essentially amounts to nothing and seeks validation through nostalgia.
Absolutely NOTHING about this book is reminiscent of The Secret History. No aspect of Foster Dade falls into the category of dark academia. With that being said, for a book that's plot is supposed to involve the main character selling drugs, this book really isn't even about drugs either. I feel that so much of this book's defense is that it is trying to authentically portray the lingo, the values, and the social climate of those back in 2008-2010, but if you are going to write a book consumed with so much misogyny, shouldn't there be a point?
There are no likeable characters in this book. Every female character exists with the sole purpose of being traumatized by another male character, usually in a sexual way. Every female character is described by their hotness, their breast size, how good they would be in bed. There is nothing remarkable or interesting about Foster other than the fact that the narrator does their best to convince us we should care - only for the reader to realize in the end that there simply truly never was anything to care about in the first place.
The structure of this book is absolutely punishable. The constant jumping between timelines made this book nearly impossible to listen to at times. I feel like this structure made Foster's story even more cold and distant and unapproachable than it already was. This book could have benefited dramatically from being edited and cut down several hundred pages.
The only reason I'm rating 2/5 stars is because I'm adding an extra star for MYSELF for sitting through 22 hours of the audiobook.
Major TW's for graphic sex scenes depicting minors, graphic and excessive scenes involving masturbation, sexual assault, drug use, suicide, misogyny, homophobia, bullying.
Absolutely NOTHING about this book is reminiscent of The Secret History. No aspect of Foster Dade falls into the category of dark academia. With that being said, for a book that's plot is supposed to involve the main character selling drugs, this book really isn't even about drugs either. I feel that so much of this book's defense is that it is trying to authentically portray the lingo, the values, and the social climate of those back in 2008-2010, but if you are going to write a book consumed with so much misogyny, shouldn't there be a point?
There are no likeable characters in this book. Every female character exists with the sole purpose of being traumatized by another male character, usually in a sexual way. Every female character is described by their hotness, their breast size, how good they would be in bed. There is nothing remarkable or interesting about Foster other than the fact that the narrator does their best to convince us we should care - only for the reader to realize in the end that there simply truly never was anything to care about in the first place.
The structure of this book is absolutely punishable. The constant jumping between timelines made this book nearly impossible to listen to at times. I feel like this structure made Foster's story even more cold and distant and unapproachable than it already was. This book could have benefited dramatically from being edited and cut down several hundred pages.
The only reason I'm rating 2/5 stars is because I'm adding an extra star for MYSELF for sitting through 22 hours of the audiobook.
Major TW's for graphic sex scenes depicting minors, graphic and excessive scenes involving masturbation, sexual assault, drug use, suicide, misogyny, homophobia, bullying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Misogyny
Moderate: Biphobia, Death, Bullying, Body shaming, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Vomit, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Fatphobia
fearfulshrimp's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Death, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicide
hannahsea's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault, Bullying, Homophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
emendelowitz's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Thank you to Edelweiss and Abrams for allowing me to read an ARC of Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos.
I don’t normally write reviews this long, but it’s been months since I’ve been this enthralled with a book. I knew at 10% in that it would probably be a favorite of the year and it’s only February. Now that I’ve finished (though this may be a touch dramatic) it’s definitely a contender for favorite book of all time. I loved everything about it and I haven’t read a book this well crafted in quite a while.
Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins at first glance is a journalistic report from our unnamed narrator writing about Foster Dade, the previous occupant of his dorm room at an elite boarding school, and the 18 months leading up to his expulsion in 2008-2010, but it is so much more than that. At its core, Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is a literary coming of age novel of epic proportions that gives the reader an in depth character study of the titular character, Foster Dade as he grapples with mental health, masculinity, relationships, sexuality, the mythologies created by adolescent minds and so much more.
You will come to know Foster so intimately (sometimes more intimately than one would enjoy) and he will become so real to you. He may not always make the best choices and you won’t always be proud of him, but his thoughts and emotions are so excruciatingly real that it is impossible not to become almost obsessed as I have in the last few days of reading this book. Shortly following his parents divorce, Foster enrolls in the elite Kennedy School, an east coast boarding school dominated by the wealthy and affluent. He falls in with the two center of social gravity, Jack Albright and Annabeth Whittaker, and their group of friends that has essentially accumulated from the circles that rich people tend to run in.
The late ‘00s cultural references were immaculate and truly captured the vibe, especially the playlists that are interspersed throughout the book (featuring The Killers, MGMT, Passion Pit, and Cobra Starship ft. Blair Waldorf herself, Leighton Meester). The first chapter’s epigraph being the iconic opening line of Mr. Brightside by the Killers really sets the scene perfectly.
The writing as well never ceased to amaze me, Nash Jenkins is very talented and that is an undeniable fact. The amount of time and effort put into writing this book must have been insane. The story is told by an unnamed narrator who has become almost obsessed with trying to tell the tale of the boy who has become part of the Kennedy School’s mythology. Throughout the book he pulls blog posts, emails, texts, and testimony from Foster’s classmates in order to weave this tale. By virtue of having an unreliable narrator (not sure if unreliable would be the correct word, but certainly the truth of this story is relative), Jenkins truly captured the idea of the mythologies we create and how they can become blown out of proportion to the extent that even myself as a reader have not been able to stop thinking about fictional Foster Dade. In this sense it is reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides both thematically and in terms of narration. The other two major comparisons I would make is to The Goldfinch, for its sprawling, in-depth character study and quite frankly it’s brilliant vocabulary, and of course Gossip Girl due to its incisive breakdown of the east coast elite and, the immaculate 2008-2010 cultural references.
Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is long, very ambitious, and will put you through the emotional wringer, but it is so very worth it. This book blew me away, enraptured me if you will, easiest 5⭐️ I’ve given in a long time and I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy when it’s out and sell the shit out of it at work because I have a feeling Foster Dade will live in my head for a while.
Edit: almost everyone in this book uses a Blackberry, and for that reason alone I think we need more 2008 period pieces.
I don’t normally write reviews this long, but it’s been months since I’ve been this enthralled with a book. I knew at 10% in that it would probably be a favorite of the year and it’s only February. Now that I’ve finished (though this may be a touch dramatic) it’s definitely a contender for favorite book of all time. I loved everything about it and I haven’t read a book this well crafted in quite a while.
Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins at first glance is a journalistic report from our unnamed narrator writing about Foster Dade, the previous occupant of his dorm room at an elite boarding school, and the 18 months leading up to his expulsion in 2008-2010, but it is so much more than that. At its core, Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is a literary coming of age novel of epic proportions that gives the reader an in depth character study of the titular character, Foster Dade as he grapples with mental health, masculinity, relationships, sexuality, the mythologies created by adolescent minds and so much more.
You will come to know Foster so intimately (sometimes more intimately than one would enjoy) and he will become so real to you. He may not always make the best choices and you won’t always be proud of him, but his thoughts and emotions are so excruciatingly real that it is impossible not to become almost obsessed as I have in the last few days of reading this book. Shortly following his parents divorce, Foster enrolls in the elite Kennedy School, an east coast boarding school dominated by the wealthy and affluent. He falls in with the two center of social gravity, Jack Albright and Annabeth Whittaker, and their group of friends that has essentially accumulated from the circles that rich people tend to run in.
The late ‘00s cultural references were immaculate and truly captured the vibe, especially the playlists that are interspersed throughout the book (featuring The Killers, MGMT, Passion Pit, and Cobra Starship ft. Blair Waldorf herself, Leighton Meester). The first chapter’s epigraph being the iconic opening line of Mr. Brightside by the Killers really sets the scene perfectly.
The writing as well never ceased to amaze me, Nash Jenkins is very talented and that is an undeniable fact. The amount of time and effort put into writing this book must have been insane. The story is told by an unnamed narrator who has become almost obsessed with trying to tell the tale of the boy who has become part of the Kennedy School’s mythology. Throughout the book he pulls blog posts, emails, texts, and testimony from Foster’s classmates in order to weave this tale. By virtue of having an unreliable narrator (not sure if unreliable would be the correct word, but certainly the truth of this story is relative), Jenkins truly captured the idea of the mythologies we create and how they can become blown out of proportion to the extent that even myself as a reader have not been able to stop thinking about fictional Foster Dade. In this sense it is reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides both thematically and in terms of narration. The other two major comparisons I would make is to The Goldfinch, for its sprawling, in-depth character study and quite frankly it’s brilliant vocabulary, and of course Gossip Girl due to its incisive breakdown of the east coast elite and, the immaculate 2008-2010 cultural references.
Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is long, very ambitious, and will put you through the emotional wringer, but it is so very worth it. This book blew me away, enraptured me if you will, easiest 5⭐️ I’ve given in a long time and I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy when it’s out and sell the shit out of it at work because I have a feeling Foster Dade will live in my head for a while.
Edit: almost everyone in this book uses a Blackberry, and for that reason alone I think we need more 2008 period pieces.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Homophobia, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Drug abuse
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