Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
When I first tried to read this book, I couldn't get into it. I must have been crazy (or drunk???) The first line alone is "I think that everything, or at least the part of everything that happened to me, started with the Roman architecture mix-up." Amazing.
**************
There was so much writing in this book that I absolutely loved, but I was dismayed that the narration came from such a non-person.
**************
There was so much writing in this book that I absolutely loved, but I was dismayed that the narration came from such a non-person.
I wanted to love this book. I kept waiting for it to get better but it didn’t. Lee is PAINFUL her teenage angst was too much and she had no arch. Her relationships were always surface level and she never had any meaningful connections. In the end everyone hated her including her parents. I wanted more bc I loved Rodham but this book did not deliver.
Prep is a coming-of-age novel about a young girl named Lee Fiora. The novel deals with the usual coming-of-age themes - trying to fit in, issues of self-esteem, newly found interest in boys etc. In that regard, it was well written, as a lot of the issues addressed are things which young girls face on a daily basis.
However, the main issue I had with this book is how low Lee's self-esteem was, and how the author chose to deal with it. Lee basically bends over backwards to please people (that is, she becomes the resident hairdresser) in an effort to fit in, thusly forsaking one of her only friends in the process. She also caves in and sleeps with one of the academy's most popular boys on a regular basis, despite knowing in her heart of hearts that he's not truly interested in her (their relationship is secret and he ignores her outside of that).
Nowhere in this book did Lee overcome the issues she faced, or progress into something more positive. We do get some sense that Lee might have dealt with these issues later on in life, and overcome them, but we never actually see how these issues were resolved.
I felt the book was mostly about representing the kinds of adolescent issues that we generally face as youth. If this is the case, Sittenfeld did rather a good job. Otherwise, there is no other merit to the story.
However, the main issue I had with this book is how low Lee's self-esteem was, and how the author chose to deal with it. Lee basically bends over backwards to please people (that is, she becomes the resident hairdresser) in an effort to fit in, thusly forsaking one of her only friends in the process. She also caves in and sleeps with one of the academy's most popular boys on a regular basis, despite knowing in her heart of hearts that he's not truly interested in her (their relationship is secret and he ignores her outside of that).
Nowhere in this book did Lee overcome the issues she faced, or progress into something more positive. We do get some sense that Lee might have dealt with these issues later on in life, and overcome them, but we never actually see how these issues were resolved.
I felt the book was mostly about representing the kinds of adolescent issues that we generally face as youth. If this is the case, Sittenfeld did rather a good job. Otherwise, there is no other merit to the story.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Curious anthropology, self-consciousness so screamingly immature it must come from a high-school-age teen, painful but interesting. You'll relate. "Things like weather or certain songs could make me forget it sometimes, but I was always still myself" (404). Novelistically fluid but feeling like a bunch of discrete sketches -- of incident, feeling, character, whatnot -- were roped together, taught to blend. I think I can tell because that's how I write everything. Prep really doesn't achieve the Mount Everest it sets for itself, but I think it's close enough, for respectful golf clap at least (lol).
Like Fosse's memoir-ish pain/ecstasy film All That Jazz it almost is, except that film had significant show-opening life-closing triumph for an end and Sittenfeld's book really doesn't. Well, other than dad almost disowning her, dumbly almost-witnessing her friend's almost-suicide, or accidentally providing the scandalous meat to an exposé article about her boarding school (on the terrible eve of her graduating it), among other life gashes. Or Knoll's novel Luckiest Girl Alive. Or the film Vox Lux? "Once they’ve decided to occur, will the bad coincidences of your life seek you out, their shape changing, their consequences staying the same?" (61) -- but thankfully, rarely as heavy!
Heavenly occurrences sometimes, anyway. "I knew they would not belong. I think it often comes down to nothing but contrast—the way that it’s only when you’re sick that you wonder why, during the months and months of being up and about, you never appreciated your health" (284). Almost, but crucially not, a sociopath. "From now on, I thought, I would pass over surfaces without leaving a mark, without entangling myself. After I’d been in a place, there’d be no evidence" (386). Sittenfeld's Prep prepared me in a way, but for what I just don't know (you'd think I'd have known to "craft" that sentence first-thing immediately, but that's honestly the last sentence I wrote for this review.)
I was once a Midwestern 13 year old who begged her parents to go to boarding school. I cried then and I cried just now, for very different reasons
I don't disagree with some of the negative reviews that say this story doesn't have a strong plot; it's true—it doesn't. But I enjoyed it nonetheless, both as I processed my own years as an insecure teen and as I raise teens now.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I picked this up because I remembered ppl talking about it awhile back... Let me just say that I am not even done with the book yet and it can't redeem itself beyond 1 star. I already feel as if I have wasted several hours of my life that I'll never get back. Lee Fiora is more whiny and annoying than Bella Swan and that's saying something. I am not saying the book is not well written because it is...but I don't think a character has ever annoyed me so much. Maybe that's the point? Who knows but I am compelled to finish this train wreck..
A good hate read. Found myself eager to return to this book / thinking about its characters while I wasn't reading it - my sign of an enjoyable book. The setting and characters really left an impression on me even though the protagonist is insufferable. Her anxiety and low self-esteem were the main throughlines in this book. And while her neuroticism dragged on and made her incredibly unlikeable, it felt mostly true to the experience of a self-conscious teen. Just wished in four years she would've come out of her shell even a little bit—that was definitely unsatisfying.
Knocking off a star because of the super dated, honestly offensive depictions of students of color. Like the Korean international student speaks broken English and makes grammar mistakes a Chinese person would (??) yet it's described that her parents speak fine English (?!). Eyeroll. Don't even get me started on the Black, and Latina characters...
Knocking off a star because of the super dated, honestly offensive depictions of students of color. Like the Korean international student speaks broken English and makes grammar mistakes a Chinese person would (??) yet it's described that her parents speak fine English (?!). Eyeroll. Don't even get me started on the Black, and Latina characters...