Reviews with content warning for Racism - Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School

This was an incredibly compelling story from the memories of a Black student at the predominantly white boarding school in New England. James writes with humor and a candor that is easy to appreciate, and while it is difficult to ask for more from a memoir (these are people's lives and they don't owe us a deeper dive!), I still found myself wanting more retrospection on the memories she was sharing. Why was it so difficult for a teenaged-Kendra to fathom that her close friend was not applying to college programs? What undertones in the situation was she missing? How did Kendra end up working for independent schools and affiliate programs after college despite her feelings of nonacceptance during her time at Taft and her unwillingness to send her own children to a boarding school? But perhaps we are being left with the questions James has not worked out for herself yet, which in and of itself, is a vulnerable thing to share.

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