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summerbummer's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
You would think a memoir about boarding school would be interesting, much less a memoir about the first African American legacy at an elite New England boarding school. Still, this book falls short in many categories.
For one, it kind of flip-flops between misadventures at boarding school and attempting to have a nuanced discussion of race and discrimination within these institutions. And I felt that the discussions the author is trying to have within this book is very surface level.
I wish we heard a bit about the experiences of James’ father regarding Taft, and I would have liked to hear about the lives of students who attend these prestigious high schools after they graduate college.
Some of the references/jokes in the books are very millennial (whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you!).
This book is an accessible yet ramble-y take on institutional racism within the American school system.
For one, it kind of flip-flops between misadventures at boarding school and attempting to have a nuanced discussion of race and discrimination within these institutions. And I felt that the discussions the author is trying to have within this book is very surface level.
I wish we heard a bit about the experiences of James’ father regarding Taft, and I would have liked to hear about the lives of students who attend these prestigious high schools after they graduate college.
Some of the references/jokes in the books are very millennial (whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you!).
This book is an accessible yet ramble-y take on institutional racism within the American school system.
sydneythegoddess's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
curlypip's review
2.0
A disappointment. It wasn’t well written, and needed better editing. I read another review suggesting it might have worked better as a collection of short essays, and I agree.
The moments of reflection on what it was like to be a black student at an institution of overwhelming white privilege were few and far between. There was too much teen angst for me, too much rehashing of teen journals about everyday teen crushes and experiences which I was bored by (the middle third of the book dragged especially).
She obviously had an unhappy time at Taft, and still hasn’t been able to make peace with it, which is really sad. That this prevents her from appreciating the good in her experience is also sad - begrudgingly crediting her teachers for actually teaching her enough to earn a living from writing didn’t endear me to her at all. To make this better book, I needed her to take one more step back, in order to reflect on her experiences with more distance - not to minimize them, but to make this less of a personal diary and more relatable for those of who didn’t grow up in her bubble.
I wouldn’t recommend it.
The moments of reflection on what it was like to be a black student at an institution of overwhelming white privilege were few and far between. There was too much teen angst for me, too much rehashing of teen journals about everyday teen crushes and experiences which I was bored by (the middle third of the book dragged especially).
She obviously had an unhappy time at Taft, and still hasn’t been able to make peace with it, which is really sad. That this prevents her from appreciating the good in her experience is also sad - begrudgingly crediting her teachers for actually teaching her enough to earn a living from writing didn’t endear me to her at all. To make this better book, I needed her to take one more step back, in order to reflect on her experiences with more distance - not to minimize them, but to make this less of a personal diary and more relatable for those of who didn’t grow up in her bubble.
I wouldn’t recommend it.
katietopp's review
4.0
Great book. Interesting look into the world of boarding schools all of us were so fascinated by. Intimate and real. And in a lot of ways, shocking.