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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.
margot_psd's review against another edition
3.0
The premise of this memoire was really interesting at first but I failed to get engaged with the reference-heavy style of writing. I think it's a very typical millennial American way of writing and I'm not fully caught up on their lingo, not the same way I am with British lingo.
On top of that, I was expecting a lot more self reflection and to see the impact James's boarding school experience had on her everyday life in the present. Instead, I got a lot of retelling on instances of micro-agressions and everyday racism as experienced by a 14 to 18 year old. And while those were jaw dropping at times with their sheer audacity, it wasn't enough to keep me engaged. I'm so mad nobody got their comeuppance, but then again this is America.
And maybe that was the point of the book. We can't just wrap her experience up and put a nice bow on it. But still, I wanted to engaged with the adult version of Kendra James more.
On top of that, I was expecting a lot more self reflection and to see the impact James's boarding school experience had on her everyday life in the present. Instead, I got a lot of retelling on instances of micro-agressions and everyday racism as experienced by a 14 to 18 year old. And while those were jaw dropping at times with their sheer audacity, it wasn't enough to keep me engaged. I'm so mad nobody got their comeuppance, but then again this is America.
And maybe that was the point of the book. We can't just wrap her experience up and put a nice bow on it. But still, I wanted to engaged with the adult version of Kendra James more.
keeyoh's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Classism
Minor: Drug use and Alcohol
annamuthalaly's review
4.0
Compulsively readable and a very fresh perspective, James’s memoir tells the story of her time at the NE boarding school Taft, wherein she somehow was the very first Black legacy student to graduate despite it being the year 2006. The memoir attempts to answer the question asked by such a statistic— why do so few Black parents who went to such fancy boarding schools decline to send their children there?
As someone who now goes to a school littered with boarding school kids, admissions would have been a nice read if only to understand what life at fancy school is like. The book is well written, well voiced, and honest in a way I have truly not seen (perhaps because so few people have James’s experience). However, I was slightly wary by the end. James admits many times how she failed to be intersectional while at Taft, and as the child of a member of the board, this book is perhaps the story of what it was to be Black and privileged at Taft. While many of James’s BIPOC friends were on financial aid/scoffed at her privilege, I don’t think that was well explored in the book. Of course, I can’t truly fault her for this, and her perspective of course brings its own valuable insight— ie, how race alone can be a dividing factor even when not offset by socioeconomic class or sexuality or parental support, as it is for her classmates. Personally, though, as a student on financial aid at one of the fancy schools students at Taft are jockeying to go to, I just can’t ignore the gaping adjustment made by legacy status that I feel this book didn’t fully grapple with.
That being said, I still read it all within two days. Very readable, and empathetic in its voice. Would recommend, and am very glad it was written.
As someone who now goes to a school littered with boarding school kids, admissions would have been a nice read if only to understand what life at fancy school is like. The book is well written, well voiced, and honest in a way I have truly not seen (perhaps because so few people have James’s experience). However, I was slightly wary by the end. James admits many times how she failed to be intersectional while at Taft, and as the child of a member of the board, this book is perhaps the story of what it was to be Black and privileged at Taft. While many of James’s BIPOC friends were on financial aid/scoffed at her privilege, I don’t think that was well explored in the book. Of course, I can’t truly fault her for this, and her perspective of course brings its own valuable insight— ie, how race alone can be a dividing factor even when not offset by socioeconomic class or sexuality or parental support, as it is for her classmates. Personally, though, as a student on financial aid at one of the fancy schools students at Taft are jockeying to go to, I just can’t ignore the gaping adjustment made by legacy status that I feel this book didn’t fully grapple with.
That being said, I still read it all within two days. Very readable, and empathetic in its voice. Would recommend, and am very glad it was written.
ascoular's review
3.0
Having only attended majority white institutions, I was very interested in this book! James fully acknowledged how insufferable she was as an teenager, which mollifies my critique a bit. I have a lot of the same lived experiences so this book was easy for me to relate to. Yet, I’m sorry to say, there were some boring parts! I wish James had reflected more on her experience post-Taft about the program she worked for. I think even though she reflected about her negative experiences in a majority white institution, it still had me googling the cost of tuition at Taft. I hope this gets more buzz!!