A review by thenextgenlibrarian
Tradition by Brendan Kiely

3.0

Tradition by Brendan Kiely reminded me of a cross between Gossip Girl, Looking for Alaska and every Lifetime movie I've ever seen about sexual assault. I feel like it sat on the precipice of going even further in the story to push the boundaries, but played it a bit safe at each turn. The ending leaves it open to interpretation as well and I wished for a bit more closure so I knew what happened to Bax and Jules in the future. I feel like we didn't get to know the characters as well as I wanted to either, even though we had the same two character chapters back and forth between Bax and Jules throughout the entire novel. In some ways I feel like I got surface, stereotypical portrayals of the two of them, who didn't get as close as I thought they would throughout the book. I did really enjoy diving into the twisted world of prep schools and how sexist and masochistic they can be, especially in regards to assault and rape. I hope books like this continue to push the envelope so equality can be achieved at all academic institutions. Overall I struggled a bit to get through the dialogue and some storyline choices, but I did like Tradition. It's too mature for my middle school library, but would work well in a high school library.

3.5 stars.

*Thank you Netgalley and Margaret K. McElderry Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own