A review by emilynied
Tradition by Brendan Kiely

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was interesting - I think it tackled some super important issues like rape culture, the patriarchy and confronted them in a preparatory, elite, high school setting but didn't dig as deep as I was hoping it would. The character choice was intriguing - we get the POVs of Jules, a do-gooder who was once in the "popular crowd" but now chooses to hand out controversial women's health pamphlets during freshman move-in day and tries to normalize tampons by placing them on her desk during class. One the other hand, we have Jamie, the new-kid, fifth year senior trying to make it as a hockey goalie after something mysterious kept him from playing in his previous senior year. 

I think the book tried to do a lot of things but ultimately fell a little flat for me, mostly because of pacing. Kiely takes a lot of time to develop the relationships between its main characters but doesn't really leave a lot of time for the plot and the confrontation/exploration of rape culture. The "main event" that the book leads up to happens in the final third of the book, and while Kiely slows it down so the characters can take in what happens, there is like no page count left after that for something major to happen. That was a little disappointing.