Ожидания Бена Уикса

by Alexander Tilney

Бен Уикс с детства знал, что его ожидает элитная школа Сент-Джеймс, лучшая в Новой Англии. Он безупречный кандидат — только что выиграл национальный чемпионат по сквошу, а предки Бена были основателями школы. Есть лишь одна проблема — почти все семейное состояние Уиксов растрачено.

Соседом Бена по комнате становится Ахмед аль-Халед — сын сказочно богатого эмиратского шейха. Преисполненный амбициями, Ахмед совершенно не ориентируется в негласных правилах этикета Сент-Джеймс.

Постепенно неприятное соседство превращается в дружбу и взаимную поддержку. Смогут ли Бен и Ахмед стать «своими» в месте, где реальность оказывается столь далека от их ожиданий?

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Coming Of Age, Young Adult

406 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Alexander Tilney is a graduate of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. His writing has appeared in The Southwest Review, The Journal of the Office for Creative Research, and Gelf Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, theater artist Sarah Hughes.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 2 out of 5]

...Setting: ‘90’s
...Saint James New England Boarding High School.

...Ben comes from a white privileged family.
...He’s a legacy student... a squash prodigy who is expected to excel in both academics, athletics, and social high standing.

...Ahmed is from a wealthy Arab-Muslim family. His expectations are to excel academically, but he doesn’t have the same social hierarchy pressures as Ben does.

Ahmed doesn’t fit in with the other white kids at the school - but he’s not losing sleep over it. He’s secure in his own skin.

Ahmed’s mere presence- different skin color- creates conflict for Ben.
Ben wants to be kind to his roommate - include Ahmed with social activities, but when he does, the other white elitist prep boys balk at the idea.
“Not cool dude”.

Ben is trying to ‘be cool’ but is insecure with his standing.
His older brother who recently graduated from Saint James was all-around perfect cool.
Ben feels the pressure to walk in those successful shoes.

Both 14 year olds, Ben and Ahmed come from completely different backgrounds— but little storyline gets developed. Where’s the beef?
Went veggie? ... ok, me too...
but this novel needed more seasoning - something to spice it up.

This book sounded like it had all the ingredients to examine white privileged-race-class- teenage adolescence- and family influences-
but it was missing substance and emotional heart.
The characters were well developed, but the story was a lackluster.

Squash is fun to play.... great cardio exercise.
I enjoyed smashing the ball myself years ago....
but my god, its utterly boring to have intellectual discussions about it.

“The Expectations” never
gets pass it’s title....no sparkling insightful lights went off.... nothing gets resolved ...
It was as hollow as the rubber ball.

[Genevieve Trono · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Expectations, the debut novel by Alexander Tilney brings you into to the elite world of a New England prep school. Tilney builds characters that are layered and presents the fascinating challenges of a group of teenage boys who are all wanting to fit in and have individual challenges they are facing as they navigate this new frontier.

From social status to family expectations, this book brings you into this secret world of traditions, hazing, and fitting into this very specific social landscape. Readers will connect with the main character's plight as he maneuvers this new path. He fumbles and follows along with others sometimes hurtful actions while silently wishing he could be more self-assured like some of his peers. I think anyone that has been a teenager can relate to that feeling and often the people who hurt others are the ones who feel the most alone.

This novel shares a compassionate look at a young man who is in the place between adolescence and adulthood and the struggles he faces in order to come to terms with himself, his family of origin and the world around him.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an advanced copy of this book.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I tried skimming ahead, but there was something missing - perhaps it was due to the style of telling or the simplicity in the writing? But skimming ahead didn't help so I've decided to move on. :-(

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Tilney captures the teenage struggle to find independence, love and identity perfectly. Not to mention the amazing descriptions of squash and boarding school life.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Full disclosure: I attended the school on which this novel is based, and I was there at the same time as the author, although I don't believe I've ever interacted with him and I'm sure he has no idea who I am.)

First of all: is this a well-written novel? Sure. The plot moves forward with grace, the settings and characters are vividly drawn, and the dialogue is absolutely emblematic of a time and place. A few of the plot developments feel like something the leader of an MFA writing workshop suggested in order to inject tension, though it's usually obvious where the author is capturing his own experiences and where he's using his imagination. ("What if Ben's family suddenly had no money?" the MFA instructor ponders aloud.) Where the author is tapping into his own lived experiences, though, the world is fully realized and memorable. Any prep school alum who looks at all fondly on their own experiences will enjoy the rosy glow they get from visiting the school of this novel.

But more importantly, does anyone actually NEED this novel? Hell no. This is probably the least essential story anyone has ever told: the story of an upper-class white boy who attends the prestigious prep school that everyone in his family attends, believing from the outset that he belongs there; over time, he has that belief validated. The amount of actual growth he undergoes is negligible, and there is no good answer to the questions: "why THIS character? why THIS story? why here and now?". This is a story we 100% didn't require, told in a voice we've already got plenty of. "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" was published in 1934, and while that's a fine story and worth reading, I would like to think the worlds we'd want to capture have become ever more diverse and complex since then, and it's a near certainty that this one is taking shelf space from an amazing book by and/or about someone marginalized who actually does something extraordinary.

Also, a story of an upper-class white boy at a prep school carries with it a lot of potential to examine some problematic ideas and maybe interrogate the power structures this system supports. Instead, this book embraces those problematic ideas entirely and without question. Much time is devoted to disparaging a non-white character for being the wrong kind of rich, and the remedy to that is for HIM to adapt to his surroundings, not for anyone to be necessarily sorry they judged him or for the narrative to explore his perspective for more than about one page. There's exactly one female character who has any meaningful interactions with the protagonist (apart from his own mother), and her defining characteristic is that she's not that hot but she has really large breasts. And yes, both of these characters do gain some depth over the course of the novel, and both are miles more likable than the protagonist, but the author still can't stop going back to the fact that Ahmed is weird and foreign, or that Alice has a huge rack, and it's deeply off-putting. The author attempts in several places to shift perspective into another character, but this, too, is ineffective, mostly because it's jarring to suddenly change the omniscience levels, and partly because Ben's perspective so dominates the story.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who lived through a similar educational experience (or the exact same one) for the sheer nostalgia factor. Everyone else should feel free to skip it.

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who went to a New England boarding school in the mid-nineties, this novel absolutely brought me right back to that experience (NEVER knock!). However, it is not just for those who want to relive their glory days (ha!). Readers will connect deeply with the way the main character navigates life with the anxiety of no longer being a kid and nowhere near being an adult. I enjoyed this read and only a few times felt weighed down by some of the excessive language (“he went back to his room and ate half a Powerbar”). I look forward to future titles by this debut author.

I was given an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Tedi · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something about the tone of the narrative that feels like we are being told this story many years in the future, after it has had time to age. It is beautiful and compelling.

This story feels a little bit like an indie film in that the ending is real. We have more questions than answers, and nothing is tied up in a neat little bow.

I enjoyed Ben’s growth and following him as he found his way into himself, but something about this story left me wanting more

[Sandhya Chhabria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but not very exciting in terms of a story. Sort of fell flat. The characters were well developed and the writing very descriptive, but the story was boring.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars

I really enjoyed following Ben’s growth throughout the book. I found this book very compelling but felt like I was left wanting more. I will be definitely looking out for more books written by this author in the future.


*I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

"Price turned toward Ben now as they walked. 'Your opponent is always going to want to avoid pain, but you run toward it, you go looking for that pain. Then you're not afraid, and you win.' He turned to look ahead again."

This story takes place in a Prep School on the East Coast and it has some of the themes of "Prep" and "Old School" and other similar novels around the quiet richness, the entitlement, the "properness." But at its core this novel is about growing up and finding your own identity, your ability to navigate peer pressure, struggling between fitting in and standing out. It's about what's said and what's not said. It's about the lives of quiet desperation many live. It's about the things we don't share especially during teenage years.

'"When I was thinking about people to photograph, I just thought that you seem pretty self-conscious a lot of the time, as though you aren't sure" - snap - "how you come off to other people, and that difference between how you suspect you might come off" - snap - "and how you actually come off is interesting. It gives you" - snap - "a sort of vivid look, and I wondered f I could get that" - snap - "on film." Snap.'

What I loved most about this story is that nothing gets resolved. There are many threads in the story and the author could have easily been tempted to follow them. But many of them are left unsaid. We don't know what will happen and that makes this book so much more real to me. I usually like my plot lined buttoned up but I loved that it wasn't so here.

The urge to belong, the yearning to understand, the struggle to be cool vs being kind, and the angst of having some freedom and yet not quite being an adult are all portrayed beautifully in this story.

Thank you to netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for an early copy in return for an honest review.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this or the unlikable main character Ben. Plot jumped around a lot and the characters didn't feel believable at times if they are supposed to be freshmen (ages 14-15).

[Offbalance · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm absolutely at a loss as to what this book was supposed to be. Were we supposed to have sympathy for the spoiled rotten protagonist, choking to death on his privileged existence as he struggled to figure out how to be accepted by his peers, keeping up with the Joneses (but maybe not so much with the schoolwork?). So much of this narrative defied reason. I'm not sure if the author assumed everyone going into this would understand, but he didn't spend a lot of time or text delving into building an understandable framework of why things were - much like a frustrated teenager throws his hands up and yells JUST BECAUSE, OKAY?!

When Ben's parents were facing financial ruin, he aches about having to possibly leave school or tell anyone, even though help was available seeming around every corner, either from his high-flying uncle or from Financial Aid, which seemed to function much like an ATM in this universe. Ben's unpaid tuition is treated like a $10 I.O.U. by the administration (which, for all my public-school-attending self knows, could be how it's done in the Old White Boy's Club) until it's solved by a source that's equal parts surprising and pathetic, but I'll get to that character in a bit.

Ben loves to play squash, lives to play squash, is considered to be a frigging prodigy in squash. And yet he...doesn't feel like it? For reasons? Why spend chapters building up a love of something that we're shrugging off? He wrestles because...someone told him to? Are we supposed to empathize with him as an empty-headed follower or see him as the "just following orders" avatar of the banality of evil here?

And then there's Ahmed. Oh, Ahmed. Rich as you can imagine, and as clueless as he is rich. Ben first hates him for potentially bringing down his cool index. Then he feels sorry for him. Then he hates him again. Then Ben listens to Ahmed's absolutely bonkers story about how Ahmed wants to use this school to be a successful white dude (okurr?) because that's what his father wants? And somewhere in there, they become enough of friends for Ben to use him towards his goal of staying in school. Mysteriously.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the female characters in this book. Other than Ben's mother (who seems to exist to relay exposition about Ben's father), the one other speaking female character's qualities are as a scold and her large breasts. Oh, and like, she takes pictures? For like, reasons or something?

There might have been a decent story in here, were it not covered up by cool-guy posturing. There is no emotional center in this book, only a desire to hold the reader away so the reader doesn't detect any fragility or humanity.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Tilney’s debut novel and it’s a doozy -- funny, emotional, redolent of the 1990s, and deeply involving. The St. James School in New Hampshire is one of the top prep schools in New England and Ben Weeks’s father, grandfather, and all his male relatives have attended there since the first class of six graduated in 1856. Ben is a fourteen-year-old “newb” at the school in 1994, as well as the recently crowned National Under-15 Squash Champion, and he knows this is exactly where he is supposed to be. This is “right.” Now his real life is about to begin. St. James has great expectations of its students and Ben has similar expectations of the school.

But prep schools aren’t what they used to be, not even this one. A large proportion of the student body now are female, and more than a few are non-American. Still, it comes as a bit of a shock when Ben’s roommate turns out to be Ahmed, the son of a wealthy Dubai sheik, and a very ostentatious dresser. Ahmed doesn’t grasp the Calvinist backbone of old New England money, which doesn’t approve of showing off, no matter how much your family is worth. In any case, Ben’s father is having financial problems (it’s Ben’s smarmy Uncle Russell who is this generation’s millionaire), though Ben doesn’t know that yet.

The author takes us through the first two terms in Ben’s school career as we watch as he struggles with the squash coach’s own expectations, and with the demands of the upper-formers, and with the girls he meets, and with his naive (but not at all stupid) roommate. The hazing can be daunting and competition among the various winter sports is ferocious. Ben wants to fit in, but he also doesn’t want to lose his sense of self. Can he manage the balancing act? I think Tilney is going to be a talent to watch.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow this debut author has managed to write a book that is uncannily timely (it's fascinating to read Tilney's excavation of American systems of elitism, privilege, wealth, and whiteness/WASPness in light of recent college admissions scandals) yet still achieves a real, human, emotional, engagement with its characters and their world. The book is set in the 90s (super fun nostalgia but doesn't feel too much like a period piece) and follows Ben, a white legacy student at a fancy New England boarding school, and his roommate Ahmed, a rich Arab-Muslim student from the UAE. Tilney really gets inside their heads (and bodies - there is some stunning writing about what athletic effort feels like, specifically squash and wrestling) and yet in everything the characters do it almost feels as though they're haunted despite themselves by the rotting, problematic framework of American elitism. The book is refreshingly un-sensational in its approach to the boarding school genre, which results in a deeper and more complicated picture of these strange institutions. I'm excited to read more by this author in the future.

[row · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5

This book took me forever to read, but I finally finished it and feel confident about giving it such a low rating. It felt like the author desperately wanted to create another Looking for Alaska boarding school narrative, but they couldn’t come up with compelling characters or an interesting plot. This was truly so boring and uninspiring. The main character sucked, which may have been intentional, but none of the side characters were able to redeem the story for me. The author clearly doesn’t know how to write authentic female characters. The idea of girls enforcing a sex ban on campus was so stupid and unrealistic for me. I think Alice was supposed to be the Alaska character in this book, but she was so unidimensional that I struggled to finish any scene where she was present. I don’t know- it kinda feels like the product of a basic white guy’s perspective influenced by 2012 tumblr.

[Gordy Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tilney's writing is wonderfully lucid and spare. The style has a refreshing, almost throwback modesty -- he isn't trying to superficially dazzle us with eccentricity in characters, intricacy of plot, or contrived conflict hooks. This is a beautifully honest and I think timely meditation on adolescence and many other themes. I found reading The Expectations incredibly enjoyable and am excited for what else Mr. Tilney creates in the coming years. This book does feel like the debut of a major new voice in American fiction.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tilney manages the difficult task of finding new stories and fresh perspectives to explore within the subject of class and privilege in the school setting. The characters were what made this book stand out- the plot was good but not groundbreaking, but attempting a shocking new plot in this genre rarely makes for a successful work of fiction. Tilney’s focus on how these individuals perceive and react to events that we have all read about before is a better choice and makes for a compelling novel.

[Karen Germain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with a copy of Alexander Tilney’s novel, The Expectations, in exchange for an honest review.

Fourteen-year-old Ben Weeks is a new student at St. James, an exclusive boarding school that has been attended by generations of men in his family. He is ecstatic to continue the family tradition, especially entering the school on the heels of his recently graduated and very popular older brother. Ben is ready to take his rightful place at St. James and fully anticipates that he continue the family legacy.

Ben’s roommate is Ahmed Al-Khaled, the son of a very wealthy Emirati sheik. Ahmed is wealthier than any of the other kids at St. James, but immediately, he is an outsider. Ahmed doesn’t act or dress like the other students, but more than that, he is legitimately self-confident, a rarity among teenagers. Ben is conflicted. He wants to help Ahmed fit-in with American culture, but he is doing it for his own benefit, as he doesn’t want to be looped with the “weird kid.” He also witnesses other students harassing Ahmed and Ben is conflicted as to whether or not he should intercede.

Ben doesn’t lack empathy, but his drive to be accepted overrides almost everything. The importance of being accept was a fundamental lesson from his upbringing and a core value that is reinforced at St. James through hazing.

The biggest issues that Ben faces are a direct result of his upbringing. He comes from an upper-class family that places a high value on money, social class, and tradition. This brings immense pressure and a sense of responsibility to uphold the family name, but a conflict arises when it is revealed that the Weeks’ family has lost their wealth.

Shortly into his first semester at St. James, Ben learns that his family is in a dire financial crisis and his father is involved in a tentative business deal. His father’s desperate business deal involves land for strip malls. Ben is mortified that his father would be in a deal with such a scummy, lowly enterprise as strip malls. This is the heart of the problem: Ben has been raised to be snobby. His parents are desperate to keep up their image of wealth, including hiding their problems, as much as possible, from their son. When Ben learns that there is trouble, his first instinct is to hide it from his fellow students. He doesn’t want to be perceived as different from them and must keep up the image of his family. The idea that he might need to go on financial aid is incredibly devastating and he is desperate to figure out an alternative. When a solution to his problem presents itself, he jumps on it, even though it involves a secret with Ahmed.

The Expectations is an apt title, as the novel deals with a variety of expectations: The expectation that Ahmed will learn to fit in at St. James. The expectation that Ben’s family will seamlessly maintain their wealth and status. The expectation that Ben’s life will continue on the trajectory that Is expected for men of his station.

On a smaller level, Ben is learning to handle these expectations vs the reality of being a teenager. He is a talented squash player and he fully expects to be a top athlete at St. James. His father has even donated money towards a fancy new squash court. The news of their financial situation derails Ben, as he cannot play on this new court knowing that they are no longer rich. Quitting squash is a way that he can directly go against the expectations of his father.

Tilney does a great job at writing teenage anxiety. The Expectations isn’t a story with dramatic plot twists, it is far more subtle and affecting. It is easy to remember being a teenager and struggling to fit in, trying to combine the expectations of your parents with those of your peers. I didn’t come from a wealthy family and I can appreciate that Ben’s expectations were different from my own, yet I feel that any reader will be able to relate to Ben’s conflicts, which include things like stressing over having the right clothes and talking to a girl that he is crushing on.

Ahmed, with his lack of awareness, is a refreshing contrast to Ben. It’s not that Ahmed doesn’t care about fitting in, as he does want to mesh with American society, but he also does not fear being himself. Although extremely wealthy, he doesn’t carry with him the same social status hang-ups that Ben and many of the other student’s carry.

Ahmed’s family has different expectations. The whole reason that Ahmed is studying at St. James is because of an old family friend, who helped Ahmed’s family grow their wealth and status. This friend was an American who studied at St. James and who told them that the private school fundamentally altered his life. Ahmed’s father is hoping that the same will happen for his son and there is a strong expectation that Ahmed will soak in this magic from his St. James experience.

At its core, The Expectations is about two teenagers from different worlds, who are both trying to navigate adolescence, but from under the weight of their parent’s enormous expectations. The pacing is a little slow and it took me over a week to read The Expectations, however the beauty in the book is it has so many layers. It’s a great novel for book groups and classroom discussions. Tilney has crafted a strong social commentary, with memorable and relatable characters.

Like my review? Check out my blog!

[Sarah Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a lot more of this book based on the description. The characters were well-developed but the story was lack-luster. The writing style was a bit too haphazard and jumped around too much.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, thought-provoking, engrossing. A deeply effective examination of whiteness and masculinity.

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that is steeped in white male privilege…and the white male who has all this privilege is only 14 years old. But that is the point. Ben, the privileged white teenager, is coming into his first realization of who he is, all he has, and all he could lose.

Written by Alexander Tilney, the novel takes place in the 1990s at St. James School, a posh and storied boarding school in New Hampshire. As Ben enters as a third-former (translation: ninth grade), he is following in the footsteps not only of his brother, father, and uncle, but also generations of his family who have matriculated here. However, all does not go as expected. Ben's randomly-assigned roommate, the fabulously wealthy Ahmad, has brown skin and no sense of how he should act among all these wealthy American boys. It's embarrassing to Ben! But trouble at home soon finds its way to St. James, and Ben quickly realizes his first semester at St. James could be his last. It is only then that he starts to appreciate all he has and mourn what he could lose.

If you can get past all the white male privilege, there is a tender and moving story of adolescence, emotional insecurity, and the pain and travails of growing up. It is a book—as the title says—about expectations: the expectations that Ben has for his new life at St. James, the expectations that the adults have for him, and the expectations of all the rules, written and unwritten. Most of all, it is about expectations unmet and unrealized…expectations that cause great disappointment.

But still…the book presented an obstacle I just couldn't surmount: Ben and the other characters are so (so!) wealthy and have had so (so!) many advantages in life, it was hard for me to feel much empathy for their trials and tribulations. And if I, as the reader, can't feel empathy for the characters, much of the story's meaning gets lost.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were things I loved about this book, and things that kind of annoyed me, but overall I enjoyed it. I thought it did a much better job than a lot of books of evoking the teen boarding school experience, and the voice of the main character rang really true to me. However, I sort of hated the way it was mostly written from Ben's POV but then would suddenly randomly pop into someone else's POV for a few lines. It was jarring and disorienting. I could also see folks reading the book and saying "but nothing happens!" If you are a reader who likes books with lots of action and a clear problem-resolution story arc, this is not going to be the book for you. It's much more of a slow, subtle burn. I was OK with that because I really liked the world it evoked.

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I loved this book. It was exactly what I wished Prep had been.

This was the most I have ever related to a depiction of what being 14 is like. Couched in the delicious setting of rich people at a prep school, it nailed the discomfort and uncertainty of adolescence.

And the expectations! Come on, that whole concept is exactly what life is. We wait our whole lives for the thing, and then the thing is not at all what we thought it would be, then we have to still hack our way through it. The wise end up somewhere decent despite their disappointment (like this protagonist) but others of us fight our whole lives always waiting for the next thing that's going to be better.

Strange and brilliant for a book can reasonably be called YA.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a sucker for books about boarding school life. New England vibes, privileged lifestyles, prep school traditions...I'm here for it all. So naturally, I was drawn to The Expectations. This book went beyond the usual boarding school story and I was impressed with its interesting, layered characters and how real they all seemed. The Expectations reminded me of Normal People by Sally Rooney in that I really liked the main characters and it pained me to see them make decisions that were going to negatively impact their lives. Smart story about how our expectations (for school, family, friendships, and success) don't always stand up to reality and how we can grow (or not) from that.

[steeve wonder · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reviews of this are surprisingly middling — I thought it was very good. The author did a great job of capturing the insecurity and angst of teenagers. There is a piece of writing where the protagonist describes a hat he owns that, when worn, will signal to everyone how nonchalantly cool he is and it’s so earnest and relatable, and I remember having the exact same thoughts as a teen. This is a debut novel, and I’m excited to read whatever comes next.

[Rich Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when it first came out. A lot of the moments in the book keep coming back to me months later. I think the style of the book (bildungsroman) and its requirement to focus on one character primarily, worked against Alex Tilney's huge talent. Every time he digressed into another character's mind, I really enjoyed it, and regretted when it ended, which was often too soon. I hope Mr. Tilney chooses a broader canvas for his next book!

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I looked very much forward to reading this book and recommended it to those interested in racquet sports, especially the intricacies of squash. But I found the book kind of vapid and the plot, well, nonexistent. There wasn’t much about Dubai and Ahmed’s world that was intriguing and Ben Weeks was your typical Connecticut kid. And in the end, he quit the squash team. So the book, to me, was pretty meh.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was there a story here? Not so much. The prep school world is well drawn, as are the characters. At least I thought so, but I attended the same prep school as the author, so that may have been a factor. The shifting perspective from character to character was distracting mostly because it wasn’t regular or signaled in any way, like a new chapter. More like, all of sudden I realized, “oh, I’m in Ben’s mother’s head now.”

[Tfalcone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. This book reminded me a little bit of The Chocolate Wars because of it setting at a boy's boarding school and some of the conflicts between the students and fitting in to established rules especially when you are a legacy with brothers and more who attended before you. Fast read and well written.

[Carol Riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing, disjointed read. Not only did I not care about the main character (too wimpy, no growth, zero personality) there were all kinds of dropped plot lines and events which unfolded without reason or background. I understand the challenges in an elite private school setting, but the book had too many unanswered questions. Boring.