(102)Small Admissions by Amy Poeppel

Tuesday, December 27, 2016


Kate Pearson was not handling her breakup very well.   She left a very successful career path in anthropology to move to France to be with her boyfriend, so it is no wonder that the break-up did not go well.  Kate has been living a solitary life ever since.  Her family is worried about her, her friends are worried about her, and all she wants is to be left alone.   One of her friends got her a job interview at a prestigious New York City private school. The interview was a disaster, but Kate still got the job.  She now has a job in the admissions department at the Hudson Day School.  Kate's job means interviewing prospective students and their parents.  A job that opens Kate's eyes to the sense of entitlement that runs rampant in the world of private schools.  The pressure that comes with "Admissions Season" is high - will Kate be able to stand up to the pressure or will she go back to the hermit lifestyle that she was leading?

Small Admissions was a quick, light-hearted read.  Kate was the kind of character that was obviously well loved by anybody who knew her.  All of her family and friends were so concerned with her well-being after the break-up. And rightfully so, she was kind of a mess.  But after she got the job at Hudson she was putting her life back together quite nicely, but none of her friends or family seemed to recognize that.  They all kept planning for next break-down - like it was inevitable, yet none of them were willing to acknowledge that she was getting her shit together.  Well, until that one conversation between Kate's sister and father.  One of her friends was obviously a "mean girl" in disguise and I was ready to slap her silly very early in the book. It was the prospective parents and kids that really made the book fun to read.  Talk about serious wack-a-doos.  Small Admissions was a bit predictable, but I liked Kate and was really rooting for her to win.

Bottom line - Small Admissions is one of those books in the same vein as The Devil Wears Prada or The Nanny Diaries.  A light-hearted look at how the other half lives, this time the wealthy who send their kids to private school.  A fun read if you are looking for an escape!

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