The Admissions
A Novel
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4.1 • 99 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of Vacationland comes a novel that perfectly captures the mania of the college admissions process as a seemingly perfect family comes undone by a few desperate measures, a long-buried secret—and a teenage girl's application to Harvard.
“A fun, fast-paced, completely engrossing tale of a California family trying to get their eldest daughter into Harvard.... Brilliant and enjoyable on every level.” —Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 Summers
The Hawthorne family has it all: great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly straight teeth. Then comes eldest daughter Angela’s senior year of high school.
Suddenly, everyone is floundering. As Angela writes and rewrites her application for Harvard—her father's alma mater—and struggles to maintain her position as valedictorian, Nora Hawthorne’s career hits a rough patch, taking her away from a newly distracted husband and uncharacteristically anxious younger daughters. And as the secrets everyone has been keeping will come to light, it sets the family on a final collision course that will force them to reevaluate, with humor and heart, the value of achievement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moore's stellar follow-up to So Far Away concerns the beleaguered Hawthorne family, whose eldest daughter, Angela, is furiously working to get into Harvard, her father, Gabe's, alma mater. Like her anxious mother Nora, a type-A real estate agent, Angela's determination never flags. She's been gunning for a spot at Harvard ever since Gabe put her in a sweatshirt with its logo when she was a toddler. Her insurmountable workload leads her to begin abusing stimulants and start contemplating devious ways to remain valedictorian. Moore's title is a play on words, as Nora and Gabe also harbor secrets. Workaholic Nora is convinced that an old accident brought on by her job-focused carelessness is why youngest child, seven-year-old Maya, now can't read. Meanwhile, an ambitious intern threatens to air Gabe's dirty laundry unless he pulls some strings for her. Pressure to sell an overpriced home and a possible lawsuit consume Nora as Angela begins to feel the deleterious effects of her stressful life. Moore successfully conveys how the quest for excellence spares no one in this industrious clan: even cheerful middle child, Cecily, loses her sense of self after a mistake costs her dance team. This is a page-turner as well as an insightful character study.
Customer Reviews
Great read
Loved it.
It just fell flat
Unfortunately this book did not live up to the potential of its first half. I kept hoping for it to delve deeper, but the superficial and predictable descriptions just kept on going to the very end. Disappointed.