Prep Book Review: Explore Campus Life in this Novel

I was on a recent shopping trip to Ollie’s when I spotted a copy of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld for $4.99. I first read Prep 10 years ago when I checked it out from the local library. It must have been Summer. It’s a book I remember fondly, so I decided to buy myself a copy and do a quick re-read and share my Prep book review here on the blog.

Prep is a difficult story to read at times, and that’s because Lee Fiora is a difficult character to understand. Anyone’s teenage years are difficult, but hers are especially so. She spends so much time thinking about other people and comparing them to herself. She silently judges people as she watches from the outside, rather than get to know them. And at the end of her four years at Ault, what does she have to show for it?

This book isn’t for everyone. I was looking through the review on Goodreads and it seems like readers either really enjoyed it, or found it unbearable. And I think that’s fair. But I also think it’s a book worth giving a chance. So keep reading for my full Prep book review.

What is Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld about?

One of The New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Books of the Year

Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.

As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of—and, ultimately, a participant in—their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.

Ultimately, Lee’s experiences—complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant—coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all. (from Amazon.com)

My Initial Thoughts

It’s hard to say because I first read this book so long ago, but I think what caught my eye about this book originally was that it took place at a boarding school. When I was in high school, I always thought that boarding school sounded so glamorous. When I had free access to the family computer, I would go online and browse boarding school websites.

I knew I would never have the opportunity to attend one, but it was fun to browse and daydream about the classes, activities, and friends I would potentially make.

Lee Fiora, the protagonist and narrator of this story is an outsider. At fourteen years old she applied for a scholarship and got in. Her parents agreed to let her go, but they had no idea what it would be like or how it would change her. 

The Relationships are so Brutal

Curtis Sittenfeld doesn’t sugar coat anything in this book.  She writes these brutally realistic scenes about friends and friendship. When you’re a teenager, you overthink everything and care what everyone thinks about you. And it was so funny because the story is told from Lee’s perspective and sometimes older Lee interjects about how she wishes she had done things differently or better.

Same girl. Same.

Just the scenes from the beginning were so eye opening. From Lee sitting alone at chapel, to her trying to fit in around the dorms and in the common room. Public school is hard enough but when you’re in the hothouse atmosphere of boarding- school, everything is elevated.

Friendship is the Real Test

Something that is explored in this novel is loneliness. In the beginning of this novel, Lee is a bit of a loner. She’s a new girl at Ault and has trouble getting to know her peers. But over the years she meets more people and eventually has a best friend named Martha. I think the way friendships are depicted in this novel is very realistic. It’s part of what makes this such a great campus novel.

Being a Teenage Girl is Not Easy. And Neither is Having Anxiety and Depression.

As an adult, it’s very clear to me that Lee had crippling anxiety, and possibly depression. I know this because I too suffered from those things growing up. I’m not proud of this but one time in college I skipped my speaking final in Spanish because I was too nervous to ask anybody to be my partner. The idea of talking to anybody was excruciating.

I’ve read a lot of goodreads reviews of this book where people really question Lee as a main character. She’s just so judgmental. Why would anyone enjoy reading about such an unlikable character? And I think that’s fair. But from my perspective, I found Lee’s voice very relatable at times.

I don’t agree with all of her behaviors and I think she did make things more difficult for herself at times. But I also painfully related to her in a lot of ways. But more on that later.

This Book Discusses things like Class (and Race)

Something that is brought up in this book is something that is brought up in many private school stories. Rich white students with affluent families are the majority, while people of other races are in the minority. I did think it was weird how Lee would make assumptions about who was on scholarship and who wasn’t, based on their race.

Like I mentioned, I’ve read a lot of goodreads reviews of this book. And some readers think that Curtis Sittenfeld’s Novel Prep is racist at times. And maybe it is.

But I also wonder if that’s the point. Many of the people in this story are rich white kids. And while Lee is not rich, she is a white teenage girl from South Bend, Indiana. We meet her parents when they come to visit her at parents’ weekend and it is clear that this New England boarding school world is so completely new to them. If Lee has misconceptions about race, it might be because she has never experienced anything else.

But then again, by the end of the book has she really learned anything? I’m not sure. Let me know what you think in the comments section.

We’ve All Had a Cross Sugarman, Right?

As Lee spends time watching her classmates, she fixates on a guy in her class named Cross Sugarman. Over her four years at Ault, she only had a few interactions with him. But during her senior year they start spending some more time together.

I believe the back of the book describes Cross Sugarman as “more than a crush, but not quite a boyfriend”.

These sections of the book are very painful to read. It makes me think back to times in my life when I’ve tried to be a certain way to please someone, only to never get the results that I hoped for. It’s heartbreaking. As Lee got closer to graduation, she should have been celebrating. But instead, some of her last conversations with her classmates were the worst ones she’d had in her Ault career.

It really makes you think about the bigger picture. What seems so important and devastating now, might not matter to you at all in 5 or 10 years.

I really Enjoyed the Prep Characters

Prep is a heartbreaking and funny book with a lot of interesting characters that make up the story. We meet the different people Lee rooms with, as well as other kids from her classes and from around the dorms. Some of the WASP names in this book made me laugh, like Cross Sugarman or Aspeth Montgomery, the most popular girl and guy in Lee’s class. I didn’t care for them too much but they were entertaining.

Then there was Martha, who was Lee’s roommate during sophomore, junior, and senior years. Their friendship is an interesting part of this story, espeically because Lee kind of meets her through another acquaintance. Martha is really her only close friend at Ault.

In Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed today’s Prep book review. This novel by Curtis Sittenfeld tells the story of a young girl who makes a decision to go to boarding school that changes her entire life. Lee’s character goes through so many changes as she learns new things, meets new people, and tries to figure out how to exist as a new girl at school.

If you enjoy sprawling stories that are less about the plot and more about the characters, I think you will enjoy this story. Young adults might enjoy it but I would recommend it more for adults. They will see themselves in many of the experiences depicted.

It will make you laugh. And it will make you cringe. A lot. But I think book lovers of all genres will find something rewarding in this story.

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