Summary: Prep chronicles the life of fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora who attends high school in a prestigious boarding institution. We follow her in all four years of her life in this school, as we see everything, including her triumphs and tragedies, through her own eyes. Review:
This novel was promoted as a “coming-of-age” story and was even compared to the classic, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. First of all, I will say that there is no doubt in my mind that the author of Prep can definitely write. He did a great job writing about teenage angst, and not making it stereotypical or cliche. There are also some great insights, prose, ideas, and dialogues in there. However, to compare the whole novel to Salinger is completely absurd. It just doesn’t even come close. The plot and storyline was disjointed, the main character and narrator (Lee) was so unappealing and unlikable. The development in her character was also missing, and this novel being “her” narrative, it made everything even worse. It was as if she was still the same exact person in her senior year as she was in her freshman year. She did not get more mature, get wiser, get more confidence, or gain more self-esteem, or anything! In truth, I actually found her very, very annoying.
The plot itself did not develop either. There were many issues and topics that were raised, situations started, but either they were not answered at all or the author took too long to give us an answer. There were also many loose ends, an even worse ending, and overall just a bad, bad, bad main protagonist.
Consensus: Good writing, blah story with the potential to be awesome but is ultimately a let-down, and an even worse main character. Don’t read it.
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