Because five high schoolers with identity crises in a toxic boarding school is DEFINITELY NOT why I read this.
Song Vibe Check
"Brutal" By: Olivia Rodrigo
"Nocturnal" By: Mothica
"Teenagers" By: The Summer Set and Against the Current
Ladies and Gentlemen.... This book was brutal to read.
I'm not talking about what it contains, but because it honestly felt like a struggle to get through it. It started out meh, was less meh, started getting good and interesting, then all the apologies and water under the bridge as if that is how forgiveness works brought the book to an anti-climatic halt and then....
It went back to meh. But it had a satisfying end, so I can live with that.
Now... If I am already criticizing the shortcomings this book had... then why should you still give it a try? Here we go.
The Short Summary: The privileged elite girl, the scholarship girl with anxiety, the closeted know-it-all, the gay soft boy we all love and a disastrous bisexual pole vaulting guy all end up getting recruited to The Circle (which is not a cult, I promise, it's just an *EXCLUSIVE* writing club!) as they all learn to tell their truth amidst studying in a VERY TOXIC BOARDING SCHOOL.
The Long Summary? Amanda Spencer wants to join The Circle since she believes she's a great writer (Yes, super entitled despite being an indian girl who has all the luxuries we wish we had) Beth Kramer doesn't expect to get in, but still wants a chance. Freddy Bello just wants to prove he's not an athlete, Sarah Brunson has an obsession with joining The Circle and Ramin Golafshar has no idea it exists-- but he accidentally gets in.
When this unlikely group of students get recruited to The Circle-- an exclusive and distinguished writing club led by the only lesbian professor in campus, they discover there is a LOT more to being a writer than it seems, and sometimes, a writer must uncover all their hidden truths... and expose the secrets surrounding them to be free. What starts off as a quiet group of students grows into a united group of friends united by their own struggles and with a toxic boarding school that has many students who are victims of either hazing or sexual abuse.
Now, this is where I pitch this book as something still worthy to read. Because despite me only liking about half of these characters, it was still gut-wrenching to read about the hazing that goes on in places like this. I admit I wasn't so familiar with what hazing actually implied and after reading this, it's hard to unsee (like seriously, it took a while to recover from what I read) but, the case for sexual abuse was more prevalent in the second half of the book and we are once again reminded of the rape culture in the US and how we can add that to another issue to things that don't get spoken about as often as it should. It is tough to read about the helplessness that victims face whenever it happens and it proves why there needs to be more awareness and why people should care, now, more than ever.
We now live in a society where women's rights are being challenged. And while the state I live in defends abortion, too many other states don't have that luck. And then I think of this book, of the sexual abuse that sometimes ends up in pregnancy and it unsettles me how the choices of a woman are now being restricted. It scares me that despite this book came out during a pandemic, it has a relevance to our current society even as the setting and time was before 2000.
It's a book that will definitely leave you thinking for a while, so if you want something thought-provoking, then this book is for you.
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