There have been a couple of old threads about this book but they seemed to fall flat. And I know a lot of people hated on it.
I really enjoyed the book–I just reread it recently, and so was thinking about it. I know a lot of people disliked the book because the protagonist didn’t really do anything. She was so passive and obsessed with thinking as opposed to doing that it frustrated quite a few. But I think I enjoyed that (while still disliking Lee Fiora) because it felt so real. It was like the anti-typical high school, isn’t being a beautiful popular catty girl fun type attitude. On the back cover it got a lot of comparisons to Catcher in the Rye which I can sort of see. It’s not really like Catcher but it really resonates with a lot of people (well…me) for being real–it’s the kind of book I’ll reread parts from over and over again. Because for me in a way it pretty much is like the thoughts that I had when I was that age and a little older…but I didn’t even know I was having those thoughts.
Stuff like how she’d have conversations with people, spontaneously, and then want to avoid them because it was too much pressure to have a good conversation/fun time again. Or feeling like this boring peripheral person when what you want is to be perceived as someone, someone interesting, worth knowing.
If it hadn’t been titled Prep I think a lot of people would have been less surprised. I was definitely expecting another high school book. The author almost titled it “Cipher” which would have made more sense than “Prep” because it’s not really about the prep school scene…I mean, it is, but that’s not the whole point. I don’t think “Cipher” would have sold all that well though.
I really liked it too. I guess I don’t mind protagonists who don’t do much! I think you are right that the title was probably a poor choice that left people disappointed. I wonder what title would have sold well AND would have better reflected the story.
I agree with how real it was. I read it a while ago and though I don’t remember the details, I remember feeling that the scenes with her parents were SO real. So uncomfortable. It really took me back to my adolescence and the conflict with my dad. There were a lot of passages where I was struck, as you were, by how much her feelings and thoughts resonated with me and took me back.
I also love Catcher and am a big fan coming-of-age stories in general. I wonder if that is a prerequisite to liking this book.
Glad to find someone who enjoyed it! I don’t think this is the kind of book that goes over that well at the SDMB (or among a lot of people to be honest) so glad you posted.
When I first read it the stuff about race/class really didn’t resonate that much. Or, I mean, they did but I wasn’t really thinking about them. But now it’s pretty much a book about class conflict to me. Do you remember when her English teacher sophomore year wants her to read her essay aloud and she won’t? When I first read it I just figured, oh she’s shy–because that’s how I would’ve felt. But then I realized…it’s because it’s about a place she goes to reflect/think, and her classmates talk about places like their grandfather’s yacht or the attic of their summer home, and her place is in her dad’s mattress store. And for her to admit that’s what her father does for a living is like marking her further as so different in this upper class society.
I also loved how it was just so anti your expectations. The teacher who wanted to reach out to her and kept telling her to be confident was the anti mentor. It was so real.
When I first read it a lot of the gender things popped up. She talks about people being pretty or ordinary looking a LOT, and how sometimes she’d see women who weren’t that attractive but seemed unapologetic about it. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but she really hammered home the feeling of being insecure about your looks and thus being hyperaware of it all the time.
It’s kind of exhausting to “be” Lee Fiora, at the end of the day. There are so many things I wanted her to do. So many opportunities. Like for her to cut hair but do it on her terms, not just accommodating other people. Or when she’d meet people who seemed nice, to actually befriend them. Her teacher at one point tells her that Aspeth and Dede want to be friends with her and she rightfully eyerolls…but there are some pretty cool people. I wished she’d befriended Rufina and Maria for example. Or been closer with Sin Jun or gotten to know Darden. Or to have gone on that date with that guy who worked in the kitchen, Dave Bardo.