The Admissions

A Novel

By: Meg Mitchell Moore

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

The Admissions brilliantly captures the frazzled pressure cooker of modern life as a seemingly perfect family comes undone by a few desperate measures, long-buried secrets - and college applications!

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 whose sunny futures are all but assured. And then comes their eldest daughter's senior year of high school....

Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of her ears and a college application that's not going to write itself. She's set her sights on Harvard, her father's alma mater, and like a dog with a chew toy, Angela won't let up until she's basking in crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under attack, she's suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can't help but daydream about a cute baseball player. Of course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be better spent coming up with a subject for her English term paper - which, along with her college essay, has a rapidly approaching deadline.

Angela's mother, Nora, is similarly stretched to the limit, juggling parent-teacher meetings, carpool, and a real estate career where she caters to the mega-rich and super-picky buyers and sellers of the Bay Area. The youngest daughter, second-grader Maya, still can't read; the middle child, Cecily, is no longer the happy-go-lucky kid she once was; and their dad, Gabe, seems oblivious to the mounting pressures at home because a devastating secret of his own might be exposed. A few ill-advised moves put the Hawthorne family on a collision course that's equal parts achingly real and delightfully screwball - and they learn that whatever it cost to get their lucky lives, it may cost far more to keep them.

Sharp, topical, and wildly entertaining, The Admissions shows that if you pull at a loose thread, even the sturdiest lives start to unravel at the seams of high achievement.

©2015 Meg Mitchell Moore (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Every once in a while I read a book so good that the quality of my entire life improves. The Admissions...is a fun, fast-paced, completely engrossing tale." (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Day and The Matchmaker)

" The Admissions is a smart, hilarious, compelling novel about college applications, suburban scandals, and risky secrets." (Jennifer Close, New York Times best-selling author of Girls in White Dresses)

"Meg Mitchell Moore takes aim at the emotional mayhem of an upscale West Coast family who wants the American dream writ large. This novel is achingly real and delightfully cheeky." (Sally Koslow, author of The Widow Waltz and Slouching Toward Adulthood)

Great story

With a step daughter leaving for college in the fall, this book really showed me her side of her stressful senior year. Great story with twists you done see coming.

Fluffy and fun

Not a lot of depth here but enjoyable and amusing. Great for passing the time while exercising.

Good book

I have to admit the book made me feel very uncomfortable with the messes people were making and then covering up...but it all resolves nicely!

Good, realistic book!

This book was really good! Really shows what families and students have to go through today.
I lost interest in it for a little bit, the first 10-15 chapters were tough to stay focused on. Once I started listening again and got half way through the book I was really hooked.

Chick-lit!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Disappointing ending to a rather tedious book.

Would you recommend The Admissions to your friends? Why or why not?

Only the Ladies who drink wine.

What about Allyson Ryan’s performance did you like?

Performance was good.

Was The Admissions worth the listening time?

No

Any additional comments?

Story got tedious after a while and the "everyone lives happily after even if they didn't deserve to" ending was disappointing.

Narrator took some getting used to.

Would you listen to The Admissions again? Why?

No, I would not listen to it again but I did enjoy listening to it the first time.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Admissions?

The confrontation between the eldest daughter Angela and her father, Gabe.

What three words best describe Allyson Ryan’s performance?

Sarcasm, diverse, mildly annoying.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

All parents of young children, learn from Nora & Gabe's mistakes.

Any additional comments?

I struggled with the narrators tone, which was mildly sarcastic ALL THE TIME. It was a bit too much, but then I became immersed in the plot and was able to tune that out.

Very enjoyable

I was immediately pulled into this story because I grew up in the Bay Area so the setting was familiar. The characters were similar to the people my family socialized with: competitive, falsifying achievements to get ahead. I also am familiar with the east coast and enjoyed the contrast in lifestyles and homes.

Glad it had a happy ending.

Perfect vacation read.

Entertaining

I really enjoyed listening to this book. It took me quite a while to get used to the narration. Her voice reminded me of a 1950’s radio ad promoting a new household appliance... too canned and unnatural. Her voices of the kids were excellent, though. I eventually got used to the narrator, and was able to almost like it by the time I finished the book. Good story.

Anything for success

Nicely woven contemporary fiction on how the members of an affluent California family strive for perfection, and the unfortunate means they choose to achieve it.

Engrossing listen as well: the story grabs you from the start and the pace keeps intensifying as the characters reap the consequences of the questionable choices they have made.

The author uses of this story to shine a light on the perils of our culture's obsession with success, with being the best. Getting into the most prestigious college; attaining the most impressive job; becoming a slave to the practice of success in all forms. It's demented.

Well worth the credit.

The Admissions

Good story and well told. There were a lot of plot twists and turns to keep the interest going.