Prep

A Novel

By: Curtis Sittenfeld

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A modern classic of adolescent angst and ambition set in the world of prep school, from the author of Romantic Comedy and Eligible—“a tart and complex tale of social class, race, and gender politics” (The Boston Globe)

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.

Character study in a prep school setting

I mostly liked getting to know the flawed and awkward Lee and understanding her adopted world through her eyes. She made a bunch of questionable decisions but I decided to grant compassion — she is so young! One critical reviewer complained that “nothing” happens in this novel, but there was much going on in Lee’s overactive heart and brain. And things do happen, and they are extremely dramatic for this young woman. The narrator did a nice job of subtly embodying a variety of characters.

A poignant

A poignant POV of teen angst that feels so isolating. This book evokes familiar feelings of being out of place when you know you should feel so lucky and happy. Narration was overall a joy to listen to. Though the book was long, I felt comfortable with the episodic storytelling structure. The protagonist was at some points unlikeable but isn’t that what we all feel about our young selves?

Oldie but goodie

I learned about this book from a “if you liked this try that” article and was half way through before I realized it was something of a cult classic. The story perhaps dragged a bit in the middle chapters but really captures how so many of us felt in high school, years that we’re told are supposed to be the best of our lives. The thing I really loved about the story is the author never gives in to the cliche or expected - whenever you think you know what’s going to happen, the author takes a left turn, but not in a way that feels forced or contrived, but rather in a way that feels like what would happen in real life. The narrator was also really well chosen for the inner dialogue of a teen girl.

Definitely a favorite!

This Audiobook has become my go-to listen while I'm falling asleep. The story & narration are superb.

Great story not as great production

This was a very engaging book, however the production was terrible. The first word of almost every sentence was cut off. It was hard to understand at times because sometimes that first word was important to the rest of the sentence. After about an hour of this I restarted the book in case it was something on my end. But the problem persisted and I just had to struggle through. This book took me longer than usual because I was so annoyed by the production that I didn’t stay as engaged as I probably would have been if that weren’t happening.