Review: The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur

Title: The Ivy
Author: Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur
Pages: 320
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, hardcover

Goodreads summary:
Congratulations! You have been admitted to the most prestigious university in the world. Now what are you going to do?

Callie Andrews may not have money or connections or the right clothes, and she may have way too many complications in her love life, what with

Gregory
the guy she loves to hate ...

Evan
the guy she'd love to forget ...

Clint
the guy she'd love to love ...

and Matt
the guy she really should love ...

all vying for her attention.

But she has three fantastic roommates (best friends or her worst nightmare?) and a wholesome California-girl reputation (oops) and brains and beauty and big, big dreams.

Will it be enough to help her survive freshman year at Harvard?

My review:

I didn't really know what to expect from this book when I first picked it up. Sure, I was attracted to it by its cool cover and it's little slogan on the front: "Get In or Get Over It". Since I've been starting to look at random colleges, I know about the 'big' Ivy Leagues. And since the book was written about Harvard, and the authors went to Harvard, I thought it would teach me a little about the school and be interesting.

All I learned was that this book was very confusing. And that college seems to be a lot like high school.

The book mostly follows the social life of female protagonist, Callie Andrews. Written in third person, the book mostly took place in her voice, but it was very confusing to follow along when it wasn't her voice.

It talks a lot about the 'secret societies' and how they work. That I found really interesting. It gives you the typical portryal of the rich and priveleged. Which is sometimes correct and incorrect, based on my experiences. And of course, the love shapes. I'd like to call it a triangle, but I think it was more like pentagon or and odd shaped star.

I really didn't see much of a character development. And some characters were hardly ever seen. The big problem was way in the background, and brought up about every fifty pages or so.

It reminded me a lot like high school because there are all these cliques: JAQ (Jewish American Queens), Preps (those who came out of prep schools) and many more. Also, Callie changed who she was, just to be accepted into these friend groups. Sounds a lot like high school to me, which makes me fear that high school will never end.

Oddly enough though, it made the book seem more realistic, which maybe a reason I'm confused about how I feel towards it. Callie changed to fit in, like many of us do in real life, and in most books the main character figures out she's changed and goes back to being herself, or never changes. Also, the book didn't end on a very happy note (which makes me glad that there's a book two) and well in the real world, life doesn't always end on a happy note either.

So I suppose I'm confused by the book because I've always enjoyed reading about worlds that are possible, yet not and The Ivy was just so realistic. And if that's what the authors intended, then they did a really good job.

Overall:

Did I fall in love with this book? No.
Will I read its sequel? Probably, to be rid of my confusion.
Do I recommoned it? Sure. Mostly to readers of books such as Gossip Girl, The Clique, etc.

Rating: 3.5/5