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The Admissions  By  cover art

The Admissions

By: Meg Mitchell Moore
Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
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Publisher's summary

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)

What listeners say about The Admissions

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dragged out, wanders off topic

What would have made The Admissions better?

Less wandering

Would you ever listen to anything by Meg Mitchell Moore again?

No.

Which character – as performed by Allyson Ryan – was your favorite?

None. They were all too dragged out.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Exhaustion.

Any additional comments?

The author wandered off constantly. A character would ask a question and the author wandered so far off point you forgot what the question was. Sorry was exhausting to listen to. Only got halfway through the book and by that point I didn't even care what happened. Very disappointed because this looked like a good story.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Admissions

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

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Advanced level chick lit

I really enjoyed this insightful look at the pressures on a modern family to achieve, achieve, achieve. It might qualify as chick lit ( upbeat ending ) but it is well written and observant. Good narration.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Predictable... Redundant

I made myself finish this one. It touches on the plight of the 'everyone gets a trophy' generation but the meandering side stories just muddied an already slogging plot. I love pretty much everything I read... Well except this and the ending of Gone Girl of course.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining cautionary tale

Would you consider the audio edition of The Admissions to be better than the print version?

No it just helped me read it faster.

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

For me there were several but If I have to choose I'd say the midnight visit the mom makes to a former client's home.

Which character – as performed by Allyson Ryan – was your favorite?

Nora, the mother.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed several times.

Any additional comments?

Enjoyable and entertaining.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Awwww! Just finished listening to this little gem and I am sad to see these characters go! I found it interesting to learn about the pressures teens today are under as well as what it may be like to be a realtor or live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I even learned a few things about Irish dancing :-) this book kept my interest right up until the end!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fluffy and fun

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

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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.

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1 person found this helpful