Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

I'm up to the bit where I want to slap the protagonist. I'm half-way through and this novel has been leading up to it. Lee Fiora is an unsure teenage girl writing from the vantage point of being older and experienced, so as a reader you really hope that she's matured by the time she's reached adulthood. Now I'm making it sound as though I'm not enjoying this book, but really I am. In fact I've been going to bed really tired and I can't put it down, so consequently I'm waking up each morning not having had enough sleep.

The book cover said that the novel was The OC meets Donna Tartt's The Secret History. I've never watched The OC, (but I have watched 90210, both the old - retro - and now in its newest guise, so it's probably similar) however I have read The Secret History and that was another novel I really enjoyed. I agree with that statement. It's also a little bit Chilton, the school that Rory Gilmore attends in The Gilmore Girls.

Lee Fiora almost seems like she has a split personality. She describes her home life with her parents and two brothers as almost hip, fun to be in and her dad's irreverent charm. When she's at her prestigious New England school Ault, she seemingly undergoes some kind of personality transplant leaving her almost devoid of any emotion. And when she does allow some emotion to seep through the facade she revels in her classmates reaction of her. Too weird, but then I suppose that's what teenage angst can be seen as too?

Good novel and worth reading, especially if you do like the above tv shows and Tartt's novel.