Book Review: Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel, Prep, is the account of Lee Fiora’s four years of high school. It is a story based on the struggles of adolescence and also refers to social class distinctions. Lee gets stronger and matures each year a little more, until she finally reaches popularity. Prep is all about the evolution of a teenager stuck in a world she knows nothing about at first.

Lee Fiora is from a lower middle class family in Indiana. She attends a prestigious boarding school on a scholarship in Massachusetts. She finds it hard to fit in this new world, no matter how much she tries. She makes a few friends, and develops an ambiguous relationship with a classmate who is between a crush and a boyfriend. Lee admires all the rich and athletic students around her and wishes she could be one of them one day. She becomes very distant with her parents and the few times they visit, conflicts always burst out and they have to leave the next morning to avoid making things worst. As time goes on, Lee eventually starts getting involved in school activities and by senior year, she finally finds her place at Ault School.

Lee is a typical teenager when she applies at a boarding school in Massachusetts. She is intelligent though she is not very brilliant in class. She decides to go to Ault School, attracted by the brochure showing a perfect building and girls holding lacrosse sticks. Once there, she discovers a complete other world and feels lost between the popular and rich kids around her. In fact, Lee is among the few students on a scholarship. She is shy and lacks self confidence. She tries to be as discreet as possible, quiet, and does not draw much attention to herself. Lee isn’t particularly pretty, and she is not considered popular, or nerdy. She is a mysterious and spirited girl with a picky personality. Lee is extremely observant and while others go to parties, she takes pleasure studying the yearbooks and