Susan Fine

Eh, this wasn't any great shakes. Taking place at an exclusive private boys' academy in Manhattan, I had seen this compared to Gossip Girl, but believe me, NO.

It didn't even start off so badly. Mauricio is a freshman who has to learn the navigate the social systems of his new high school, including (as these things seem to have to go in books about Manhattan private schools) classmates from crazy wealthy families.

But after the set-up, it doesn't go anywhere. It's trying to be a "kids are mean" story, but the kids in this book aren't that mean (in a literary sense, that is, their meanness is boring and not helpful to the plot or to character development). There's a weird, and already outdated, finger-wagging "message" about the dangers of posting photos online (presented via a cringy amalgam of Facebook and MySpace).

Grade: Yawn.
Recommended: No.… (mehr)

Reviewed by coollibrarianchick for TeensReadToo.com

INITIATION, the debut offering by Susan Fine, follows Mauricio Londono through his first year at St. Stephens School for Boys. Mauricio, newly graduated, looks back and tells how he survived his first year. The cover of the book has a tie made into a noose on it. I know a lot of people who have gone to prep schools and from what I hear, the prep school arena is, in many aspects, survival of the fittest. Just as the GOSSIP GIRL series has drawn in the female reader, this book will draw in the male reader.

High school can be tough. You've got academic pressure and, of course, you have to deal with social issues as well. It can be the best time of your life or it can be the worst.

For Mauricio, the new boy at St. Stephens, it is a little bit of both. There is definite awkwardness as he navigates the hallways, classrooms, and social hierarchy of the school. He, as both the new kid and a freshman, is basically on the bottom rung. Mauricio learns very quickly that St. Stephens School for Boys is a very affluent school and rules that apply to most of the free world don't always apply to the boys here. Drugs, drinking, and casual hookups is nothing unusual.

These boys, most of whom have known each other from the time they were in cribs, have their own set of rules and their own agendas. They have no problem setting people up and watching them fall. If scheming was offered as a course, I am sure that most of the boys at St. Stephens would pass with flying colors. They have the means and the intelligence. Technology allows these kids to take schemes to higher levels.

For most of the book, Mauricio is in awe of the people who fall into the "haves" category. The huge apartments, summers in the Hamptons, jet-setting to this country or that country has a certain allure - especially when your upbringing is not even remotely on the same plane. Even though Mauricio doesn't want to get sucked into all the drama that unfolds around him, he can't help it since his raging hormones and heart's desire - Elizabeth - is smack dab in the middle of it.

The question is, will he walk away unscathed and getting what he wants, or will he fall victim to the cruel games many teens at times play?

After reading this book, all of sudden public school is a lot more desirable.… (mehr)

Mauricio Londono, son of a middle-class college professor, thinks that the prestigious St. Stephen’s School for Boys is his dream school. Then he enters as a new freshmen, and quickly realizes that in this world of the rich and privileged, there are a whole different set of rules. Now, Mauricio must navigate his life with little to no knowledge of how things work.

INITIATION reminds me very much of Curtis Sittenfeld’s PREP: middle-class outsider attends a prestigious high school, witnesses with shock the lawless doings of the rich, and emerges from his/her school years relatively unchanged. Even with this proliferation of inaction and non-growth, however, I still definitely enjoyed INITIATION for its convincing portrayal of privileged teen apathy.

Since Mauricio is mostly a non-participating narrator, it’s all the other characters that are fascinating and draw my attention. Mauricio talks about the classmates he comes in contact with—all their ups and downs, convoluted morals, and shocking actions. It is often difficult for us to imagine that students at good high schools will actually act this way, and Mauricio’s narration adds to the prevailing shock and horrifying truth in a way that sticks with you.

INTIATION is not at all plot-based, and even the little plot it contains is overshadowed by the supporting characters. This turns out to be not a bad thing at all: I really think that this book should be read as a look into the lives of students at a private high school rather than one in which the plot was underdeveloped and unexciting.

Overall, I was very impressed with INITIATION and Susan Fine’s writing. She was able to fully convince me that schools such as St. Stephen’s do exist, much as we are loathe to admit it. I look forward to seeing how she continues to write telling studies of adolescent behavior in the future!… (mehr)