by Ariel Kaplan
Synopsis:
Mischa Abramavicius is a walking, talking, top-scoring, perfectly well-rounded college application in human form. So when she's rejected not only by the Ivies, but her loathsome safety school, she is shocked and devastated. All the sacrifices her mother made to send her to prep school, the late nights cramming for tests, the blatantly resume-padding extracurriculars (read: Students for Sober Driving) ... all that for nothing.
As Mischa grapples with the prospect of an increasingly uncertain future, she questions how this could have happened in the first place. Is it possible that her transcript was hacked? With the help of her best friend and sometimes crush, Nate, and a group of eccentric techies known as "The Ophelia Syndicate," Mischa launches an investigation that will shake the quiet community of Blanchard Prep to its stately brick foundations.
(cover image and synopsis lifted from Goodreads)
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication date: August 21st 2018
Source/Format: eARC/Netgalley
Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indigo | Indiebound | Book Depository
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
My Thoughts:
Senior high school student Mischa Abramavicious is confident that college acceptance letters would soon start rolling in but come Admissions Day and what she got instead were we-regret-to-inform-you after we-regret-to-inform-you. She is in denial because her grades, test scores and extra curriculars are all in adherence to the College Admissions Formula that they follow in expensive private school, Blanchard Prep. Also, she can’t bring herself to tell the bad news to her hardworking single mom.
I’ve read an excerpt of this before downloading the full eARC in Netgalley and I was hooked by the funny and casual narration and dialogues. The fun and casual tone is pretty much consistent throughout the book even after Mischa found out that she did not get in any colleges that she applied for. There is this amusing moment when Mischa was full-on hating herself that she wrote FAILURE on her forehead. She immediately pulled out from the angst and laughed at herself, proceeded to erase the writing only to realize that she unknowingly picked up a waterproof eyeliner pencil. She ended up cutting her own bangs to cover the her self-vandalized forehead and went to school with uneven new fringes. I thought this is the kind of series of unfortunate events that can realistically happen to me.
Good thing is that she has a supportive bestfriend in Nate who not only helped to straighten out her uneven bangs but also introduced her to The Ophelia Syndicate, a trio of tech whiz girls, willing to assist in uncovering why Mischa didn’t get in to any uni despite her good grades and all. What follows suit is an investigation by a group of teens. It pretty much reads like a YA mystery story without a murder or a monster. The mystery element of the book is a solid plot. It kept my interest and the revelation of the mystery elements, albeit not super extra special shocker, made perfect sense to me.
Mischa’s personality is the kind of practical student who does what needs to be done and socialize with whom needs to be socialized with, for her goals. Her initial goal in the book is to get in a good college. So the set of friends around her were the student body officers type. When her Ivy League dreams went down the drain, her goal became finding out why she wasn’t accepted. So she ditched her regular crowd which includes her second bestfriend Caroline, for The Ophelia Syndicate, a non-sanctioned school club with three non-conformist members. Her first bestfriend Nate is the only consistent person before and after the college rejections debacle so their friends to more than friends trope also makes sense.
I guess Mischa is right in the middle of my character likability meter. Her relationship with her mom is endearing but probably because of the book’s even light tone, I find no single emotional moment between them. Her romance subplot is cute but I didn’t feel overly swoony about it. What I’m not fond most about her though is her almost passive role in solving the mystery. It’s as if she became friends with The Ophelia Syndicate trio because they are currently of use to her. The trio put a lot of work in getting into the bottom of the mystery but the book didn’t give us much on why they are so willing and invested in Mischa’s plight. What exactly were their motivations in helping Mischa? The rapport between Mischa and The Ophelia Syndicate girls felt like an insta-friendship to me.
Handling rejections is pretty much a universal life experience. We all handle it differently and I love reading about characters dealing with it. “We Regret to Inform You” is a fairly entertaining YA contemporary infused with elements of mystery about a teen grappling with her first taste of rejection.
Diversity Watch:
Mischa Abramavicius – Mischa’s grandma is a refugee from the Soviet Union. Physically described with brown eyes.Nate Miller – is explicitly mentioned Jewish and bisexual. Physically described with blue eyes.
Emily Sreenivasan – leader of The Ophelia Syndicate, racially indeterminate
Bebeh Tandoh – second member of The Ophelia Syndicate. She is Ghanaian
Shira Gastman – third member of The Ophelia Syndicate, racially indeterminate
Meredith Dorsay – Mischa’s rival in school. She is described with gray eyes
Rabbi Doug Perez – an ex-rabbi of Nate’s family. He is described with dark brown hair and beard and blue eyes.
Jill Shoenborn – a 50-year old woman in a skydiving place. She is described with gray hair, blue eyes and bad sunburn.
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I'd love to hear from you!
Have you read this book already? Tell me what you think of it. Have you had your fair share of rejections in life? How did you handle it? And let me know any lessons that you've learned from getting over from a rejection.
Have you read this book already? Tell me what you think of it. Have you had your fair share of rejections in life? How did you handle it? And let me know any lessons that you've learned from getting over from a rejection.
