Ratings12
Average rating3.9
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Wise and addictive... The Gifted School is the juiciest novel I've read in ages... a suspenseful, laugh-out-loud page-turner and an incisive inspection of privilege, race and class." –J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Friends and Strangers, in The New York Times Smart and juicy, a compulsively readable novel about a previously happy group of friends and parents that is nearly destroyed by their own competitiveness when an exclusive school for gifted children opens in the community, from the author of The Displacements This deliciously sharp novel captures the relentless ambitions and fears that animate parents and their children in modern America, exploring the conflicts between achievement and potential, talent and privilege. Set in the fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, The Gifted School is a keenly entertaining novel that observes the drama within a community of friends and parents as good intentions and high ambitions collide in a pile-up with long-held secrets and lies. Seen through the lens of four families who've been a part of one another's lives since their kids were born over a decade ago, the story reveals not only the lengths that some adults are willing to go to get ahead, but the effect on the group's children, sibling relationships, marriages, and careers, as simmering resentments come to a boil and long-buried, explosive secrets surface and detonate. It's a humorous, keenly observed, timely take on ambitious parents, willful kids, and the pursuit of prestige, no matter the cost.
Reviews with the most likes.
Eerily reminiscent of the ongoing college admissions scandal, this is a wonderfully readable book from a fine writer.
Such an incredible story of children whose parents will lie, cheat, bribe, and do whatever it takes to get their child into a special gifted academy. The pressure being pushed onto these children is enough to push them overboard and react in very hostile and attention-seeking manners.
What a perspective into the lengths parents will go, even if it means doing the work and breaking with moral codes. For what...bragging rights? To be the best amongst a group of “friends”.
Social and economic diversities are portrayed well throughout this story and really makes you think on life in today's society. The author did a great job of showcasing all sides of the equation while centering around the core group of families and friends.
Having had a child in the gifted program, I can tell you, unequivocally, that this could all have happened. I laughed at places I probably shouldn't have because it felt real. The only difference is that the gifted schools here start younger, but the parents behave the same way (maybe even worse).
I loved it mostly because I am no longer part of the school system with my children off to university. But this is a white people behaving badly book I'm glad I read.