Senior Ariel Stone is the perfect college applicant: first chair violin, dedicated community volunteer, and expected valedictorian. He works hard – really hard – to make his life look effortless. A failed Calculus quiz is not part of that plan. Not when he’s number one. Not when his peers can smell weakness like a freshman’s body spray.
Figuring a few all-nighters will preserve his class rank, Ariel throws himself into studying. His friends will understand if he skips a few plans, and he can sleep when he graduates. Except Ariel’s grade continues to slide. Reluctantly, he gets a tutor. Amir and Ariel have never gotten along, but Amir excels in Calculus, and Ariel is out of options.
Ariel may not like Calc, but he might like Amir. Except adding a new relationship to his long list of commitments may just push him past his limit. (Taken from goodreads.com)
*Before I start my review I want to thank the author for providing me with an ARC. I won a giveaway for this ARC. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by this.*
Ariel needs to be perfect. He’s been living his high school career being driven by the need to be perfect, because he assumes thats what everyone wants him to be. But slowly, a bad grade turns into much more and he’s spiraling out of control.
This novel is one that I truly believe every high schooler should read, I know for a fact that I needed a novel like this when I was in high school. Ariel is suffering, he’s suffering from the idea of himself that he believes his parents need him to be and he is suffering from severe anxiety.
The characters in this novel are fun and real. Ariel is Jewish and that plays an important part throughout the novel, it’s a big part of his identity and the way his family connects with each other and other characters. And as someone who identifies as a Modern Orthodox Jew, being able to truly understand and feel seen in a novel is something that will never cease to excite me. I love how much detail is put in to describe Ariel’s moms chicken soup, I could practically taste it as I was reading.
Ariel has a younger sister Rachel, both Ariel and Rachel are gifted students and are working harder than ever to stay afloat with their school work. Ariel is on his way to hopefully, going to Harvard and Rachel skipped a grade and is now in fifth grade when she should be in fourth, both of them are smarter than they can even comprehend. I relate to both of them in this way, I always had to work harder than my friends because I didn’t want anyone to find out that I actually didn’t belong in the AP and honor’s classes I was in. I struggled in school more than my friends, I remember crying and breaking down when my grades weren’t high enough.
Ariel tries so hard to be the best he can be or at least to give off the impression he is, he finds out that the rest of his peers are actually experiencing the same things. This is something that we all experience, we all think we’re suffering alone but if we were to speak to our peers about It we would learn that we aren’t nearly as alone as we think we are.
Ariel gets a tutor, this tutor happens to be his family friend and super cute boy in his class, Amir. Their relationship that develops between the two is just so cute and sweet! I love how we get to know Amir’s family too. We get to meet his sisters who are amazing and filled with personality, everyone is creative and they are very talented. Amir’s family is Muslim and I love seeing the strong bond and relationship between the two families.
Again, I think this is a book that every high schooler should read. Not just a high schooler, anyone who is in an educational setting as a student, I think this is an extremely important read and a great story!