4 out of 5 stars
Have you ever picked up a book on a whim and thought to yourself, “maybe this will be good?” I sort of did that with this book. I originally saw the spine and thought it was titled, Foster Dads Explore the Cosmos. I thought that sounded funny and it didn’t have a sci-fi or fantasy label on it at the library so I pulled it off the shelf. It is not a book about foster dads exploring anything. It isn’t even really about the cosmos. Foster Dade is a rich boarding school kid that struggles to make it in the world.
It is weird to read a book about someone who is so very much not like me while also resonating with me as so familiar. I was not a rich boarding school kid that sold prescription pills to my fellow classmates, nor was I the sort of person that used drugs and alcohol in high school. Yet I know what it feels like to be outside of a group you so desperately want to be a part of. I know the feelings of not wanting to say the wrong thing in front of that group, in case it makes you seem not cool or something. So while this book has a theme of a rich kid lying and getting prescription pills to sell to his friends it is not only about that. Told in a removed narrative it is not Foster Dade our titular character that gives us this story but a kid who went to the school he was expelled from the year prior to his attendance. A story that has consumed this kid, who never knew Dade or any of his so-called friends, so much that he has dedicated a small portion of his adult life to recreate the story and get all the facts out as best he can.
While the prose is beautiful at times it does lends itself to pomposity at times as well. As a book rooted in the genre of dark academia it is only prudent that big words and ideas emerge in the text. The narrator expands a lot of time on internal narratives for Dade throughout the book, and mentions feelings and emotions that it would be almost impossible to know given where the information is coming from. Interspersed throughout the book are playlists of Dade’s during his time at school as well as excerpts from his deleted BlogSpot blog posts. As well as frequent asides to explain secondary or tertiary characters throughout the book and how their story fits into the overall story as a whole. This is done well and helps flesh out the world as well as brings major players into the story when they need to be and why.
It can be daunting to read this book though for a couple of reasons, names. There are so many rich upper crust names in this book like Pritchett and Mason, with last names like Albright and Pretlow. That along with the idea that you may feel sorry for these kids who have been raised in a bubble of money and privilege is disheartening at first. In the end it is less about feeling sorry for these people and more about understanding the functions they serve in the narrative. All told the idea of sympathy for these children is lost about halfway through the book and completely fades by the end. Some characters you feel are redeemable but they do not play as big a roll in the story as I would have liked, only because they were nicer.
The other thing that put me off suggesting this book to too many people is the very graphic sex scenes between children. Now I understand the use of sex and the descriptions in the narrative as a whole and in the end it makes sense to help sell the ultimate ending of the story. It also captures the awkwardness of youth sexual encounters well. Sadly I think the book would suffer it didn’t describe some of the sexual encounters I just don’t think it is required for there to be so many of them. Apart from the graphic nature of some of the encounters it is important to note that a couple of those dictate the actions of one of the characters at the end of the book and build the framework for Dade’s inevitable expulsion.
All in all this was a good book. A poignant ending that did not go where I thought it would. Lots of underage drug and alcohol use throughout the book, although I think that is a requirement of any dark academia book. It does not endear you to any of the students of this school, even the ones that abstain from the heavy drugs still partake in the less heavy stuff like weed and alcohol. Maybe I am jaded because of my personal affiliations with addicts but I feel very little sympathy for people who recklessly partake in illicit drugs and get drunk all the time. I will stand on my soap box for exactly one more second to say that it is fine to partake in drugs and alcohol, responsibly. This is done with the reckless abandonment not only of teenagers who don’t realize the harm they are doing to themselves and those around them but with the disillusionment of rich kids who are never told no.
In fact for final thoughts I think it is telling that the whole time Foster Dade is selling drugs he mentions multiple times it is not about the money, and in fact he has no idea how much money he has, he does it to feel like he belongs or has a place in the world. This is not a book about drug-dealing, or rich kids, or even boarding schools, it is at the heart of the story about finding truth and meaning. Not just for Foster Dade but for the narrator as well. Why are we hear and why do we do these things to ourselves? I give this a 4 out of 5. I would give it less but it was a tight story that flowed, even though it was over 500 pages.
The Fresh Persepctive 