The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book): A novel about the enclosed world of privilege and silence at an elite boarding school and the unlikely group of friends who dare challenge the status quo through their writing.
Beth Kramer is a “townie” who returns to her sophomore year after having endured a year of judgment from her roommate, Sarah.
But Sarah Brunson knows there’s more to that story.
Amanda Priya “Spence” Spencer is the privileged daughter of NYC elites, who is reeling from the realization that her family name shielded her from the same fate as Sarah.
Ramin Golafshar arrives at Chandler as a transfer student to escape the dangers of being gay in Iran, only to suffer brutal hazing under the guise of tradition in the boys’ dorms.
And Freddy Bello is the senior who’s no longer sure of his future but has fallen hard for Spence and knows he has to stand up to his friends after what happened to Ramin.
At Chandler, the elite boarding school, these five teens are brought together in the Circle, a coveted writing group where life-changing friendships are born—and secrets are revealed. Their professor tells them to write their truths. But is the truth enough to change the long-standing culture of abuse at Chandler? And can their friendship survive the fallout?
MY OPINION: ***
I love Abdi Nazemian with my entire soul and I consider
Like a Love Story one of my top five favorite books of all time. I went into this one with a lot of anticipation because I actually haven't read any of his other work since LaLS, so I was super excited for this one, especially since Taylor Jenkins Reid loves it.
I didn't hate it. I want to make sure that point is made. I enjoyed reading this book and found each of the characters to be interesting, unique, and realistic. There were some characters I liked a little more than others, but they all felt very fleshed out from the start. I think the issue for me was with the writing style and the choppiness of the sentences. I've noticed this is very common in YA, which I am just not accustomed to anymore, so it's always a shock when I read sentences that are five words long and start with the word "and" or something like that. I honestly have just evolved past the YA stage, and while it will always have a special place in my heart, I don't truly enjoy reading young adult fiction as much anymore. For this reason, I will never be rereading LaLS (or at least not for a while) because I cannot tarnish my beautiful memories of the book.
The book is told from the alternating perspectives of five students at Chandler Prep boarding school who are all involved in English Professor Douglas's "Circle" of students in a sort of writing seminar kind of thing. I am not usually a fan of alternating perspectives unless it's from a romance with just the main characters, but I liked how this book was told because we got to see the evolution of each character separately from the biased perspective of one main character.
Beth is a "townie" attending a nearby boarding school. She's in her sophomore year (I still don't understand how their grade system worked, so I'm going to go by general terms) and is recovering from a bad freshman year experience with her old roommate, Sarah Brunson.
Brunson is misunderstood and trying desperately to explain herself to Beth about why she acted the way she did. Her mother suffered from cancer for a while and that's really ruined Brunson's overall mindset. Not to mention, there's another traumatic event that occurred that she just can't seem to move past (and I wouldn't be able to either).
Spence, a talented actress, comes from an elite, privileged background, causing her to be a little bit blind to how her family name may be protecting her from Chandler's inner secrets. I really liked Spence's character and understood a lot of where she was coming from. It can be hard to empathize with others when you come from a place of privilege, and while many can dislike her because of that, I honestly sympathized with her. I don't personally come from a place of privilege but I know a lot of people who do and I can see how the divides can cause issues, despite the intentions.
Freddy is a talented, Olympic-level pole vaulter who is struggling with his future and where he wants to be. His "friends" are extreme bullies and are overall just bad people and he can't seem to break away from them, no matter how hard he tries. Freddy was one of my favorite characters and I loved reading his chapters. He had to struggle to break through that "jock" image and support himself, his friends, and the girl he loves. He also identifies as bisexual, so it's harder for him when his friends are blatantly homophobic, especially to one of his friends and fellow Circle members.
Ramin was my favorite character by far. I think Nazemian included a lot of his personal background and identity in Ramin's character. Ramin came from Iran to escape the blatant homophobia and illegality of being gay in his country in hopes of a better life in America. He's heartbroken after his boyfriend broke up with him and he struggles to adapt to the new reality that even though it's no longer a crime, he still is treated poorly and bullied for being who he is. Ramin went through a lot of character development, from being afraid to standing up a bit more to his bullies.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
This book dealt with a lot of very important topics, from homophobia and discrimination to sexual abuse and assault. The book highlights a creepy teacher who commits a lot of heinous acts against his female students. From the author's note, this is something Nazemian himself witnessed or heard about at his own boarding school, so it's obviously very real and important. However, my only issue with this book was the way that this relationship was treated. It felt very suddenly sprung upon the readers towards the end of the book and dealt with in not the best way. I didn't see it to be a very realistic ending and while I liked how it explored how people don't ever seem to listen to the victims when it means saving the white man, it ended in a more idealistic sort of way without any real discourse on the trauma and horrible consequences of the teacher's actions. It felt very rushed and sudden and boom-bang-done.
The book is told in third person, which isn't my favorite. I would have loved to have seen the first-person style with readers being able to get into each character's head. It felt a little tacky after a while, especially with the way everyone just called each other by their last names (well, mostly everyone). I think if we focused on one or two characters rather than five, it would have been a lot more in-depth of a story and I would have appreciated it a lot more.
All in all, I thought the overall story was beautifully told. There's a lot of fluff but we get to see each character find themselves in their writing, their relationships with each other, their seminar in the Circle, and their confrontations against the horrible things they witnessed occurring at their school. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a YA novel that covers a lot of important topics.
Main Characters: Beth, Brunson, Spence, Freddy, Ramin
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, sexual assault, bullying, discrimination, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was real to life.
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