Acceptance

Acceptance, Susan Coll’s darkly comic novel, details the pressure surrounding the college application process in a Washington, D.C., suburb. Following parents, teens, and university staff, Coll puts an Election-like spin on this highly competitive milieu: The teens are all way more mature than their adult counterparts. The standout is Taylor Rockefeller, a mail-stealing, self-mutilating senior saddled with a snobby, racist mother (at one point, she whines, ”There should be affirmative action for disadvantaged Rockefellers”). The characterizations can be a bit cartoonish and simplistic, but Acceptance still bristles with enough wit and ambition to earn honors. B+

• By Tim Stack