Here is a book that I ended up liking even though I didn't fully like the narrator herself. There are quite a few issues with Lee - being judgemental about everyone is her worst attribute - but what is refreshing is how honest she is about it. This isn't a sweet teen novel about a boarding school. Curtis Sittenfeld goes right into the heart of the teenage experience - the shallowness, vulnerability, and raw cruelty of it. I do not empathize with Lee but I do sympathize with her. I felt her heartbreak over Cross (a ridiculous name that reminds me of Hot Cross buns, but I digress) even though I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a fleeting romance - much like many other adolescent relationships. I do have an issue that Lee did not seem changed at the end. She seems to miss Ault and it's a strange sort of nostalgia where she almost misses being unhappy. Then again, while not necessarily a novel for teens, Prep is a reflection on adolescence itself - the perpetual uncertainty of belonging offset by the promise of endless possibilities.