book review: dream school

dream school by blake nelson

book series: girl # 2

official website

description: Andrea Marr—, heroine of the classic 90's novel Girl—is back. And she's at college!
Imagining a typical “J. Crew/college catalogue” experience, Andrea leaves Portland to attend prestigious Wellington College in Connecticut. Surrounded by the best and the brightest, she works hard to adjust and keep up.
But Andrea has a way of finding her own people—not the well-heeled and well-scrubbed—but the weird, the wild, and the brilliant.
It isn't long before her college career veers wildly off course. Suddenly her entire future is in question. But in her darkest hour, Andrea will find the key to her own destiny.

review: girl is my favorite book. when i first read girl, i was going through a shitty time in my life where i had no idea where i was going and my friends had it figured out and i had this really dumb boyfriend and i felt lost in my community. and girl was the book that reassured me that my life isn't stupid and that it's just growing pains. and i've NEVER associated with a fictional character as much as i do andrea. not even with liz lemon. i had all these high school feelings and andrea mirrored that. (this gets really personal, so if you don't care about my numb pre-twenty something life, just know i loved this and i'm sorry i've been away xoxo)

and then i read that there was a sequel. about college. and i FREAKED OUT because i too was going away to college. so i went to strand with my roommate and bought the sequel. and i got nervous, as you can tell from my goodreads update four months ago. i don't remember what i was feeling during the beginning of the novel. maybe i thought it was too slow? i'm not sure. but i do know, by the end of the novel, i was sobbing in the library of hunter college. once again, blake nelson has me spot on.

andrea got into this ritzy private school called wellington, which is on the east school. and that's so BALLSY, applying to a school that you have to take a plane to get to. i totally did not expect that from andrea. but she gets in. and she gets so overwhelmed. these people are so cultured. and i absolutely got that. do you know how terrifying it is to come from a small sector of the universe and get thrust into the city that never sleeps? granted, i lived on shaolin, but it was really different there and i was never put into a more diverse experience than i was during college. (i felt and still do feel like sheep in the big city)

it's just, college is scary. i went from being with the same people for six hours a day, seven days a week, to just feeling lost. all the time. i wasn't myself from november to january, but things are starting to look up. some of my most important relationships were either strained or severed, and that really fucked with me. my mom and i used to be best friends, and now we argue every day. i still have my best friend, which i thank goodness for each and every day.

it seriously changes everything. and i saw this through andrea's eyes as well.

i'm gonna be blunt: i'm not an intelligent person. (i even needed spell check to spell intelligent) i don't have common sense, i'm not educated in politics or religion, and i need help sometimes figuring out what i can and can't put in the microwave. and at first, i thought i was an idiot. i thought that my 4,000 student high school didn't prepare me for college (still think it didn't). people are so cultured here and the only thing i could talk about are young adult novels, movies, tv, and 90's emo. NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THOSE THINGS. NOBODY. i even went to the lit mag and they're just so dedicated, i can't do this shit. i spent so many hours just sitting in my dorm, watching breaking bad, crying about how i'm not getting the proper college experience. needless to say, my freshman year of college was not expected.

again, i'm in love with blake nelson's writing style. it reads just like how i would speak to someone* and it made me feel comfortable and alright again with the world. i have this idea for a movie that the main character is never shown, only in glimpses in the mirror. and you see the world through this character's eyes. i have no idea how this would work, but that's how i picture this novel would be like. andrea is hardly described, and her name isn't really mentioned unless someone is talking to her. it makes the novel more relatable, like that could totally be me.

i loved how it was fast. it's extremely symbolic of how life really is. (college made me d33p) i mean, i'm already a freshman in college, but if you asked me, it's still 2007. it's just so weird. but you get through andrea's junior year of college. she grew so much. and that's how a character should be. whenever i'm in an angsty teen mood, i'll pick up girl. i love it so much. but this book tied up loose ends and gave me closer for andrea, knowing that she'll be okay.

overall, i'd recommend this book to anyone who read girl, who just thinks their life sux, and wants to live their life vicariously through a 20 (omg andrea is TWENTY. I AM 18 WHAT THE HELL) year old.

"What would happen to me seemed so much more unclear. I just had no idea. But it was starting to happen. I could feel it. What I was going to do and be in my life was going to come to me very soon. In a way, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. "

dream college//blake nelson

*i also never knew how thick my accent was. whater.