Summary
When it’s time for Cassie to apply for college, the only place she wants to go is Warren University. So that’s the only place she applies. They promise tons of financial aid for everyone. Unfortunately for Cassie, the school’s definition of “financial need” and her real life do not line up. So if she’s going to attend her dream school, she’s going to need a miracle.
Enter The Stevenson Scholarship. With the right project, Cassie can win the money she needs to go to Warren. And in a sea of IT proposals, a gender studies project could really grab the committee’s attention.
Warren University was in the news recently when they placed the Delta Tau Chi fraternity on probation for “creating a hostile environment for women.” So Cassie’s project is to rush the fraternity and write a first-hand account of the experience as a woman. Sure enough, Cassie wins the scholarship.
Armed with a Project Coordinator from the scholarship board, a faculty adviser Cassie has idolized for years, and more than a few pre-conceived ideas about Greek life at a university, Cassie is ready to take on the men of DTC and make history that will help her fund college for the next four years.
Review
I almost gave up on this book a few times early on. I found Cassie to be abrasive and crass at times and entrenched in her own ideas of men and women and feminism and fraternities. For a student hoping to be a social researcher, her biases were startling.
But as the story evolved, and Cassie was challenged in some of her assumptions, I started to like her a little more. But to be honest, I liked several of the frat guys even more in the end. As Cassie got to know some of these young men, it changed how she thought about her project, which was great. (She still could use some growth in how she looked at the women around her, though.)
No matter what enlightenment Cassie or the “brothers” might achieve through the story, it was still working toward the inevitable moment when her research would be published and her secret agenda would be exposed. It was painful to wait for that unavoidable calamity (but in a good way). In the end, I was glad I stuck with the story all the way through.
In some ways, this is an abrasive and crass story – it’s not just Cassie. This hits all the stereotypes about fraternities. There’s a ridiculous amount of drinking considering most of the characters are college freshmen. There’s drugs and foul language and a lot of conversation about sexual double standards and sexual conduct. But there are also these fantastic character moments. And challenging conversations about what feminism is and what equality should look like for many minority groups. These sections made me think, which I liked.
If the feminism angle appeals to you, and you are comfortable with the details mentioned above, I recommend this as a thought-provoking story about equality and feminism and the relationships between men and women – and what all of those things might look like on a college campus.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Teen for the opportunity to read an electronic review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions about this book are my own.