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Ault School is a typical boarding school—moneyed students subtly flaunt their comfort socioeconomic position while trading sexual favors as black-market currency. For the Midwestern scholarship student Lee Fiora, Ault's society is intimidating, stifling, in a way. This forces Lee, who comes from an exuberant and humorous family, to avoid most social interaction, instead becoming a picky observer of her fellow classmates.

PREP documents Lee's inferiority complex, strange friendships, unadmirable behavior, and unhealthy obsession--and, later, her taboo relationship--with her grade's most popular guy, Cross Sugarman. Curtis Sittenfeld writes with unapologetic prose in the language of an insecure teenage girl on the fringe of her intimidating class. Lee is far from being a favored protagonist--certainly I have wanted to slap her for her passive behavior more than one occasion--but PREP is an interestingly detailed look into the lives of boarding school students.