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Loyalty and sense of social truth prevails with Goodman
Book Review
By Derryll White
Goodman, Jessica (2020). They Wish They Were Us.
This is definitely high school as I never knew it. Even Jill Newman, attending Gold Coast Prep on scholarship assistance, can hardly be seen as working class. These are preppy, privileged teens looking at the world through gold-tinted glasses. That does not mean, however, that they are immune to the hard knocks life offers.
This murder mystery story takes place in an East Coast prep school environment, everything determined by wealth, privilege and the expectation that the chosen few, “The Players”, would continue to conform, continue to advance into adult positions of privilege and power. This is a sneak peak into the lives of John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump. It will be a difficult novel for rural teens to relate to.
Jill Newman does break from the heard, realizing that the special urban mom life offered by this environment is not one she wants. She sees a school society monopolized by males growing into themselves, not asking questions but minimizing young women into background noise. Jill is the saving grace of this story, moving away from privilege to loss and redemption. Jessica Goodwin writes from a place I do not inhabit but she places loyalty and a sense of social truth front and centre. I certainly cannot argue with that.
‘They Wish They Were Us’ will encourage a teen reader to examine the games and put-downs endemic to any high school. It encourages youth to be true to themselves, not the pressures of social expectation and herd mentality. In the end the author does bring the story down to a basic level that applies to everyone.
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Excerpts from the novel:
FRIENDS – Being with Nikki was like looking in a funhouse mirror where one minute she was me and the next she was Shaila, until she finally morphed back into her own self, no longer the Nikki I knew in the months before. It was jarring but tender, like a dog with only three legs. I was fascinated in a way that made me only want her presence more.
DEATH – We were desperate to recall the details of her, but we were also desperate to move on. The forgetting was nice sometimes, because we started laughing again, too, first by accident at stupid reality TV shows, then on purpose, until our stomachs ached.
That was the odd summer, the black mark on our perfect records, the one three-month span we just had to push through so everything would be all right when it came time for college applications. Just get through this now, everyone said, and you will be fine.
FEMALE FRIENDSHIP – “I was always jealous of you two, you know,” he said. “Of the way girls get to be best friends with each other in such an obvious way. It’s so much weirder with guys.”
STRESS – …Rachel turns away. As she pours the hot water into the mugs, I spot faint, raised scars, white as stone, lining the backs of her arms and the nape of her neck. Some are thin, as if someone drew a sewing needle over her skin, and others are thick and fat, scary.
She turns and follows my eyes. “Ah,” she says softly. “Had a bad year after everything. Could been worse.”
ANXIETY – The words were bubbling now. Things I never even let myself think, let alone say out loud. “Like I don’t belong at Gold Coast Prep. Like I have something to prove. Like I have to be perfect.” I thought of my anxiety nightmares, the one that started after I came to Prep and now ruined my sleep on the nights before big tests or presentations. How the thought of not measuring up to my brilliant peers makes me want to run and hide.
PRIVILEGE – “What exactly is this place.”
Graham sighs and leans back in his chair. “A facility,” he says. “Like juvie, but fancy. We can get our GEDs and do activities like pottery and stuff.”
I must look confused because he keeps trying to explain.
“The criminal justice system is totally unfair. If you’re rich, it’s just easier.”
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
