Customer Reviews

Crunch Time

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On the surface, Mariah Fredericks' CRUNCH TIME might be about 4 kids who band together their own SAT prep group because they don't want to do the whole formal class thing. What's funny is how a story like that can delve so deeply into matters of identity, where the worst thing you thought about people turns out to be true and that's all anyone sees. I guess it comes down to who you are at the end of the day.

Are you the sweet guy who never gets the girl? Or the hot guy who never gets to keep her? Are you the girl with nothing who wishes for the world? Or the one with everything who knows the loneliness it has to offer? Or are you the cheater?

Whoever you think you are on the inside, you have to be somebody on the outside. And if you aren't sure who you want that to be, you've got to pretend. Be somebody. "Or else people will make it up" for you.

The 4 points of view in this novel, all told in first person, are woven together so seamlessly that in the same conversation you end up in heads of all four characters. Their psyches are different and their passions diverse enough that their characters prove themselves both unique and separate. Yet they're all eerily on the same path to somewhere, wherever it is that teenage path leads us all.

It's funny how one test, how one stupid number (2110 - 1250 - 1880 - 2400), labels you for life. But it does. It might be the SAT's, a big game, the decision to bare your soul to that special someone, or a nasty rumor. Whatever it is, it gets to decide your future. And, like Leo says in the book, you don't get any backsies. It's not a test you get to take again. You only get one shot. And that's it.

Then comes the rest of your life.

Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

Like death and taxes, standardized tests are inescapable, so I predict a huge (and enthusiastic!) audience for Crunch Time. Mariah Fredericks has captured perfectly the turbulent emotions of ambitious kids preparing for the SATs, and then waiting for their scores. The story spotlights four students at a private school-two boys, two girls-who form their own study group. Naturally, the group is fertile ground for romance, jealousy, and who-likes-who-best angst. But the real fireworks start when the school learns that someone actually cheated. And got away with it. A flawlessly plotted novel. Dive in!

I liked this book way better than The True Meaning of Cleavage. This one actually had a point, and suspense leading up to an unsuspecting ending (of course, I read ahead and didn't do the guessing game. If I were you I would not do that. It spoils the fun of the whole book)
Anyways, I like how four completely different people can be friends all because of the stress of the SAT's. I really liked the truth and honesty of this book. I also liked how you have four points of veiw over the same thing, and it makes the book more interesting.
Way to go, Mariah! Way better than The True Meaning of Cleavage.

CRUNCH TIME is a little like the movie The Breakfast Club, if the teens in the movie were taking the SAT rather than serving detention time. A group of four juniors --- Max, Daisy, Leo and Jane --- are thrown together when they walk out on an SAT prep class and decide to form a study group instead. The group is a mismatched bunch and includes a jock, a brain, a rich kid, and an average Joe. Together they cheer each other on and draw on each other's strengths when they meet to study for the test. Will they improve their odds, or is it just hopeless?

A romantic triangle is woven into the plot and only increases the pressure the kids are already feeling. After they take the test in March, there is some speculation about a student who paid another student to take the test for him/her. Was it one of the four of them? Tension builds as rumors start to fly and they become suspicious of one another.

Mariah Fredericks, who wrote HEAD GAMES and the award-winning THE TRUE MEANING OF CLEAVAGE, gets into the heads of her teenage characters in her third novel. The dialogue and thought patterns of the main protagonists are right on the money. I felt their tension and anxiety on every page. Anyone who has ever taken the SAT exam or must take it in the future will instantly relate to the characters in CRUNCH TIME.

--- Reviewed by Renee Kirchner

Hi, my name is Jason Liao, and an American Born Chinese (ABC), those of you familiar with the Oriental community in the United States are aware of the extreme level of importance Oriental parents place on the SAT's. I liked this book because it showed different perspectives on how the SAT's affected different people. Without spoiling the results of the book, I can understand the action of the certain individual whom cheated on the SAT's. I gave this book a three star rating however, due to the fact that I feel that the action would have been a lot more "justified" (for a lack of a better word) if a different individual in the book had committed the act. I also rated this book down due to me feeling that a lot of the situations weren't extreme enough for a lot of the drama and actions committed in the book, i.e., I felt that a lot of the situations were downplayed. However, all in all I appreciate how the author Mariah Fredericks wrote a novel in which the SATs in relation with the pressure it places on certain individuals was the main focus. It was definantely worth the read.

" Do we all care so much because we think it's morally wrong, or do we just feel screwed by someone who played the game better?"
SATs are an extremely stressful time. So what's the smart thing to do? Get a study group. That's what Daisy, Max, Leo, and Jane do. Daisy is the basketball player that everyone wants to be friends with. Max is the shy guy who happens to be Daisy's best friend. Leo is a guy with an ego the size of a school bus, and Jane is a movie star's daughter and is afraid that's all she'll ever be. These people have nothing in common but they all become friends. Then during the SATs, it got out that someone cheated. Who cheated and what happens to the person involved with this?
This book was a crazy book about stressing over tests and what almost every normal high school student goes through. I recommend this book to anyone who is freaking out over exams or the SATs because it's a chance to get a laugh over the whole process.

Four students at a prestigious school decide to study for the SAT together rather than take a prep class. They all breathe a sigh of relief when the SAT is finally over, but then the school finds out that someone cheated... The book switches between POV, which is a little distracting at first, but I quickly got accustomed to it. The dynamics between the four seem very realistic. They are all likable characters, even with their flaws. Leo, Daisy, Max, and Jane all represent different stereotypes, but they're still fleshed out and realistic. A very easy read, enjoyable, not terribly challenging.

Ooh, this is a good one. In Crunch Time, four different voices give us four different experiences of the same events during junior year in an SAT-obsessed high school. Sometimes it's tough to follow so many viewpoints through a story, but here the distinct voices and the clearly marked transitions make it easy. Max, Daisy, Leo and Jane seem just like kids we've known, or thought we knew. Once we accept the somewhat unlikely premise that such different kids would ever really come together to form an SAT-prep group, we can enjoy the fascinating dynamics that ensue--the academic advances, the romantic entanglements, the struggles to determine what is really important, the pain of isolation, the deep fissures created by the cheating scandal, the disillusionment that comes from learning the truth. Through all of this, Crunch Time rings true. It should provoke productive discussions among young people about their goals and their values while it opens their eyes to the possibly different perspective of the kid in the next seat. Wouldn't it be great if the kids Alexandra Robbins describes in The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids actually had time to read it, just for fun?

Reviewed by Janet Gingold
author of Finch Goes Wild