GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES

When Stanford announces it will take only one additional student from the prestigious Elliott Bay Academy, applying to college suddenly becomes very dangerous. Is someone willing to kill for that spot?

Winnie Pressley is at the top of her senior class, so when her college counselor tells her she can't apply to Stanford, she’s devastated—but her mother, Maren, is suspicious. Are the two other top contenders also being advised to drop out of the race? Or does Winnie’s lower socio-economic status mean she’s no longer eligible for the school’s support? When Winnie lands in the hospital after a hit-and-run, the answers to those questions may imperil Maren, too. As a teenage single mother, Maren had to drop out of college herself, and she's worked hard to support her daughter. Currently, she’s the indispensable yet health insurance–free assistant to Alicia Stone, another Elliott Bay mom and the fabulously wealthy CEO of Aspyre, a posh lifestyle technology company. Alicia’s daughter, Brooke, has all the financial perks but she’s lacking the grades and ambition to be a Cardinal. Not quite as wealthy as Alicia but definitely more privileged than Maren, Kelly Vernon, the third mother in this tale, traffics in information. She knows everyone’s secrets (academic, philanthropic, and very personal). Her own daughter, Krissie, is a strong candidate for Stanford—plus she’s a double legacy—but her anxiety may get in her way. Toggling among the three mother-daughter pairs, Dobmeier and Katzman deftly capture the madness of college admissions season, from the expert-level parental manipulation of school administrators and the viper dens of parent cocktail parties to the women's tense home lives, riddled with unhealthy coping mechanisms. As secrets unfold, we witness the worst familial behavior; stolen DNA profiles and plagiarized essays are only the tip of the iceberg.

Operation Varsity Blues lurks behind this bracingly vicious portrait of entitlement.