Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book! I was really excited to read this book because of the cover and the description. But honestly this book was just a big disappointment for me. Maybe it just wasn’t for me. So I would still recommend it.

I really enjoyed this novel and thought the author really captured the anxiety of being young and uncertain about yourself. Certainly check content warnings on this one. A great debut.

I think maybe this book just wasn't for me. I was a little concerned with all of the Catcher in the Rye comparisons I'd read in reviews, and I do see a bit of Holden in there. This just wasn't my kind of coming of age story. It has a lot of interesting aspects and I liked all of the detail, but I had a hard time getting into it and sticking with it.

This one is so long and I feel like I spent so much time in this world (more than 500 pages) and do I regret it? I don't think so. Did I enjoy it? Not especially. Let's say: it's complicated. I don't usually read books by men (I know and love a few trusted ones now, though!) and unfortunately this book confirms my aversion. It's SO written by a man, from the one-dimensional female characters to the cringey, unending descriptions of teenagers having sex.

But, let's put that aside for now. The reason I couldn't say no to this tome was because it's set at a private boarding school and that's just putty in my hands. Some compare it to The Secret History and it is not that at all. It's a millennial-fueled nostalgic nightmare, about a boy who gets wrapped up in a multi-state drug dealing scheme that can almost be read as a celebration of abusing ADHD drugs. It probably feels this way because it is insanely overwritten. This could easily be a clean, mean, 250 page book that would pack the same punch. Instead it's long-winded and often confusingly laid out. It's by a fake journalist, making up situations he has only learned about through interviews and blog posts, and we jump between points of view at rapid speed.

I did want to finish the book to see what would happen, but the more I sit with it, the more disappointed I am in how much time I spent with it.

To me, the best written novels manage to achieve a tone that is academic without being emotionally detached, and this book is one of the best recent examples I’ve encountered that strikes that balance.

There is a truly depressing element to this book that (along with a disturbing and unnecessarily graphic rape scene) kept me from giving this book five stars. But it’s five-star prose for sure, and the style of it is both difficult to do and beautifully wrought.

It’s a long read but one that doesn’t feel bloated or indulgent on the part of the author, and instead allows the reader to feel they are slowly but wholly becoming part of Foster’s world.

It’s a heartbreaking story, and Foster is both realistically flawed and deeply sympathetic. And the book’s many villains (Jack is king of the hill, of course, though I could argue that Annabeth is actually worse) are as well-crafted as Foster. I loved the character development in this book, except for the fact that the only two truly decent people with prominent roles in it (Porter and Jae) were essentially just there to be the victims of the cruel machinations of the rest of the cast. And perhaps that was part of the point Jenkins was trying to make about how cruel life can be at this age.

It’s not a happy story by any stretch, but it’s a riveting one, and Jenkins’ writing is just…chef’s kiss.

I had been so looking forward to the release of Nash Jenkins' debut. The intersection of adolescent angst with boarding school hijinks anticipated the literary fireworks I so desperately craved. While NOTHING can compare to Donna Tartt's "The Secret History," I was excited that "Foster Dade Explores The Cosmos" had been likened to it.

However...

This book was, fundamentally, too long. About 370 pages too long in fact. I'm amazed such long-winded prose made it past a professional editor, where a tight word-count is everything. Setting aside the pages-long digressions when introducing the Kennedy School (multiple paragraphs are used to describe a single academic building), as well as every single character (some of whom are only mentioned once, yet we know their father runs a hedge fund, their older sister attends Yale, and the family summer compound is on Polpis Road on Nantucket), the book found itself trapped in literary dead ends where the story ground to a screeching halt. Speaking of the plot, where was it? Jenkins took too long to introduce and develop it; he seemed more interested in describing his characters--right down to their outfits, EVERY SINGLE TIME they entered a scene--than in giving his characters something to do. (As an aside, his main cast was flat, uninteresting, and cliched. We have met them before under different names in different books).

The structure of the book was completely lacking, jumping between points-of-view and from past to present. Jenkins' nameless narrator was meant to be a younger student, yet is creepily "all-knowing." Even when we believe the book does indeed switch to Foster's perspective, the narrator will jump in to remind you that Foster does not have one. The abrupt "reminder" took you out of the story time and time again.

The early aughts blog entries and iTunes playlists included in the book (to appear dynamic, it would seem) were completely useless and served as gratuitous additions to build a world that had been overwritten.

It was impossible to become invested in this book knowing that it was saying nothing and going nowhere.

I wanted to love this. A book dubbed “The Secret History meets Prep”? Sign me up, I thought! But after beginning I quickly realized I wanted to unsubscribe from this nearly 600 page slog. This shouldn’t be compared to The Secret History, beyond the fact that it takes place at a school.

I’m normally fine with a book that’s heavy on characters, if they’re well developed, and light on plot, but this was tough. Not a lot happens from start to finish, except some extremely uncomfortable sex (I’m no prude, but yikes) and lots of drugs. Lots of drugs. We get it.. Foster takes Vyvanse for his ADD. It’s mentioned so awkwardly and often by name in a way I cannot truly imagine a teenager knowing or caring about, that this book reads like one big advertisement for the medication for a large swath of the story.

My biggest complaint is how verbose this book is. I was glad I read it on a Kindle so I could look up a word every third page. It snapped me out of the story to read some of the over the top sentences that didn’t feel particularly great, more so like they were written with a thesaurus open. That said, I think this book lacked some serious editing, and maybe that’ll happen before the ARC goes to final print.

Thank You to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this. The writing was strong. The story however really was not. I felt like there wasn't a story. I kept waiting for a big thing to happen. It never did. Three stars.

Not for me, unfortunately. The plot and timeline is hard to follow and confusing and the story gets lost in the prose.

Almost a decade after the events transpired, an unnamed narrator decides to put together a record of the events leading up to the string of expulsions that rocked the Kennedy School in the spring of 2010, all centering around Foster Dade. The story that unfolds is one of power and privilege in prep schools, but also a classic coming-of-age story of the highs and lows of being sixteen.

I do want to start off by saying this is definitely not going to be for everyone - and that's all right. In fact, there's a self-aware dig at one point where one of the characters tells the narrator that "no one else wants to read six hundred pages about rich white kids behaving badly". This is a slow-paced, character-driven story that at times seems to meander and veer off, but at the same time, it so perfectly captures the feeling of being in high school or away from home for the first time - the way that time passes both slowly and quickly, how certain things feel all-important in the moment but then fade to the background later.

The narration is self-aware around the absurdity of the upper class. I did enjoy the non-linear style, interspersed with interviews, blog posts, and playlists. The playlists were actually a highlight for me - I felt as though they really added to the setting. There was such a sense of nostalgia that accompanied reading this book for me - I could so easily picture and hear everything that was going on. I most definitely didn't attend a boarding school, but I did grow up in New England, and I'm perfectly aware of the culture Jenkins is referencing, and I think it's spot on.

The prose did sometimes land on the side of purplish and dense. I do think that it suits the tone of the narrator - who is a fellow Kennedy alum who clearly idolizes Foster et al - but it could feel overbearing at times. But at other times, the language was absolutely gorgeous and evocative. (And then at other times, you wish you never had to read the word "penis" again.)

The mystery of what exactly happened kept me turning the pages - I really wanted to find out. I loved the messy intricacies of the friend group. And Foster, for all his poor decisions, was ultimately a likeable and understandable character - just a sixteen year old boy, lonely and earnest.

Reading this sort of felt like a cross between Prep, The Secret History, and The Virgin Suicides. Slow, thought-provoking, and mesmerizing, I enjoyed escaping into this world.

Not every book is for everyone and this book just wasn’t for me. The plot is certainly up my alley - a boarding school scandal that combines coming-of-age ennui with millennial teen nostalgia - but the style is decidedly not.

The prose is incredibly dense and the conceit too clever - a former student (with no ties to the people this story is about) has researched and written this book and also made a good deal up because the level of detail doesn’t hold up the proposed premise. The description level is mind-boggling, often going back multiple generations before we get to any relevant information. In short, the writing is too pretentious to allow me anything approaching a connection to the story.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. While this book seemed like a good idea in theory (I generally love books set at boarding schools), in practice it was far too long. I read a lot and found myself not wanting to pick this back up every time I got through a small segment. And then I realized I was making no progress in the book and just could not bring myself to care about another drug addled rich white teenage boy. Thank you for the opportunity and your consideration.

4.5. Enthralling and gorgeous and nostalgic and warm! I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come. And the reading process itself was a long one - I didn't expect to sit with it and consume it in small snippets, but I think it worked for such an immense story.

Foster Dade is a fascinating and complicated character, and the evolution of his relationships with Annabeth Whittaker and Jack Albright is exactly the kind of fraught and complicated dynamic I craved from a 2008 time capsule of a story. This deep dive into the mind of teenage boy desperate for friendship and understanding aches to read, especially when set against the complicated social hierarchy of a predominantly rich and white boarding school where Facebook is a weapon and drug abuse is expected. Foster is a heartbreaking character to live inside of, and his story left me with a bittersweet appreciation for the time we spent together.

I found the prose itself to be a bit long-winded. While there was never a point where this deterred me from reading, there were moments where I felt myself starting to skim because the information didn't connect with me or felt less pertinent than the interiority of Foster's life. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed the flow of this novel, and look forward to it sticking with me.

Thank you to Abrams for this early Netgalley copy of Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins.

It pains me greatly not to finish a book once I’ve started it, but I don’t think that this is the right time in my life for me to read this book right now.

I think that the concept that Nate Jenkins has cooked up is fantastic and that the writing is more than adequate—it’s incredibly descriptive and it’s very good, even if at times the vocabulary in Foster’s personal diary or blog entries seems comically advanced for a fourteen year old.

This is certainly a book that I would pick up at a later date to possibly give another shot. For some reason though, right now I cannot get into it. It seems to be a heavy read, and while I typically enjoy dark academia and stories just like this one, there is something here that has turned me off since the beginning.

I’m awarding this book three stars for what I’ve read so far. It doesn’t seem fair to give less, especially when my DNF is not the author’s fault.

☆ ☆ ☆ - DNF

I'm rounding up a star because I think this is a genuinely compelling read but it is like 100 pages too long, and once I hit a brick wall with it I felt like I was NEVER going to finish.

Unfortunately this book was just not for me. I found it hard to follow and the vocabulary used was above my preferred way to read. I had a hard time finishing the book.

I finished this book almost a week ago, and even though I've been ruminating on it since, I'm still not sure quite what I think!

The good:
- The overarching concept. The premise was intriguing, and it was accurate (not always the case!). This is 100% Prep meets A Secret History.
- The relationships and the ways in which power, privilege, and gender roles (particularly masculinity) intersect. Jenkins is superb at articulating the complicated, nuanced, and constantly shifting power dynamics that characterize adolescence. It brought me right back to high school in the most vivid, squirmiest of ways.

The not-so-good:
- I'm not convinced that the post-hoc narrative structure - a nameless student inherits Foster's dorm room and embarks on a years-long investigation into what really happened while he was at Kennedy - was necessary. Despite the fact that we're supposedly hearing from this student, we're constantly getting a direct window into Foster's own thoughts; we're in his head exponentially more often than the narrator's. It's not clear whether this is supposed to be accurate or whether it's the narrator's best guess, but for the most part it's presented as the former. (Adding to the confusion, there are times when the narrator is explicit that he's imagining Foster's experience, but most of the time Foster's POV is presented as fact.) While I did like that this structure enabled the narrator to interview Annabeth and other major characters years after high school, on balance, I think it was more convoluted than beneficial.

The could-go-either-way:
- This book is LONG. I found it longer than necessary, but I generally feel this way about academia novels!

Thanks to NetGalley and ABRAMS for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the easiest 5 stars I have given all year. At first I was wary; I'd never heard of the author, it's a lengthy book, the prose of the prologue was a little intimidating. But I was intrigued by the synopsis, so I persevered and oh, the payoff came swiftly!

Foster Dade is equal parts biography and coming-of-age saga of the titular character. Chronicling Dade's time at boarding school and unraveling the mystery of how his legacy came to be, and subsequently shattered across the cosmos. The dark-academia overtone is the pièce de résistance that brings an enigmatic plot line, excellent pacing, and authentic characters neatly together. This novel will be a hit for the genre, I promise!

Nash Jenkins' intelligent, propulsive form of prose and brilliant knack for perspective make Foster Dade certifiably unputdownable. I was staying up late and waking up early for this novel, and when I wasn't actively reading I was wishing that I was.

With heartbreaking honesty and introspection we come to know and to sympathize, to empathize, with Dade, gritting our teeth against the long-awaited climax, which culminates in a viscerally satisfying crescendo. That conclusion, that ending (you’ll know what I mean when you get to it) hit me hard. Over a few paragraphs I felt a crater sinking into my chest.

It's been hours since I finished the book and I still feel numb, dazzled. "Unforgettable" fails to describe the magnitude of this novel. Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is unparalleled.

Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins was beyond anything I was expecting.

I truly enjoyed reading Dade's story and following along his journey at Kennedy, an elite boarding school in New Jersey.
We watch Foster go throughout his awkward adolescence stage.
Watch his parents fall apart over a scandalous divorce and him dealing with his own anxiety disorders.
He meets Annabeth and Jack, who takes Foster in and help him navigate the cliques and politics of the carelessly entitled.
Soon after Foster finds himself in the midst of his own scandal and is expelled.

Then, someone comes along and takes over Foster’s old dorm room.
He begins searching and starting his own investigation into what exactly happened.
Going through Foster’s blog posts, playlists, text archives, and interviews with former classmates..
We start seeing the narrator become obsessed and that's when the story unfolds.

Nash Jenkins presents an authentic portrait of boarding school life.
The unique characters in the story have lives that you can relate to and learn from
Great storytelling, tremendous character development, extremely well written I devoured this new adult fiction novel and loved every minute of it.
I loved how realistic this book was.
He truly captures the emotional intensities of adolescence in the dizzying early years of the twenty-first century.

Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos is definitely going on my favorite shelf.

A brilliant debut novel about a tragic scandal at an American prep school, told in the form of a literary investigation through a distinctly millennial lens

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Abrams & The Overlook Press,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my blog, platforms, BookBub, B&N, Kobo and Waterstone closer to pub date.