Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. The Sandersons Fail Manhattan is a darkly humorous look at the effects of inclusiveness on the upper crust in NYC and its elite private schools. George Sanderson was born of money - family money - and he marries Ellie, a woman who grew up with military parents and moved around regularly and never established roots. Their two daughters attend Lenox School for girls, an exclusive private school with a fee of $65000 a year tuition. Things start to erode when the school's board decides that their admissions to the Ivy League schools are suffering due to lack of inclusion - transgendered, homosexuals and other colors of the rainbow. The concept of political correctness is at its peak in pitch-black biting prose as things fall apart for the Sandersons and their tight-knit community of money and privilege. This story had me laughing and rolling my eyes at the same time. A good read for anyone who likes satire and viewing the world of the super elite - a world in which some of us will never know.

The Sandersons Fail Manhattan is a hysterically funny, delicious satire that manages to offend almost every group of people possible and skewers countless new trends. It has been correctly compared to Bonfire of the Vanities but there’s a new generation here with hangups of their own.

Will and Ellie Sanderson are a couple on the edge of social success in Manhattan. Will is a money manager at Bedrock Capital and donor to worthy causes. His wife Ellie has raised two teenage daughters who attend the Lenox Hill School for Girls, a stop on the way to an Ivy League education. She volunteers at school events and is on the wait list for the Mayflower Club, one of the last exclusive clubs with only women members. Life has progressed as generations of Sandersons have expected. However, there’s a whole new code of social behavior and Will is about run straight into it.

There is so much more here but I don’t want to spoil it for readers. However, when a “cultural strategist” asks Bob Ellison how he identifies, he answers “As Bob.” This does not go well. Clover, a new student formerly known as Amy, identifies as a member of the subculture goblin core and is an eco-sexual. There you go. Tongue-in-cheek funny, revealing disturbing cultural problems, The Sandersons Fail Manhattan will stay with you long after you read the final pages. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Scott Johnstone for this ARC.

This was very funny. We have rich people and their problems and lots of satire. The writing blew me away. The characters were and setting were on point. This is a book to read NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC of 'The Sandersons Fail Manhattan.'

A satirical comedy of manners focused on the uber-wealthy of Manhattan, their private schools, persistence in maintaining the status quo through Ivy League college legacies, and all through the lens of post-George Floyd murder DEI.

I see this one likened to Tom Wolfe's 'Bonfire of the Vanities' and, honestly, given everything that's happened in the past month or so., it feels like this is historical fiction in the same way as 'Bonfire of the Vanities' now is. The speed of events, for me, means that this novel has missed its window.

It goes on too long, in my opinion - there a several layers too many of increasingly silly attitudes and plays involved and you feel like saying out load, 'OK, enough, I get it, I get it!'

Those gripes aside it's clever and consistently funny and takes swipes at both sides of the 'woke'/political correctness divide and it feels like the author reveals some quite strong bias towards the more Trumpian side of the debate.

The Sandersons Fail Manhattan captures the sharp wit, biting satire, and social commentary that I love!. Rather than demonizing movements or communities, author Scott Johnston skewers those who exploit social justice narratives for their own gain, making this novel more than just a send-up of modern culture—it’s an examination of the power dynamics at play in today’s social landscape.

What Johnston does exceptionally well is crafting multi-dimensional characters who feel both real and exaggerated, drawing readers into the absurdities of ultra-wealthy Manhattan life while exposing the pitfalls of reactionary culture. Through multiple narrators, we experience a hilarious yet unsettling deep dive into high society’s fragile alliances, the hypocrisies of performative activism, and the chaotic intersection of wealth, power, and modern social movements.

At the heart of the novel is William Sanderson, an investment banker on the verge of a career breakthrough, his wife Ellie, desperate to secure her place in New York’s elite, and their two daughters—Ginny and Zoey, navigating a world that’s shifting faster than they can understand. When the prestigious Birchwood Academy admits its first trans student, only for her to suddenly vanish, the ensuing social and media frenzy threatens to upend the Sandersons’ carefully curated existence, forcing them to confront what they truly stand for—or risk losing everything.

This novel is laugh-out-loud funny, painfully relevant, and thought-provoking in all the right ways. With its razor-sharp satire reminiscent of Bonfire of the Vanities, The Sandersons Fail Manhattan is one of the best social novels I have read! If you want a with a fresh perspective on cancel culture, identity politics, and the way power shifts in modern America—all while making you laugh (and cringe) along the way this is The Book for you!#stmartinspress #thesandersonsfailmanhatten #scottjohnston

3.5 stars

The Sandersons of New York City are very wealthy. Will Sanderson is rising to the top of Bedrock Capital, he just needs to take one more step before he makes the executive committee. Wife Ellie isn’t from NYC and takes it all in stride, other than trying to fit in and raise their two girls. Ginny is a senior at the posh Lenox School for Girls, a lauded private school where William is on the board; it is vitally important to William that Ginny go to Yale since “that’s where Sandersons go.” Shy Zoey is Ginny’s younger sister and is also at Lenox, she befriends one of the school’s new students, brought in the enhance gender diversity.

Can the Sandersons navigate this year, where everything they have known turns on its head?

This was a bit BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES-lite. It’s a pity that this didn’t come out before Trump took office because it made more sense in a world where the orange menace wasn’t attacking trans rights every fifteen minutes. Now it already feels a little dated (and that’s depressing.)

Ellie is a little too perfect and Easter is maybe a bit of a cliche, as are her parents, but I enjoyed this well enough.

OMG, I really related to this great satire of the bizarre competition that Manhattan kids and families deal with in trying to get into the “right” schools. I am on my second round as I await my grandson’s college acceptance.

The Sanderson’s became part of the elite independent (private) school strata when Ellie and William move to Manhattan. The book focuses on the time when college madness entered their lives as their older daughter awaited her MUST DO admission into Yale. As they were tensely trying to ensure her admission, the ULTRA-WOKE furies of the Upper Eastside, Elites swirled around them.

Obviously, as with any fine author, Johnston takes the seeds of reality and expands them into a darkly funny, realistic view of Manhattan 1% ers slogging through the horrors of college competition. Theirs made worse by a highly manipulative head of school and very dishonest people trying to take advantage of the insanity.

I did enjoy the book. Sitting here now with fingers crossed waiting for EARLY DECISION results, this really resonated.

Thank you Netgalley for this incredibly, frighteningly realistic novel.