Book Review: The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham

While author Elin Hilderbrand has officially retired from publishing a “Nantucket” summer novel each year, she recently embarked upon an adventure to write a boarding school book with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham.

Cunningham and one of her older brothers opted to attend boarding school rather than graduate from Nantucket High School, and Hilderbrand has made it no secret that she’s always been fascinated by the the settings of these exclusive schools. So while she didn’t attend one herself, she collaborated with Cunningham to create a fictional school set in Massachusetts called Tiffin Academy in their latest novel. Her daughter graduated from St. George’s School in Rhode Island.

“The Academy” follows a colorful cast of characters throughout a year at Tiffin Academy, where the entire campus is surprised on move-in day when the school unexpectedly receives the number two ranking on an annual list of boarding school rankings (their previous ranking was nineteen).

Hilderbrand has made sure to explicity let readers know that even though it’s set at a high school boarding school, “The Academy” is not a young adult novel. She told People Magazine:

“If anything, it is more ‘adult’  than my summer novels,” she said. “We leaned in to all the sex, drugs and profanity. That said, my longtime readers will find it reads like a typical ‘Elin’ novel with multiple points of view, lots of delicious food descriptions and tons of interpersonal drama.”

Synopsis:

It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news arrives: America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding school in the country. It’s a seventeen-spot jump – was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let’s just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York chef. And they do have fun—lots of parties and school dances, and a piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night.

But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn – and then they fall off the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones across Tiffin’s campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody is safe. From Davi Banerjee, international influencer and resident queen bee, to Simone Bergeron, the new and surprisingly young history teacher, to Charley Hicks, a transfer student who seems determined not to fit in, to Cordelia Spooner, Admissions Director with a somewhat idiosyncratic methodology – everyone has something to hide.

As if high school wasn’t dramatic enough…As the year unfolds, bonds are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of Tiffin’s students and staff are changed forever. The Academy is Elin Hilderbrand’s fresh, buzzy take on boarding school life, and a thrilling new direction from one of America’s most satisfying and popular storytellers.

Review:

I’ve read all of Hilderbrand’s novels, and while this one has a completely different setting, I found it fast-paced and as she warned, a little on the spicy side (one character is dealing from the emotional fallout of her parents being involved in a polyamorous relationship and there’s a sexual act between a student and a female teacher). I found myself immersed in the setting, and trying to solve the mystery of who was behind the “ZipZap” leaks. There’s a nice balance of storylines featuring both the faculty, parents, and the students, and the characters like Andrew “East” Eastman, Charlie Hicks, Davi Banerjee, Cordelia Spooner, Simone Bergeron, Audre Robinson are memorable, realistic, and battling their own personal demons. Hilderbrand and Cunningham created an insulated fictional world but brought in real-life scenarios found in such exclusive settings, such as how having wealth and privilege does not protect a person against heartbreak and pain. As a bonus, there’s even the construction of a bonus speakeasy in the basement of one of the buildings!

Readers need to know going into “The Academy” that it is the first in a series, so not all questions will be answered by the end of the book.

To learn more about the collaboration between mother and daughter, check out this interview on Elin Hilderbrand and Tim Ehrenberg’s podcast, Books Beach & Beyond.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown for providing me with an advance copy of the book.