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Cameron: The Sorority Review

Title: Cameron: The Sorority
Author: Wendi Corsi Staub
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Trigger Warnings: racism, racist language, alcohol, underage drinking
My Rating: 3 Stars

Synopsis

A new student at South Florida State, Cameron had never expected her lifelong goal of pledging a sorority to be so stressful and confusing, but when she meets gorgeous Tad Amata, who adores her but dislikes Greek life, she becomes even more troubled.

Review

Wendy Corsi Staub's Cameron: The Sorority was honestly not what I was expecting. Instead of a book just about teenage girls trying to fit into the college scene, many deeper subjects are discussed, particularly race. Cameron is a biracial girl that is white passing and has to be able to figure out what exactly she wants and who it is that she wants to be. I love coming of age stories, and this was a solid example of one. The main character is relatable and all the characters act like college students out on their own for the first time. All of the girls are rushing for their choice in sorority and vary in their depictions. Not all the girls are the same and represent a range of the people that actually want to be involved in sororities.
Most of the focus in this book is on race, and while I can not say for sure on the representation, it seemed to be very well done, as Cameron struggles with who she should be, especially as she deals with people who make racist comments to her without knowing her background. I recently moved to the South, and the idea that everyone is so double sided is an accurate depiction. College is a time of finding who you want to be and Cameron begins to figure this out throughout the course of the novel.
I did struggle with some of the decisions that Cameron makes, particularly towards the end of the novel that makes it difficult to keep reading. Cameron makes most of his decisions only because she is considering impressing Tad, the guy she likes. Her decisions concerning race are real and these struggles were interesting to read about, but she often acts like a jerk who is "not like other girls", including insulting the popular girls while not being nice to the unpopular girls either. She is not a very likeable main character, so while I acknowledge the issues she has to face are very real, the characters seemed flat and lacking.
I would recommend reading this for other teenagers that are in their first few years of college. I read it my freshman year of college, and while I did struggle with some of the characters, the plot was relatable and some of the decisions made are unique to this age. Overall, it was an easy and relatable read that was enjoyable enough.

I don't read a whole lot of New Adult, probably because technically I just became one. Does anyone have any good New Adult recommendations?

I plan on posting at least one book review every week, along with at least one other post for 2019. I thought this book would be a good review to start with, since my 2018 wrap up will be posted Friday and this was one of my 2018 reads. I'm moving in to 2019 though!

Thanks for reading!
Alyssa
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