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Enter Title Here
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
I'm your protagonist-Reshma Kapoor-and if you have the free time to read this book, then you're probably nothing like me. Reshma is a college counselor's dream. She's the top-ranked senior at her ultra-competitive Silicon Valley high school, with a spotless academic record and a long roster of extracurriculars. But there are plenty of perfect students in the country, and if Reshma wants to get into Stanford, and into med school after that, she needs the hook to beat them all. What's a habitual over-achiever to do? Land herself a literary agent, of course. Which is exactly what Reshma does after agent Linda Montrose spots an article she wrote for Huffington Post. Linda wants to represent Reshma, and, with her new agent's help scoring a book deal, Reshma knows she'll finally have the key to Stanford. But she's convinced no one would want to read a novel about a study machine like her. To make herself a more relatable protagonist, she must start doing all the regular American girl stuff she normally ignores. For starters, she has to make a friend, then get a boyfriend. And she's already planned the perfect ending: after struggling for three hundred pages with her own perfectionism, Reshma will learn that meaningful relationships can be more important than success-a character arc librarians and critics alike will enjoy. Of course, even with a mastermind like Reshma in charge, things can't always go as planned. And when the valedictorian spot begins to slip from her grasp, she'll have to decide just how far she'll go for that satisfying ending. (Note: It's pretty far.) In this wholly unique, wickedly funny debut novel, Rahul Kanakia consciously uses the rules of storytelling-and then breaks them to pieces.
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Purrfectpages
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Bookzombie 😂 6y
dgingo 😂😂 6y
TK-421 😂 6y
See All 6 Comments
CoffeeNBooks 🤣 6y
Rachbb3 Lol, I love Brian Regan. 6y
LazyDays 😃 6y
62 likes1 stack add6 comments
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theshrinkette
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Pickpick

I didn't think I could handle unlikeable characters, but I couldn't stop reading this book. MC is a high-schooler who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Told in first person. Super entertaining. TW: Drug abuse, accidental overdose

36 likes1 stack add
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BookFreakOut
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Mehso-so

This IS antihero Reshma (I prefer villain), except she's also Indian which allows her to slap her school w/ discrimination lawsuits over fractions of decimals on her 4.5+ GPA. Twice. She's self-admittedly intense even by her cultural standards & believes the ends justify the means. The meta book w/in a book scheme was interesting; she's writing a book (this book) as a hook for her Stanford application. A better rec: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

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SuperPunkNinja
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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I don't know of any books set in San Jose but this one is set in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, everyone in my book club hated it. 🙁 #setinyrcity #readjanuary

Daisydo I really felt nothing but badness about this book. I remember one person liked it. I think I didn't like it because I don't like people like the protagonist in general. I couldn't relate. I couldn't step into her shoes... nor would I ever want to. But I think it does say something about it that most of us had such strong feelings about it. And, we all finished it. That says something too. 8y
47 likes1 stack add1 comment
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yayeahyeah
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Pickpick

I was sold on this by Gossip Girl meets House of Cards comparisons and wow, does it deliver! Antihero Reshma is an utterly amazing character with an incredibly strong voice and, while she's often awful, you can see exactly WHY she does things. It's a sharp and witty read, and behind the humour there's real depth as it looks at tough topics including institutional racism and the abuse of study drugs.

9 likes2 stack adds
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ChaseNight
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Pickpick

This was a few months ago and not the most flattering contribution to my portflio, but dawn was approaching after a night spent power-reading to the end. This book is NUTS. #bookhats

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BookFreakOut
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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I'm sorry, but these two statements cannot coexist. You don't become the valedictorian of a competitive Silicon Valley high school, get all As in 8 AP classes per semester and then score 1710/2400 three times on the SAT. I know kids like this - I borderline was one of them. You don't learn how to succeed in a test-based AP class and then flop on the SAT. And believe me, to kids like this, a 1700 would be an abysmal flop.

jesslovestype So frustrating when authors miss details like that! Totally something that would bother me for daaays. 8y
BookFreakOut @jesslovestype Yeah, it basically throws a wrench in the entire premise: she'll do anything to get into Stanford EXCEPT raise her test scores 8y
16 likes2 comments
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kathyellendavis
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
Mehso-so

The main character was hard to relate to or root for, but I liked the premise and I think it serves as a cautionary tale to not be so invested in only school/work.

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skrishna
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Pickpick

This YA novel, about an Indian teenager who is desperate to get into Stanford and has no qualms about destroying everyone in her path to do it, has a deliciously and hilariously unlikeable main character. I loved it, it was such a creative read.

BookNAround I have this on my kitchen counter right now. Glad it's so good! 8y
88 likes25 stack adds1 comment
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bananasbooks
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Day 3 of #booktober! Today is #textonlycovers, and I feel that this is a perfect fit! When I first got this book, I legit thought it didn't have a title yet.... so there's my little story for today.

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eek337
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
Pickpick

This is a hard one to review. I wanted to like Reshma but I mostly found her to be an asshole, but at the same time I couldn't wait to find out what happened. Good in the fact that it kept me interested, bad in that I didn't really believe her growth.

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tilChapterThree
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Mehso-so

This about sums it up! 🤔 #entertitlehere #interesting #metaread

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geardrops
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book about a girl who is deeply unlikeable (although tbh I like her a lot) trying to write a novel as her "hook" to get into Stanford. No spoilers but I enjoyed how it played out and the way it ended.

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Jenryland
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Mehso-so

Enter Plot Here? This book wasn't funny enough to be a black comedy like Perrotta's Election, wasn't serious enough to be an issue book, and didn't commit fully to being meta (as a book written by a character who is writing a book.) Would try this author's future books but this one was a miss for me

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Callemarie
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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Thanks @owlcrate for the book and awesome stickers!!!!!

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ApoptyGina69
Enter Title Here | Rahul Kanakia
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A quick trip to B & N today which was fully decorated, even in the bathrooms! It was a YA Mecca in there with stacks of Rainbow Rowell, Jandy Nelson, Miss Peregrine, Vizzini, all my faves. And loads of tweens and teens picking things out. Hooray!

7 likes1 stack add