Personal Statement by Jason Odell Williams- REVIEW

Author: Jason Odell Williams

Publisher: In This Together Media

Publication Date: August 1st 2013

Blurb Description: Getting into college has never been harder. Can't rely on a perfect SAT score or a 5 on your AP Mandarin exam anymore. And field hockey and basketball? Please. The real sport is Volunteering. Change the world—and tell Harvard all about it.

In Emmy Award nominee Jason Odell Williams’ hilarious first novel, PERSONAL STATEMENT, it’s open season on admissions—and a Category-3 hurricane is headed for Connecticut. Self-proclaimed tiger-daughter Emily Kim drags her best friend, apathetic test-taking genius Rani Caldwell, to the coastal town of Cawdor, where Emily’s sure her humanitarian efforts will make her Harvard application stand out from the pack. 

Problem is: so does everyone else.

When Emily and Rani arrive, hundreds of other teenagers—including Robert Clinton III, gay, black and meant for the Sorbonne—are already in Cawdor with the same idea. Observing the battle royale is Alexis J. Gould, aide to the Governor and a veteran of the college admissions rat race. To the kids in Cawdor, it’s not a natural disaster. It’s an opportunity. Let the games begin! 

**MY REVIEW**

Personal Statement is the most realistic, funny, and brilliant book I’ve read. Ever.

Have you ever worked all your life to reach somewhere? Be someone? That everything before that one thing is just a prelude? Well, this is them.

Emily Kim, Robert Clinton the Third, Rani Cadwell and the thousands of other kids (fictional or otherwise) gearing up for the prize. Harvard. Stanford. The Ivy League.

The thing is, to get there? It’s a bloodbath. Everybody wants to be the best. Why wouldn’t they? And getting a piece of paper from one of these universities, one of the best, it can and has changed lives. The perfect tale on pressure to be the best is here!

Odell Williams manages to capture perfectly, everything it means to be a person in today’s generation. The fine line between path to greatness and being over-bearing- and shows us subtly the answers to the questions churning in our minds.

I really have nothing to say, other that the fact that this book was PHENOMENAL! I couldn’t give it a higher recommendation- to pretty much anyone!

My Verdict:

I solemnly swear that this book will blow your mind!!