There was nothing too scandalous at my high school (at least I don’t THINK there was, but I was a fairly good kid), but in The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand, the veil is pulled back, and we see it ALL—good, pretty bad, and extremely ugly.
Tiffin Academy is an elite boarding school for the hoi polloi, but at the start of a new year it’s rated #2–a 17-spot jump from the previous year, so what happened? The campus is beautiful, the private chef is Michelin star-worthy, the dorms are spacious, and one of the students is an international TikTok sensation. The rating committee must not have noticed the speakeasy being built in the basement of one dorm, the student with disordered eating, another student who never attends class and is in a clandestine relationship with a new young teacher, the teachers and administrators who have to drive two towns over to cut loose, someone who plagiarized much of her senior coursework, or the reason that talented chef can’t get a job anywhere else…But who DOES notice is the developer of an anonymous secret-sharing app, and when all the private business of Tiffin elite ends up as gossip fodder, it’s only a matter of time before everything—even a #2 ranking unravels.
We follow the Tiffin students and faculty over the course of an academic year, from move-in day when the headmistress receives word of their new ranking to graduation when next year’s seniors are getting ready to take their places as the chieftains of the class. Between those bookends, though, is when all the aforementioned drama and more takes center stage. For as over-the-top as the hijinks are, it doesn’t feel too implausible. These are kids who have the world at their fingertips and a limitless credit card to bankroll their whims. And these are adults who realize the good thing they have in their jobs, so doing anything they can to protect that is paramount. You don’t have to go to a swanky private school to think of examples of that.
The Academy is most definitely a juicy story. The characters felt unique and fully-formed, and the twisted webs of plot were just salacious enough to keep you turning pages. And a sequel is already in the works, so if you like it like I do, you’ll have another installment to sink your teeth into. Elin Hilderbrand knows how to craft a good story, so if you’ve ever rubber-necked at a car crash or scrolled through tabloid sites for intel, The Academy will strike just the right chord with you.
