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A review by fiendfull
Tradition by Brendan Kiely
3.0
Tradition is a powerful young adult novel about privilege, rape culture, and how institutions can protect perpetrators rather than victims. Fullbrook Academy is an elite American boarding school full of traditions, including secret parties in the woods and archaic traditions about how male students treat female ones. Jules is in her senior year at Fullbrook and wants to get out and go to a good college. Her friend Javi wants the school to move past its attempts to brand itself as 'gay friendly' and for students to actually accept if he kissed a boy in public. New scholarship student Jamie is there to play hockey and have a second chance at his senior year. When these students decide to take a stand against the toxic traditions at Fullbrook, they find out what they are really up against.
This is a young adult book that touches on a lot of issues as well as having a main focus on sexual assault and consent. It depicts these as part of the difficulties and frustrations of being a teenager, particularly through Jules who often feels trapped by things she cannot change or improve. This element helps to remove some of the sense that a lot of big issues have been thrown at the narrative to go alongside the focus on rape culture. The class issues that run through the narrative and the subplot looking at the school's treatment of sexuality are probably the best handled of these other issues as they are given time to be explored. The protagonists are interesting and flawed, with a classic YA character who has a past secret they have run away from.
Tradition looks at difficult subject material in a way that exposes how power, wealth, and tradition have a big role in sexual assault. It is another important young adult book—it feels like a much later successor in the genre that Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is part of—that tries to raise awareness of a lot of issues. It didn't quite come together as a book for me, but it is still an engaging read.
This is a young adult book that touches on a lot of issues as well as having a main focus on sexual assault and consent. It depicts these as part of the difficulties and frustrations of being a teenager, particularly through Jules who often feels trapped by things she cannot change or improve. This element helps to remove some of the sense that a lot of big issues have been thrown at the narrative to go alongside the focus on rape culture. The class issues that run through the narrative and the subplot looking at the school's treatment of sexuality are probably the best handled of these other issues as they are given time to be explored. The protagonists are interesting and flawed, with a classic YA character who has a past secret they have run away from.
Tradition looks at difficult subject material in a way that exposes how power, wealth, and tradition have a big role in sexual assault. It is another important young adult book—it feels like a much later successor in the genre that Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak is part of—that tries to raise awareness of a lot of issues. It didn't quite come together as a book for me, but it is still an engaging read.