review - frat girl by kiley roache // college life & feminism

Frat Girl

by Kiley Roache​​

Sometimes the F-word can have more than one meaning…

For Cassandra Davis, the F-word is fraternity—specifically Delta Tau Chi, a house on probation and on the verge of being banned from campus. Accused of offensive, sexist behavior, they have one year to clean up their act.

For the DTC brothers, the F-word is feminist—the type of person who writes articles in the school paper about why they should lose their home.With one shot at a scholarship to attend the university of her dreams, Cassie pitches a research project: to pledge Delta Tau Chi and provide proof of their misogynistic behavior. They’re frat boys. She knows exactly what to expect once she gets there. Exposing them should be a piece of cake.

But the boys of Delta Tau Chi have their own agenda, and fellow pledge Jordan Louis is certainly more than the tank top wearing “bro” Cassie expected to find. With her heart and her future tangled in the web of her own making, Cassie is forced to realize that the F-word might not be as simple as she thought after all.​

---

THIS BOOK.

a little note about the author: i don't usually talk about authors in my reviews, but kiley roache is so awesome that i think she deserves a small shoutout. it was at the end (the acknowledgements section) when i found out that she finished drafting the book at the time she GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL, which is totally badass. can't wait for her 2019 novel! i binged this book in one day - it was so hard to put down! being very much non-american, i knew nothing about greek life, and at first i had absolutely no idea what was going on. i tried asking my dad, who spent a semester abroad at UCLA, about how fraternities and sororities worked, but he was clueless as well (ok i was kind of surprised he didn't know much about that because after all, he went to UCLA and watches a crap ton of american dramas). after some research (thank you google) i started getting the hang of things, and started to really get into the story. being a feminist myself, i found cassie's idea of feminism problematic - she calls herself a feminist, yet at the same time she keeps referring to sorority girls as "fake tanned barbies" and hates on them every time she sees them and just ??? i really liked the scene where she gets told off by leighton and the other sorority girls in the washroom, she totally deserves that and the problems in her thinking are somehow addressed. i really, really, really want to give this book five stars since i love it so much, but i really didn't like the girl-on-girl hate and that is why i'm lowering the rating to 4.5 stars. i was surprised to find out that some of the boys of delta tau chi are actually super nice (especially bambi! i read so many reviews of the book and none of them mentioned him. he's adorable and sometimes stupid but i found him relatable because of how clumsy he is.) - the scene where peter, duncan and bambi go to rescue cassie from the sigma alpha guy was super heart-warming and i felt SO conflicted because i knew cassie pledges delta tau chi only because she wants to take the boys down by exposing their sexist behavior, but i didn't want these boys to be hurt, and ughhh i just did not know what is going to happen, and that made it so hard for me to put the book down. ++ the frat guys try so hard to change their ways and it just makes me like them a little bit more. my favorite scene was where cassie holds a sex ed class for the boys in the frat house and they pay so much attention - one of the guys even starts taking notes. also, jordan and cassie are so perfect for each other and i love how much consent, respect and love there is in their relationship. forbidden romance is one of my favorite tropes and those parts made the book so much more enjoyable and fun.

now please forgive me for ending this review abruptly, for my brain is barely functioning because of *cough* exams.

my rating:

★★★★.5​

#2019 #review #books