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rembrandt1881's review
3.0
This is barely a 3 for me, more like 2.5 stars honestly. The description of this book is different than what it actually ends up being and what it is is somewhat jumbled and not very focused.
This book starts as one sort of story about an investigation, but early on I was very confused as to why so much of the inner workings of the newspaper itself was important. I later figured it is because the story is sort of about the paper itself and not necessarily the investigation that Pringle wss looking into. But neither of these topics really carry the book and the split of focus isn't clean or neat. It may be that there wasn't enough for one aspect, or the editors maybe felt like a story about a newspaper and it's failings weren't enough to hook readers but either way for me, I end up not feeling like either really has its time to shine and be the focus.
It also felt like after the main investigation wrapped up that there was this attempt to make the paper itself more of the focus but it is haphazardly thrown in like a totally new third story that isn't very well integrated into the overall narrative. It's unfortunate because they could have reorganized some of this to either integrate it more, or even finish the main narrative then go back in a second part to talk about the paper itself and keep that focused and explain what made the first story in inflection point difficult.
This book starts as one sort of story about an investigation, but early on I was very confused as to why so much of the inner workings of the newspaper itself was important. I later figured it is because the story is sort of about the paper itself and not necessarily the investigation that Pringle wss looking into. But neither of these topics really carry the book and the split of focus isn't clean or neat. It may be that there wasn't enough for one aspect, or the editors maybe felt like a story about a newspaper and it's failings weren't enough to hook readers but either way for me, I end up not feeling like either really has its time to shine and be the focus.
It also felt like after the main investigation wrapped up that there was this attempt to make the paper itself more of the focus but it is haphazardly thrown in like a totally new third story that isn't very well integrated into the overall narrative. It's unfortunate because they could have reorganized some of this to either integrate it more, or even finish the main narrative then go back in a second part to talk about the paper itself and keep that focused and explain what made the first story in inflection point difficult.
alexgoldstein4's review
4.0
This story was wild!!!! What the EFFF is in the water at USC
It took me a little bit to get into hence 4 instead of 5 stars but that’s probably because listening to the audiobook made it hard to remember the names
It took me a little bit to get into hence 4 instead of 5 stars but that’s probably because listening to the audiobook made it hard to remember the names
dinasamimi's review against another edition
4.0
This is a journey! Really entertaining and unputdownable but also infuriating. As a new Angeleno, I am blown but the intersection of money/power/politics and its utter disfunction in this city.
rnshack's review
4.0
4 stars
It should be unbelievable that this could happen but unfortunately it’s not. Bad people get away with bad things all the time but it is really is concerning that all of this happened at one school under one university president.
What a huge failure of a lot of people who only cared about the money and prestige. It’s truly shameful. Scandals like these took lots of people turning a blind eye for a long time. More people should have gotten charged and should have repercussions. The worst part of it all is that they didn’t.
This was excellent and read like a novel. The only story I was familiar with was the Varsity Blues scandal, the rest of them were new to me. I truly enjoyed reading this novel and am grateful for every journalist out there with the integrity to continue pursuing injustices at at a cost to themselves.
It should be unbelievable that this could happen but unfortunately it’s not. Bad people get away with bad things all the time but it is really is concerning that all of this happened at one school under one university president.
What a huge failure of a lot of people who only cared about the money and prestige. It’s truly shameful. Scandals like these took lots of people turning a blind eye for a long time. More people should have gotten charged and should have repercussions. The worst part of it all is that they didn’t.
This was excellent and read like a novel. The only story I was familiar with was the Varsity Blues scandal, the rest of them were new to me. I truly enjoyed reading this novel and am grateful for every journalist out there with the integrity to continue pursuing injustices at at a cost to themselves.
miranda_is_reading's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Coming from a media background I really enjoyed this book. At times some of the descriptions and details were a bit too lengthy for my liking and my ADHD mind would start to wander a bit. But, overall this was captivating and a wild story. I loved that Pringle and many of his coworkers stood up for the right thing in the journalistic world. It isn’t an easy career and it is scary putting your neck on the line at times in this industry. It was great to read about an HR team that actually helped the people instead of covering and protecting the company.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Child death, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Classism, Confinement, Grief, Dysphoria, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Medical content, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Pregnancy
stephgrani's review
I already know LA is Gotham City, I found this book interesting but stopped when the book got to sexual misconduct by the obgyn at usc. I don’t like reading about so much rape and sexual assault and there was enough abuse of power during the first 80% of the book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault