The Competition-Cecily Wolfe

Book Tile:  The Competition
Author: Cecily Wolfe
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Stars:  3.5
Goodreads
For Mary Sofia, The Penultimate writing competition is more than a chance at a free college education; she wants to show her younger siblings that they can all rise above their violent family history. For Raiden, the pressure to succeed comes from within, although he knows that family traditions play a part in his determination. For Camara, writing fiction is almost compulsive, but her own dark secret may be the best story she can ever tell. For Michael, swimming and writing fit his introverted personality perfectly, but meeting a smart and beautiful girl at The Penultimate makes stepping outside of his comfort zone easy. All four will compete against each other along with 96 other high school juniors for the chance of a lifetime: a full scholarship to a prestigious private college. Some students will do anything to win, but others may pay the price.

My thoughts:  

This novel touches on some real life issues that many young adults face today.  Wolfe does a good job portraying the issues in a subtle, not overwhelming way.  Each character has his or her own struggles and it brings them all closer because of it. I loved the idea of the story line and think it was executed well. 
However, for me there were too many characters.  Even the synopsis from Goodreads only shows four of the main characters.  They are the ones with the twists within the novel, but there are four or five other characters that play an equally large role and it can get confusing to follow the story line from one to the other.  Especially when they all have dark past that isn't known to the reader yet.  Once the author gives away a little more information, the picture becomes clearer.  So it all ties together in the end. 
I think for the YA reading this, it shows how friends can be cruel, supportive, intelligent and loving.  I was surprised by the ending, I kind of wanted one of them to win, but then again it all worked out with the little twist as well.

It was a good read.  My first from Cecily Wolfe.  I would recommend it and would read more of her work.