The Academy

By: Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham

Charley Hicks arrives at Tiffin Academy a new student on move in day. Friendships already have been formed, so she’s the new girl. She’s also the girl that took the spot of Cinnamon, a girl that is no longer there. Charley is the girl that keeps to herself, prefers to read than to socialize. Then there’s Davi, she’s a social media influencer and her parents are famous. There’s East, the older guy whose dad is the president of the board so he gets away with everything. Among others, there’s also Simone Bergeron, the young new teacher. Enter Zip Zap, a gossip app that is revealing everyone’s secrets. No one is immune. Bonds are made, and then broken. People are exposed. Lives are changed forever.

I’ll go on the record and say that I feel like an outlier with this book. I recommended it to my book club because I saw good reviews. Well.. we didn’t like it at all. I started the book, and it was just slow and boring. We are basically told every single detail of these high school kids. Details that we definitely don’t need. About 40% in to this 400+ page book, I still didn’t know what the plot was (I forgot the synopsis). I looked it up and saw that it was about the Zip Zap app. Well, it was about 50% into the book where we first hear about the app. And the circumstances surrounding the app probably end at approximately 80%, yet the book STILL goes on! I could have cut this book down at least 200 pages.

I didn’t care about any of the students, or the teachers. Simone, the young new teachers, is obsessed with one of the students. Something happened at her high school in Canada, so she had to come to the states. One of the students receives an email from Cinnamon, but we never find out what it said.

Honestly, this really felt like a “modern day” Gossip Girl, just really badly done. I think this is supposed to be a series, but I will not be continuing.

For those that like Elin Hilderbrand, you may like this one!

Publish Date: September 16, 2025
Find the book here.
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