I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this book. It's an immensely frustrating read that falsely prides itself on thinking about well-being for every child and family (not just white, skinny, straight people) all while being told by the most bland, white, skinniest, straightest character possible and totally ignoring other ethnic groups, races, sexualities, etc. It pays brief lip service to these communities without actually bringing them up.
It's incredibly fatphobic - like, SO fatphobic. The only fat characters are "evil" ones, and the main character has such an obvious aversion/disgust to even the idea of having a roll on her belly.
The characters are little more than stereotypes. The writing is poor and leans heavily on tired tropes and ideas, offering nothing fresh to think about. Also, the writing/plot is messy, dragging on for 150 pages and then careening all over with little rhyme or reason.
This whole book just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Edit: another reviewer (link to their review here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3160913135?book_show_action=false&from... said this and it accurately sums up how I felt about how I felt about that first aspect I mentioned:

"It is mentioned that the LGBTQIA community, people with disabilities and those that suffer with mental health issues are specifically targeted groups of society under this new and oppressive mandate. But, not giving them any voice or representation past a single token lesbian character, who has no role within the context of the story, I found to be shameful.
Instead we again see what a hard time the straight, middle-class, highly educated, white woman (who somehow caused these systems to be rolled out in the first place) had when dealing with the repercussions. If an author "cares" enough to acknowledge the struggle these groups face, why not do something to accommodate for them in their own story? It comes across as "fake-woke" to mention it and then to leave it alone. Instead they'd sooner write from inside their own little bubble of understanding. Only giving voice to those they can relate to personally." ( )

Master Class is a science fiction novel set in a version of the United States that has embraced standardized testing to such an extent that every aspect of a child's life is determined by how well or how poorly they perform on them. There are three tiers of schools, one for the top students, one for the average students, and one for everybody else. Elena is a teacher at an elite school. She also has two daughters, one at a top school and one at an average school. She has a nice life, if you discount the fact that her husband is the worst, but when one of her daughters fails a test, everything changes. Suddenly it's her daughter being sent away to a mysterious boarding school in the middle of nowhere, and Elena begins to rethink her entire life as she struggles to get her daughter back.

The best thing about this book was the tension in it. From the beginning, it was obvious that everything was much worse than the main character was aware of, that awful things were happening, and that terrible things were very likely going to happen to the children who were disappearing, but without having any real answers, my mind was left to its own devices. I turned page after page, just gobbling up the story in the race to find the answers, even as a part of me didn't want to find the horrors that I knew were waiting. The story unweaves bit by bit, with stakes increasing all the time, and it definitely holds the attention right up to the final page.

I did find the setup to be a little unbelievable by the end, but the fact that the story is so clearly drawing on true historical events that are little known about is definitely chilling. While I didn't end up thinking that this exact thing could happen, I did wonder whether something like it could, and that's a huge part of the draw of this kind of book for me. I also appreciate that it is drawing attention to these issues, as I also believe that some books can be very important in sparking conversations and raising awareness of important topics. Some books can have a real and positive affect on the world, and I think this may be one of them.

Overall, I think you'll enjoy this book if you like the type of book that asks "what if" while simultaneously suggesting that such things could really happen in our future. It's a story about motherhood and redemption and breaking out of a bad situation, as well as about the US school system. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in these concepts and is not afraid to explore some of the darker sides of history and human nature.

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Others study history so as to continue certain horrors. This is what Master Class is all about.

Excellent worldbuilding. And yes, this could easily happen in this day and age. Too easily. ( )

What I find intriguing about Christina Dalcher’s sci fi is that she takes a modern day issue (in this case, standardized testing, SATs, ACTs, pressure and staggering competition to get into the best colleges, automation and job losses, eugenics, and writes a creepy sci fi world not too far removed from history or reality. In her world, students are divided into three schools, silver, green gold. Your school determines what future, education and career you are destined for. Her husband designed the system. She is a teacher in the system. One of their daughters is thriving, a silver. The other is not.

The scenes set in the present day and the worry shared by mother and daughters was what really gripped me. Like in Dalcher’s first book, we have a main character with little power and the way that lack of agency affects the way the story plays out can make some spots feel a bit slow, others absolutely heart-wrenching. Elena makes choices, but to a large degree she is at the mercy of Malcolm throughout the novel. I liked the way this book raised thoughtful questions.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. ( )

The Publisher Says: It’s impossible to know what you will do…

Every child's potential is regularly determined by a standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it's off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy.

When your child is taken from you.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state's elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immediately forced to leave her top school for a federal institution hundreds of miles away. As a teacher, Elena thought she understood the tiered educational system, but as a mother whose child is now gone, Elena's perspective is changed forever. She just wants her daughter back.

And she will do the unthinkable to make it happen.

I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT FROM MY LIBRARY. USE THOSE LIBRARIES! THEIR FUNDING DEPENDS ON OUR USE.

My Review: First, read this:

Patriotism doesn't require turning a blind eye to the darker chapters of our country's history; if anything, the opposite.
–and–
Everyone wanted something new, some solution, a reason to feel safe about their little wedge of the human race pie in a country that would see skyrocketing population numbers in another generation.

I know there are squads and fleets of dystopias in the book world. This is one of the "aren't men awful, look at those ghastly 'Karens,' who do those crackers think they are" sort; the idea of a society organized by one's "intelligence" is both fictionally familiar (Brave New World ring a bell?) and factually based (the 2019 College Admissions Bribery scandal); so it's down to execution of the idea whether one should read a particular iteration of it. The theoretical-linguist PhD author has the chops to make pithy the sprawling concerns of Suzanne Collins or Pierce Brown readers in one book not three. ( )