“Alexander Tilney applies supple, panoramic prose to the deep interior of an exclusive Northeastern prep school, with arresting results: at once anthropological and visceral, The Expectations provides an authoritative glimpse into a rarefied world of privilege—and announces a dazzling new voice in American fiction.”

—Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan Beach

“This beautifully written coming-of-age novel is a subtle exploration of WASP culture and elite institutions: what it means to hail from them, the lengths we’ll go to protect them, and what it means when they can’t keep up with the evolution of society.”

—Goop

“An elegiac début…Tilney’s book eschews the trope of the alienated narrator…The tension of the book flows from the fact that Ben’s status and advantages have prepared him for a version of adolescence that no reality can live up to…Tilney appears to like his characters.”

—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

“This book is a full mood. Meaning, I basically finished reading it and wandered around like I was at a rich East Coast prep school for three days…And yes, it fully exceeded my…wait for it/so sorry…expectations.”

—Mehera Bonner, Cosmopolitan

“Riveting. A deeply resonant, brilliantly nuanced meditation on privilege, social ambition, and the folly (and cruelty) of youth. It is also a terrific read—funny, heartbreaking, and completely transporting from start to finish. A provocative and powerful debut.”

—Kate Walbert, author of A Short History of Women

“The Expectations is the story of how fraught and chaotic and exhilarating it is on the cusp of adulthood while living among the wealthy, and the cruel. Tender but not sentimental, this novel marks the debut of a genuine talent, one I hope to keep reading for a very long time.”

—Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

“The Expectations takes aim at the web of loyalties, traditions, and secrets that support the dysfunction endemic at St. James School…It is less focused on crafting a juicy story of the upbringing of the rich than it is a meditation on the difference between the values elite institutions profess and those they practice…The confined space of campus is a moral proving ground that represents the world in miniature, complete with its heroes and tyrants, laws and outlaws…The book is in part an insistence on the complicity of the people trapped in social structures they feel too small to challenge, but it is also a hope that beyond the codified loyalties and old-fashioned values at work in boarding schools there is still something special and worth experiencing.”

—Ethan Davidson, The Outline

“The Expectations portrays all the intrigue of adolescence—sexual longing, competitive aspiration, and betrayal—while illuminating the most poignant of growing-up realities: It’s scary to figure out who you are, and even scarier when you have no idea. Tilney expertly evokes the human yearning to be recognized as Somebody, even when you fear you are nobody.”

—Katharine Dion, author of The Dependents