Review: Dirty Rush

Dirty Rush by Taylor Bell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



*I won this ARC in a GoodReads challenge sponsored by Simon and Schuster*

Dirty Rush is the story of Taylor Bell, a freshman at CDU and a 3rd generation legacy to Beta Zeta sorority. Taylor has no interest in following in her sisters', mother, or grandmother's footsteps and pledging BZ, but she is quickly taken under the wings of some colorful upperclassmen BZs who dirty rush her all the way to initiation. over the course of her first semester Taylor attempts to find balance between the girl she thinks she is- a fiercely independent woman's studies major- and the girl she has always said she would never be- the partying sorority girl with the Frat Star boyfriend. But when Taylor returns from winter break and is accused of being the star of a sex tape circulating campus she finds out who her true friends are and just how far "sisterhood" can go.


I first heard about dirty rush from an ad posted on TSM.com, it was advertising the "craziest sorority book you've ever read". Being involved in Greek life myself I tend to dismiss books about sororities as they tend to be highly offensive and grossly inaccurate-- much like the TV show Greek. But when the same website alos advertised a link to read the first chapter for free, I took the bait. And I really liked it. It wasn't so much that I fell in love with Taylor or her freshman journey, but more how impressed I was with how her college life was described. I found i could relate to her descriptions of situations and surroundings easily. Her first Frat party sounded vaguely like my own experience. I was pleased with how much they got the rules of the Greek system. And while i found plenty of this story to be outlandish and could never imagine such events of hazing or scandal happening in my own house, they are real stereotypes of Greek life and they are stereotypes for a reason.

I enjoyed the witty prose of this book and could identify characters with people in my own college experience. I found many of the minor plot points to be extreme representations of sorority and greek life, and while they did not align with my personal experience I found it relatively accurate. I didn't always care for the subjects or plots the book was covering but there was one underlying message from Dirty Rush that I really appreciated. Over and over, especially towards the end of the book, Taylor speaks of the true sisterhood that comes with Greek life. People who she just met taking her under their wing, people she knows relatively nothing about being some of her best friends- that's real. As cliche as it sounds that sisterhood is real. I am giving Dirty Rush 4 stars for two main reasons, one- I found the wit to be spot on, and two- because I think it really does get across a message of sisterhood -- even if it is cloaked in sex scandals and drug deals.



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