Alabama sorority rush on TikTok got me. And yeah, I watched a bunch of videos, but like a weirdo bibliophile, I wanted to read a book about it. One of the TikTokkers referenced Rush and a book that I couldn't find at a library. Though Patton is a Bama grad, she wrote about rush at Ole Miss, because I guess it's a bigger deal?

Patton gives us a three person narrative: Miss Pearl, the Alpha Delta Beta house maid; Wilda, the mother of a first-year pledge; and Cali, another first-year pledge, who unlike most of the girls, is not a legacy. In fact, Cali is shamed by her parentage, and keeps it a secret.

Rush is an addictive read with huge race problems from Miss Pearl, who loves the girls in the lily white sorority uncritically and who ultimately serves as a Magical Negro providing forgiveness and comfort to a white lady, and in a way to all the white Alpha Delts. I seem not to have bookmarked the page, but I recall in her author's note that Patton wants her girls to live in a world that doesn't see color.

And yet, addictive (hate?) read.