Julia Abbot will do whatever it takes to see her children succeed. A helicopter parent to the extreme and overzealous stage mom, Julia is willing to go the extra mile to make sure her son, Andrew, gets a role in the high school spring musical-including funding a brand new costume shop for the drama department and heading up theater boosters. When she can’t get a straight answer out of her son after she knows the cast list has been posted, Julia heads to school to find out for herself. Then a video goes viral of Julia elbowing a student in the stomach, and Julia’s newfound internet notoriety sets events in motion that can’t be bought to cover up.
English teacher Isobel Johnson is beloved among her students--she teaches the classics with a modern critical lens, which rubs many of the conservative parents of Liston High students the wrong way. So when she receives a vaguely threatening voicemail on her home phone, one that cautions her continued employment at the high school, Isobel suddenly has to worry about every step she takes, let alone her curriculum. Accused of forcing a liberal agenda on students rather than teaching grammar and literary themes, Isobel is placed on suspension while school administration investigates the situation. And when a comment she posts on social media about the mother of one of her students assaulting another student goes just as viral as the video, Isobel isn’t sure what to expect next…
Just as captivating as Big Little Lies, MINOR DRAMAS AND OTHER CATASTROPHES by Kathleen West is snappy, nuanced, and fun. West’s look at helicopter parents, the teachers and school administrators they nitpick over, and the growing pains of adolescence all come together in a satisfying story. Julia and Isobel’s journeys are intrinsically linked throughout this book, and the results are hilarious, heartfelt, and sharply witty. It’s easy to understand where so many of the characters are coming from, but it’s also just as simple to pass judgment on them – similar to how they are doing to one another. As the story moves to its conclusion, a few more cringeworthy moments take place, making readers question if anyone has really changed over the course of the novel, but there are comeuppances on all sides, and all of the storylines come to smart conclusions. Fans of “suburban lit,” like that of Liane Moriarty and Maria Semple, will find much to love in MINOR DRAMAS AND OTHER CATASTROPHES by Katheleen West.
Perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Small Admissions, a wry and cleverly observed debut novel about the privileged bubble that is Liston Heights High—the micro-managing parents, the overworked teachers, and the students caught in the middle—and the fallout for each of them when the bubble finally bursts.
When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin.
Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.
Brought together by the sting of public humiliation, Isobel and Julia learn firsthand how entitlement and competition can go too far, thanks to a secret Facebook page created as an outlet for parent grievances. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families.
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