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 … 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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The drama llama was running amuck! There are quite a few POV’s here, but I really enjoyed seeing things from different perspectives.
This funny book totally skewers high school in the same way that Class Mom by Laurie Gelman shreds the elementary school experience. At Liston High, it’s time for Julia Abbott’s son to take a lead in the school play. After all, the Abbotts donated the costume shop. But Julia’s interference causes a stir, especially when an incident with her at the school is filmed by a student and shared on every social media site there is. This, along with the “Marxist” leaning ways of teacher Isobel Johnson, sets into a motion an over-the-top romp that, while extreme, will be recognizable to those of us with high school-aged children. Minor Drama gives the term “helicopter parent” a whole new dimension. Social media plays an aggressive and realistic role in the story, a suitable warning for our times.
The novel succeeds on so many levels, but I particularly enjoyed how we dipped in and out of the perspectives of parents, the students, the teachers, and the administrators. It’s a tremendous feat to have so many characters, and at no time was I confused about who was who, as each has his or her own voice. At times, you’re rooting for different people, and it’s not always clear who the “bad guy” is. The ending is absolutely satisfying. This was a really fun read, and I’m grateful to Netgalley for sharing the book with me.