Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West Book Review!

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.

Isobel Johnson knows helicopter parents like Julia Abbott--a stage mom whose world revolves around interfering in her children's lives--come with the territory. Julia resents teachers like Isobel, who effortlessly bond with students, including Julia's own teenagers, who have started pulling further away from her.

Isobel has spent her teaching career in Liston Heights side-stepping the community's high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a "blatant liberal agenda," she realizes she's squarely in the fray. Rather than cowering, Isobel doubles down on her social-justice ideals. Meanwhile, Julia, obsessed with the casting of the high school's winter musical, inadvertently shoves the female student-lead after sneaking onto the school campus. The damning video footage goes viral and has far-reaching consequences for Julia and her entire family.

With nothing to unite them beyond the sting of humiliation from public meltdowns, Isobel and Julia will find common ground where they least expect it, confronting a secret Facebook gossip site that's stirring up more trouble for this tumultuous, fractured school community. 

Kathleen West is a writer, teacher, reader, and semi-professional minivan driver. A life-long Minnesotan, she holds degrees from Macalester College and the University of Minnesota. Her debut novel, Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes, will be out from Berkley (Penguin Random House) on February 4, 2020. She lives in Minneapolis with her hilarious husband, their two sporty sons, and an ill-behaved goldendoodle.

Kathleen has been writing forever. Since 2004, she’s kept some of her writing—about her crazy and fascinating family, her engrossing teaching career, her amusing fitness endeavors (Zumba, anyone?) and her daily minor catastrophes—on her blog.

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Kathleen West

My Review

I don't usually read this type of book but the description intrigued me. I was glad to read it, it took me a while, only because I was ill.

Once I started it I was hooked. Isobel Johnson is an admired and respected teacher at Liston Heights, Julia Abbott is a parent who hovers, definitely involved in her kids lives, especially her son who has been cast in a part in the annual play. Or she hopes.

Isobel received a voicemail accusing her of anti-American and a liberal agenda. Now Isobel needs to find out who the voicemail came from and she thinks she knows who it was. She can't say for sure though.

So all of a sudden she is all over social media and not in a good way. She is eventually suspended from her job which is devastating to her, she loves to teach and that is why she wanted to work at Liston Heights.

Julia was so excited to find out if you son got the part she wanted for him, she pushed her way to the front of the line and accidentally elbowed a student. Someone made a video of it and it went viral, to her dismay.

I didn't much care for Julia, she, in my mind was not a very nice person but as I got further in the book, she just wanted to be admired by her family and community. Both Julia and Isobel wanted that but in different ways, and they went about trying to meet their own expectations in a different way.

What did I come away with at the end of this book? I found that social media can be a good but sometimes a horrible thing, especially when people shame, ridicule and humiliate other people because they either don't know that person or listen to rumors. Be nice people!

I enjoyed this book, there was a lot of humor, some nice and not so nice characters. But that is what makes a book good!

I received a copy of this book for review purposes only!