***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Very entertaining, but cringe worthy to think about the social media aspect and the helicopter parents.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book alright. It was super interesting but there was a ton I had a bit of dislike for. I didn't like the helicopter parenting. I felt super bad for the teacher in this book. It was a good and interesting read.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Isobel Johnson is a progressive teacher at Liston Heights High School. As she teaches her English classes, she challenges her students to think outside the box and make their own evaluations and assessments. Isobel loves her job but, after eight years of teaching at Liston, she begins to receive anonymous complaints.

Meanwhile, a parent, Julia Abbott, is obsessed with her son’s success and will do almost anything to assure that he will have a prominent role in the winter production in the drama department. When both women become targets on social media, they struggle to regain their positions at the high school. Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes is told from multiple perspectives and this adds interesting insights to the issues and problems that develop.

After reading this book I’m not sure if it was appalling or entertaining. Helicopter parents, teachers who really want to teach, social media, gossip - all of this comes into play. In the end, this book is entertaining but it also provides a sobering message for parents who try to manipulate their child’s education. While support is important, interference is not. This sparkling debut by Kathleen West is insightful, entertaining, and clever, not to mention well-written and timely.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

What an incredibly timely book! As a mother, I remind myself almost constantly to be aware of what I post, and I remind my teenage daughter to do the same. In this digital world, it's so ridiculously important to remember that.... besides being a warning, this book is highly entertaining. Nothing like parents behaving badly and karma exacting its sweet revenge. I was not sure if I would like this one at first, but I was pleasantly surprised. I absolutely recommend this to parents and non parents alike. You won't regret reading it! 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for NetGalley's rating system.

Anyone who uses social media should read this book to see how one post can affect people’s lives. I enjoyed reading each chapter from another person’s perspective. A lot of what happened is happening today on social media. Watch what you post.

3.5 stars

Welcome to Liston Heights High School. The place where rich parents NEED to make sure their precious children make it to that bestest college. In their off time they one up each other on who is the most wonderful of all.


ESPECIALLY theatre mom Julia Abbott.


She gets really into making sure her little precious gets the part in the school play. To the point where she goes to make sure he is on the cast list and gets a bit excited then ends up punching a student in the stomach. Of course someone just happens to have their phone handy and it's all plastered online for the world to judge.

The fall out from this one incident just keeps spiraling and shows you the true power of social media. It scares the crap outta me.
This book wasn't bad. It kept me entertained by these hot messes of characters. The only things that I didn't care for were the incessant brand name dropping and the fact that it became almost too much. Too many points of view and way too many dramas. I still couldn't look away though because I totally have a fascination with helicopter mom drama.

Karma, how satisfying it is! When a secret Facebook group becomes a gathering spot for helicopter wealthy parents, an English teacher, is targeted because of her liberal agenda of getting kids to see different viewpoints. One mother is uber-determined to make sure her children succeed—that is be educated in the mold mom has set for them. There’s a lot in here about how a community like this is extremely challenging to teach in, the power of social media to influence people, how your online comments can come back to haunt you and how kids can often act in a more mature manner than their parents. It is an easy read and well worth the time.

Dramatic helicopter parents? Yes, please. I had a hard time putting this one down! I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and was guessing the outcome until nearly the end of the story. I loved the way it all came together in the end. An enjoyable read.

As an educator, and one who has worked in several schools similar to the fictional Liston Heights, I found this book to be quite a fun read! It has: Helicopter parents, parents who complain to administration to try and get a teachers fired, secret parent Facebook gossip group, and of course the students who are affected by it all. DRAMA!

This book kept me entertained and curious to see how it all played out. It raises some thought provoking issues that are relevant today, but still was a somewhat light hearted read. I recommend this book, especially to teachers AND parents!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book really illustrates how people that were raised in the 80s have got to calm down with their parenting. We were pretty much ignored and now we are going to make sure our kids have it "so much better." This book does a good job of showing how over the top parents have become and how stressful it can be to be a parent today. It is very relatable.

Thanks netgalley! I love stories of women and families. This was such a good read and I didn't want to put it down. The characters are easy to relate to, even the "villains". As a mom, I've done things that would make you cringe. Oh my! I recommend this one!

Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes is a book full of a whole lot of drama- making it very entertaining. A popular teacher receives a threatening voicemail- is her job on the line? Who made the call? Meanwhile a mother is overly involved in her children's lives and wants things for them- such as good grades and leading parts in a play- more than the children actually do. Their decisions and actions impact each others lives and others causing lots of tension and bickering. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Isobel Johnson teaches English at a public school in Liston, Minnesota. The majority of her students are from privileged homes with highly involved parents. The environment is competitive and focused on grades, auditions for plays, and applications to the top colleges. Isobel is liked by her students but becomes concerned when she receives an anonymous voicemail blasting her lectures as Anti-American and focused outside the curriculum. To make matters worse, social media is active within the Liston community spreading negative parent discussions regarding the faculty.

Julia Abbott’s main focus in her life is pushing her kids' achievements. She is an active parent in her community with a heavy social calendar. Her volunteer efforts align with her kids’ activities and she uses this influence on teachers by donating money to secure better theater roles for her children. This lifestyle vanishes after an incident at school involving Julia and a student is recorded leaving her reputation in ruin.

This story examines parental interference and how it can have positive and negative consequences for children. I enjoyed the varying perspectives from Julia and Isobel’s and how they blend as the story progresses. Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes is a debut novel by Kathleen West.

Lots of things are happening in the town of Liston Heights. Julia Abbott, a helicopter mom to the extreme will do anything to ensure her children are successful. After an accident at the school on her son’s spring musical casting day, Julia is essentially banned from the theater booster club, and forced to take a back seat for once. Isobel Johnson, an English teacher at Liston Heights High, is determined to make a positive impact on her students lives. She wants them to step out of their sheltered worlds and consider the perspectives of others around her. After eight years of teaching, parents like Julia are complaining about her methods on a secret Facebook group for moms.

Now with both women having faced ultimate humiliation, can they come together to make Liston Heights a better place for everyone?

Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West was such a fun read for me! I love a good Moms behaving badly story, and Julia Abbott definitely fits that genre. In this story though, it’s not just the moms who aren’t playing nice.

I love how the story is told in so many multiple perspectives. You get an inside look at not only Julia and Isobel’s lives, but also those around them. There is so much Drama!! I loved reading the chapters about the Abbott children. They seemed so smart and insightful for their ages.

Overall, this was a great book! Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing for my advanced copy.

Kathleen West’s debut novel Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes is an entertaining read that focuses on the cutthroat world of school politics and teachers who find themselves at the mercy of helicopter parents and social media trolls.

The story follows Isobel Johnson, an English teacher at a prestigious school who prides herself on challenging her students to open their minds and consider a variety of perspectives when reading literary classics. When the school starts receiving complaints about what she’s teaching and an anonymous Facebook page starts attacking her reputation, Isobel learns the hard way that the parents wield all of the power and that her own colleagues won’t defend her. I adored Isobel so much! She’s such a well drawn character, and I really admired her strength. It would have been very easy to immediately give in to the parents’ demands, but Isobel is determined to stand her ground even if the consequence could be losing her job.

While Isobel had my heart, I also felt for Julia Abbott, an over-the-top theater mom who barges into the school while class is still in session to find out if her son was cast in the school play. In a moment of excitement when she sees her son’s name on the cast list, Julia enthusiastically pumps her fist…and accidentally punches a student in the stomach. The incident is caught on video and immediately goes viral. Chaos ensues and Julia finds herself quite the outcast. While Julia isn’t an especially likeable character, her situation is a sad one and I liked that the author ultimately made her a sympathetic character instead of just a crazy stereotype.

Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes really struck a chord with me as I watched these two women fight to defend themselves and my emotions were all over the place. There were moments that made me angry and frustrated, and there were also moments that made me laugh. Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes is a delightful and engaging read as well as one that tackles some pretty serious issues that many teachers face. I highly recommend it and look forward to reading more from Kathleen West.

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!

At Liston Heights High School, the kids are alright, it’s the high-powered parents who need to be schooled. Popular—and progressive—English teacher Isobel Johnson just got a threatening voice mail about her curriculum; Julia Abbott will do almost anything to ensure her son a speaking role in the winter musical. When the women become targets on social media, will either survive the infamy? A+.

This book had a whole lot of crazy.

It was very interesting to see just how far a little bit of drama can go. There were so many small things that were made into huge issues and actually impacted everyone's life. I really didn't like any of the adult characters. The poor kids were caught in the crosshairs of the drama that their parents and teachers created. Although Julia was by far the worst at causing drama, there were plenty of others that didn't help to shut it down. I was happy to see the resolution, but it was frustrating to see just how far they went with some of these things.

I would recommend this to anyone who is interested to see how far and out of bounds things can be pushed before they cause real issues.

I requested this book because the description said that anyone who liked Where'd You Go, Bernadette would like this book and it did not disappoint. There's a lot going on in this book. The multiple perspectives made it an easy read and easy to understand what was going on and how everyone felt.

Isobel is a teacher that doesn't live in the rich part of town and she teaches a little differently than most of the teachers at Liston Heights. She tries to include politics, racism, queer theory, privilege, etc in with the normal curriculum. Not all of the parents like it, especially Julia Abbot.

Julia Abbot wants everything for her children no matter what the cost. When her son Andrew sign up for the school play she can't wait to see what part he got. After not hearing back from him, she decided to go up to the school and check the cast list for herself. In her excitement, she accidentally hurts a student and it gets caught on video.

What do these two women have in common? Well, they are both subjects on a Facebook gossip page where parents complain about the school faculty and other parents.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Entertaining, engaging, relevant. Cathleen West’s debut was such a great read! Adults behaving badly... yes please! I really do enjoy these books about over the top helicopter parents. I was both a dance mom and a baseball mom and I know how easy it is to get caught up in all of it. I can always see a little piece of myself in these parents and I am so glad I never fell down that helicopter rabbit hole (it was close though). Julia is the ultimate helicopter mom, she just cannot wait to find out if her son Andrew got a part in the school’s theater production. When she can wait no longer she shows up at school to check out the cast list for herself, this leads to an unfortunate accidental altercation with a student that of course is videoed. When the video goes viral Julia her husband, and of course her kids are all humiliated. Isabell is a passionate teacher who really cares for her students, but always pushes the line. But not all the parents including Julia are in favor of Isabels agenda. Both Julia and Isabell fall victim to a secret Facebook group that just fuels the fire. What follows is a fun lighthearted entertaining story that will make you laugh at how crazy we all can sometimes be.

The story is told from multiple perspectives not only that of Julia and Isabell, but also of the husband, the kids, the principal, and other teachers. Even with all these different characters perspectives I was never confused and I thought it really added so much to the story. Julia was definitely an easy character to hate, but she did become a little more sympathetic as the story evolved. Isabell was an awesome teacher and I loved her passion, but I had to think how I would feel if she was pushing my kids in a direction I did not want them to be? I actually think I’d be OK, I’d have to trust that I had raised my kids to think for themselves. This book touches on a lot of serious subject matter, but handles it in a lighthearted readable relatable way. This book will appeal to all parents for sure, but I think it will be a fun read for anyone who enjoys stories about human nature.


This book in emojis. 🍏🏫👩🏼‍🎓👩‍🏫🚁📙✏️🎒🍎

***Big thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***