I was a teacher and a school librarian so it’s pretty much a given that this book would resonate with me. It was written about a fictional Texas high school and the various people who worked there. There are new teachers, older teachers, a substitute teacher, a custodian, and many more essential staff members, each with their own chapter. The situations portrayed are very current and very real. Some made me laugh and some made me cry. I will be recommended this book widely.

When I first started reading “The Faculty Lounge” by Jennifer Mathieu, I thought I was going to be reading a cozy mystery of sorts. Because after all, the book opens when a beloved teacher who had retired years earlier but had returned as a substitute to Baldwin High School, is discovered dead in the faculty lounge. But it’s not a mystery at all, but a wonderful fictitious year-long ethnography of a high school in the post-pandemic era. Readers are introduced to various characters who make a school a school, and we learn about the personal and professional struggles they have. This is all wrapped together with compelling story telling and witty dialogue. I loved each and one of these characters. I salute the teachers in this book and to all those real-life teachers who make a daily difference to so many people.

I am certain that anyone who has been a teacher in the United States, who has attended schools in the United States, or who has children in the school system there, would love to read this book. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC of this amazing book. A strong five stars!

I'm a huge fan of the TV show Abbott Elementary and felt like this would be similar, but in book form. It sort of was in that it revolved around educators and their experiences. While I am not an educator myself, I did learn a lot about their jobs and also gained a new appreciation for people in this field. I think the star of the show really is the characters as we got so many POV's and none felt lacking.


Thank you, NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I so loved The Faculty Lounge! It's such a sweet story of one year in the life of Baldwin High School in Houston, Texas. A substitute teacher has passed away in the Faculty Lounge and the whole book revolves indirectly around this teacher. We get to know and love several of the teachers and faculty members of Baldwin, and they how their lives are intertwined, The story is incredibly well written and compelling. I loved every character, and have left the book in awe of teachers and how they influence students and others for the better. Thank you to Jennifer Mathieu for this book - I'm sure it could be made into an incredible movie!!

Thanks, too, to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Faculty Lounge.

The Faculty Lounge is set in Baldwin High School a public High School in Texas. After a former teacher and now long-term substitute dies in the faculty lounge, the story explores the lives of the teachers, administrators, and staff during the turbulent year. First, the story focuses on the adults. There is little to no student included and I loved how this story is about the staff's experiences. Although I have never been a teacher I can't help but feel like teachers who read this story will feel seen. The book moves throughout the year moving from one person to the next, focusing on their story. However, all the individual situations are pulled together by the thread of the death that occurred at the beginning of the year. I felt the author touched on a wide and diverse array of those who work at the school including the janitorial staff.
I truly enjoyed this book which is in turn funny and reflective.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dutton for this enjoyable story!

This was an amazing read! It was heartwarming, endearing, funny and frustrating. I haven't been in school for a long time and was never an educator but I feel this gave a slight insight into the lives of teachers and other faculty, regardless. I would suggest anyone who's had any experience with school read this and get a glimpse behind the school curtain in the personal and professional lives of school administrators as it was clear from the writing that Jennifer Mathieu has a lot of experience in this that she's drawn on, creating a very real piece of fiction.

Oh my goodness, anyone who has ever worked in public education should run to pick up this book! The Faculty Lounge is an utterly engrossing, realistic, entertaining story that takes the reader through one full school year at a Texas high school. I imagine it is not easy for an author to write from so many different POVs, but she did a phenomenal job of creating each character's voice. Each one is unique and complex and brings a slightly different perspective on the life of someone who works in a school.

I love that the book includes perspectives from not only classroom teachers, but principals, counselors, and custodians as well. I could empathize with the characters and found myself completely blown away by the accuracy of the school situations that occur in the plot. Set in motion by the elderly substitute's death in the faculty lounge, the story takes us through many ripple effects that follow, along with plenty of juicy backstory on the parts of educators' lives we might not always see.

As a former teacher, I found this to be a story I didn't want to end--even though it wraps up with a beautifully satisfying conclusion. The author's respect for teachers and the many school staff and faculty members who make education possible comes across. I loved this so much, and I wish there were dozens more novels like this one!

Jennifer Matthieu's 'The Faculty Lounge' presents a compelling narrative that immerses readers in the intricate dynamics of academia. Through vivid storytelling, Matthieu skillfully navigates themes of ambition, betrayal, and redemption, offering a thought-provoking exploration of the human experience within the ivory tower.

While the novel excels in its portrayal of the pressures and power struggles inherent in academic life, it occasionally falters in character development and pacing.

Nevertheless, Matthieu's keen insights and engaging prose ensure that 'The Faculty Lounge' remains an insightful and engaging read, bound to captivate those intrigued by the complexities of university culture.

What to say about The Faculty Lounge? Jennifer Mathieu is clearly a veteran teacher-turned author.
Every. Single. Chapter. They rang true. Some a bit too close to my own experiences to be honest.

Jennifer does more than tell a tale of disgruntled teachers - she builds an entire community around an event, a sudden death. Using flashbacks and linked stories we meet the multitude of staff that make up a high school that you are not soon to forget.

Each chapter focuses on one of the staff and Mathieu skillfully peels back the protective layers to reveal the character's secret hopes and past experiences. Each chapter is truly a work of art !

The chapters link together providing a story of a community. The school that she has created is much like the one your children attend (or maybe you even work there!) This story -it's insightful, it's beautiful, it's sad and it's hopeful. It's a true work of art for all of the teachers, the parents and the students out there!

The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Matthieu coming out July 23 provides a look into the lives of teachers, administrators, and staff who work at Baldwin High School in Houston, Texas. Basically a series of short stories told over a school year, this contemporary fiction illustrates the problems in public schools today: from book banning to high stakes, poorly written standardized tests to practice lockdowns to lack of administrative support from the Central Office to helicopter parents to overworked and underpaid teachers.

The school year starts with the story of a beloved retired teacher who has returned to Baldwin to substitute teach only to pass away while stretched out on the couch in the faculty lounge. When Principal Kendricks complies with Mr. Lehrer’s request to have his ashes spread in the courtyard of the school per his will, he comes under fire when the impromptu scattering is witnessed by some busybody parents, one of whom gets covered with ash when the wind blows. The staff taking part in the ceremony soon find themselves in mandated trauma counseling. The principal will be fighting to keep his job before the year is over.

The youngest teacher on campus starts her year by finding Mr. Lehrer’s body. An English teacher recalls it was Mr. Lehrer who offered her encouragement in her first year of teaching, always said to be the hardest year. She tells the younger teacher, “There are some days when all you can do is just make it until the last bell.”

A veteran English teacher misfires an email response to a parent challenging his use of a book that she accuses of being an example of Critical Race Theory, with the end result that the book is pulled from all the English classes, and the teacher has a reprimand added to his permanent record. The school nurse deals with all sorts of maladies but her heart goes out to those who suspect pregnancy, and to that end, she buys test kits with her own money for them.

A biology teacher questions his career choice, especially when he is trapped in the book room when an unscheduled lockdown is issued. An assistant principal finds herself coping with the death of her spouse by self-medicating to deal with all the problems that pop up in each school day. These are just a few of the stories in the course of a school year at Baldwin High School.

Jennifer Matthieu is a high school English teacher and writer. Her young adult novel Moxie was adapted into a Netflix film directed by Amy Poehler. The Faculty Lounge is her first adult novel. She lives in Texas with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting April 21, 2024.

I would like to thank Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Non-teachers will laugh at the absurdity of some of the situations in The Faculty Lounge. Meanwhile, teachers will laugh because they know how true the absurdity is. Thank you Jennifer Mathieu for reminding readers that educators are humans who dedicate their lives to teaching kids while navigating their own often tumultuous lives. I will be recommending to all my friends, especially my teacher friends!

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC.

This was a funny, real, deeply-felt and carefully-detailed novel of life in a school. Reading about the intersecting characters' lives, their dramas and their loves and their resentments, and the way the pot boils over after one miscalculated incident—it was all so true to life in a funny, exaggerated, delightful way. The teacher book I've been needing in my life!

5 stars from me!

I was a teacher for 32 years, and The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu is spot on. I found myself laughing throughout the book. It starts with an older man who is found dead on the couch, in the teacher's lounge, while he is subbing. From everything from parent emails, to professional development, to school romances, The Faculty Lounge brings to light what staff members at a school go through each day. The best part, though, is it is told in a humorous way showing how different staff members reacted to different situations. It isn't a whiny book about these situations, which made me like it even more.

If you are an administrator, office staff, nurse, counselor, custodian, or teacher, you are going to relate to this book. You are going to want to tell your colleagues about this book. On top of that, you are going to think of this book when something happens at school that makes you laugh. I kept picturing different people that I have worked with as the different characters are introduced.

Please, please....if you know me, please don't throw my ashes in the front yard of my school when I die.

Thank you to Dutton and Jennifer Mathieu for sharing this book with me. This is my honest opinion. Now I can't wait for my friends to read it, so we can talk about which of our colleagues they pictured when they read the book.

As a former elementary school librarian, this book rang so true! A teacher is found deceased in the faculty lounge and it sets off a chain of events that affect many of the teachers and staff at the school. The author must have worked in a. School, or at least done an amazing amount of research for it, because I have met, in some form, each one of the main characters. I love how each character has a layered backstory. This was a book that I loved through the last page. I will be looking for more from this author.

I’m so happy I read this book. Firstly, I didn’t initially recognize the author’s name, but I loved her YA book, Moxie. Matthieu has a super fresh voice, and is able to deliver heavy messages with a light hand. She never seems preachy, but her books are thought provoking and meaningful. This seems to be one of her only adult books, and it was one of my favorites of the year. As someone who works in a library, I related to the characters so well- under pressure, under appreciated, surrounded by various societal challenges… I admired so many of the characters and the way they persevered through difficult circumstances and found joy amidst the difficulties of their jobs… it was tremendously uplifting, and renewed my faith in the educational system. If educators like these are real, we will all be ok. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been a teacher. Having been in the classroom myself for twenty five years, I recognized people she described. I loved that the story was told through one school year and through different perspectives.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Astute slice of life novel examining the motivations or lacks thereof of teachers and humans in the microcosm of a high school in the US. The book changes perspective from chapter to chapter, but deftly maintains the story arc. Beautifully written, characters are flawed but loveable.

Solid 4⭐️ I think anyone who teaches, especially high school teachers, or is in the public education sector should read this! It was so funny and so real. I loved how modern it was. There was so much diversity in these characters and so much life in them as well. I loved how there was a variety of experience, and ages, and background, and relations. I love how, for me, it reminded me how human our teachers/staff are. I feel like, especially being a younger person, I can sometimes forget teachers/professors, administrators, staff have hobbies, have human issues, experience grief, have personal interests, etc. I thought this book beautifully captured the humanness in the teaching and education realm. With the characters, also, I appreciated that we saw some who were very passionate about their field and others who weren’t quite as enthusiastic. I’m glad it wasn’t portrayed that every teacher is *super amazing*, *loves kids* because, although that can be true, it isn’t true for every single educator. Something else I enjoyed was how this book examined, a little, how education has changed. Education 30 years ago does not look the same as it does today, and we get to see how some of these more veteran staff members handle that and the issues that come with that. A few issues that I had with this read was that I struggled following the timeline occasionally. It was chronological, but it wasn’t evenly divided throughout the school year, if that makes sense. I also feel like there are sensitive topics in this book that should be taken into consideration for certain readers. Overall, I enjoyed this read! I laughed, I cried, I had a good time! Top-notch characters with such detailed and individual experiences!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Penguin Group Dutton, for this raw and magnetic ARC!

Good book with an okay story. I liked the main character and the book as a whole was good. Wish it had moved a bit faster in the story.

A cozy book with each chapter focusing on a different faculty member. Not too deep, but lots of feel good vibes here.