I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first novel I've read by Koren Zalickas - I read Smashed in my early 20s and quite enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this book.

Zalickas's writing style is fantastic - she engages the reader and there were many times that I didn't want to put the book down. That being said, the story is a little all over the place and there were times that I was straight up confused by the plot. The ending was not what I expected or hoped for, and it kind of turned me off to the book.

Fans of Imposter will enjoy this book and although I was disappointed in the end, I still think it is worth a read.

I was surprised at the depth of the story Koren Zailckas has achieved in The Drama Teacher.. The reader is taken back in time to see parts of the protagonist's childhood without seeing the truth of what really happened to her while she lived with her demanding father. The daughter learned at an early age not to question her father as he taught her how to be whoever the "mark" needed her to be. She had many names but always yearned to be reunited with her mother. Life with her dad was chaotic and after she learned that her mother was dead she gave up wishing she could go home but always wondered why her mother never came looking for her. We watched this child grow into a woman. She replaced her father with a born grifter by the name of Oz. Life was exciting and full of drugs, exhilarating sex and cheating people out of their money. Some of that came to an end after her son was born.

There was a certain sadness and desperation that permeated Tracey/Gracie's life. The story is well written, but it was difficult to empathize with some of the characters due to their me first attitudes. The story did draw me in and kept me Interested as I hoped for a positive resolution in the protagonist's life. #TheDramaTeacher#NetGalley

This one is a slow burner, and it gets better and better as you work your way through the storyline. I always enjoy a good, solid psychological thriller, and The Drama Teacher fits well into that category. I also always enjoy a well-flawed character that, despite their shortcomings, inspires sympathy, and the main character in this book does exactly that.

Gracie Mueller seems to be living the life of a pretty normal middle class mother of two, married to a realtor and living in New York State. But nothing is as it seems with Gracie, even her name, as she is mega con artist, something that she learnt from an early age from her father. Gracie’s life is a string of name changes, different accents, and secrets, and the more she runs from her fuzzy memories the more they come back to haunt her.

Technically Gracie isn’t someone you want to associate yourself with: she uses people constantly, steals, cons, and runs away without regard for the mess that she leaves behind. But all is not what it seems, and as Gracie’s life unravels, so does the truth. You honestly feel like after every page turn you will be confronted with a twist, reading the phrases with baited breath until it eventually happens. But when it does it usually isn’t what you expected to see happen. There are areas that get a little confusing just because you want to race through to figure everything out, but it’s best not to. I had to force myself to be patient a few times because The Drama Teacher is best read that way.

You can’t help actually liking Gracie, just because she’s super smart, hilariously sarcastic, can read people from the get-go, and also has a lot of trauma that she hides deep inside. As much as you want to dislike her, it’s really hard to.

There was one area that struck me as a bit strange was some of the references to social media, as the novel starts in 2010, but the references to hashtags and things like AirBNB seemed a little out of place, as if the author had forgotten that those things weren’t really household references at that time (especially the hashtags as they are very 2016/2017). They worked well with the narrative but just seemed a little awkward timewise. But I love how Koren Zailcka writes, and reading The Drama Teacher reminded me why I loved her first book, Smashed, so much. There are so many references that I relate to! For example, the housekeeping references could literally have been lifted from my life (I actually think I found some of the same references in Smashed too, feeling like I was reading my own memoir a little!).

I thoroughly enjoyed The Drama Teacher, it’s one of those books that I wanted to figure out but that I also didn’t want to end. I haven’t read Koren Zailcka’s second book yet, so I am adding that to my TBR now.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

3 1/2 Stars
This book started out with a bang, but somehow lost some of its momentum with too much backstory. Gracie/Tracey/Erin is a con artist and doesn’t want to upset her lifestyle or that of her children. She’ll concoct almost any scheme to meet her goal. When her life starts to fall apart and she starts to realize how her actions have affected others, she must come to grips with how to handle circumstances with the best possible outcome. She is an unlikable character, but sympathetic at the same time. With an interesting plot and a cast of well drawn characters, you might not see the next scam coming before it hits you.

I'm a sucker for flawed characters or unreliable narrators so this one was a thrill ride for me! When we first meet Gracie she appears to be a loving mother of two young children who is bored as a stay-at-home mom and is simply attempting to make friends--well, at least rich friends who can spend money without worry. We soon discover her husband's schemes have landed their house in foreclosure and now she must scramble to find a way out. Fortunately her past with her drifter father comes to light and we realize she's been "trained" for this life as a grifter since she was young. And she's quite good at it! Tech-savvy and charming, Gracie worms her way into others' lives and manipulates them, always covering her tracks...until her past catches up to her with devastating realizations and consequences. Yes, of course you wouldn't want a woman like Gracie in your life, but it's a great fantasy to read about her!

I loved Koren Zailckas's MOTHER, MOTHER, so I was super excited to be granted an ARC of THE DRAMA TEACHER by the publisher, Crown, and Netgalley in return for an honest review. In all honesty, I could not put this book down!

THE DRAMA TEACHER contained all of the elements that I love in a novel: fantastic character development, a plot full of roller coaster twists and turns, tension, suspense, love and an unreliable narrator. In this case, the narrator wasn't totally unreliable, though. In fact, Erin Aelish was sometimes a sympathetic story teller, even when I wasn't sure of her truths. Lastly, the writing is absolutely stellar. I couldn't ask for anything more from a writer.

I highly recommend this book which will be published in August 2018. I absolutely loved it.

Very disturbing premise of a sociopathic grifter and hustler. Was difficult to finish the book because protagonist was so distasteful. I loved Zailckas’ previous books Wasted and mother, mother. This one not so much.

I was just the teeniest bit reluctant to pick up this psychological thriller because of the abundance of novels in the genre and, honestly, it's becoming a bit of a trope. If you are feeling a bit of the same, never fear, here's a great addition to the pack that has thoughtfully given readers who love these types of novels more of the angst but without the predictability. The reader knows early on that the protagonist is a liar and a con artist, but, Zalickas ably creates a character that you are, at least sort of, rooting for anyway (if you watch The Americans, you will get what I mean). The story reveals itself with jigsaw puzzle precision.

What do you do when you have re-written your early childhood in your head, no longer remember key facts and are dragged to another country by your less than honest father, to begin a life a crime? You learn the tricks of the trade and do your best to carry on. Until you have options of your own. The story weaves back and forth from present to past and back again, until the whole tale is tied together at the very end. We meet Gracie Mueller in the beginning of the story, as she works her magic and finds a way to get herself and her children into a swanky hotel pool, and then ingratiates herself with one of the other Moms who is there with her daughter. She had stepped away from this life when she met and married Randy Mueller, a real estate agent who was doing well for himself... until; he wasn't. He then began to work in Florida and Gracie began to see signed of things she did not like in reference to his behavior there, and began getting foreclosure notices on the home that she and the kids were living in. Randy encourages her to move to Florida with him, which is something she has no desire to do. As things happen that day at the pool, and the friendship develops between her and the mom from the pool, she comes up with a new and better plan to help change her future. Until.... Gracie just wants to give her children a good life, a good school. and some of the stability she lacked in her childhood. However, as things begin to come apart, her forgot past begins to come back to haunt her, and things get even more mysterious and crazy for them all.

This is one of those "you won't be able to put it down" books. Zalickas is a new author for me, but one I will definitely continue to read as this novel was a slam dunk.

'Too old to play the ingénue, I took on the role of pampered housewife instead.'

Gracie Mueller isn’t about to let her husband sink the perfect life she has created for her precious family. With their home in foreclosure, she is grasping to save them from financial ruin. Luckily for her, she has skills that her husband doesn’t even know about. Her past has been shrouded from him, that other self is dead. If she has to turn his gaze in another direction anytime he comes close to uncovering her deceptions, she knows just how to do it. She has floated on her lies for years, kept her secrets locked deep beneath the surface of her housewife facade. Always a step ahead of the chaos her past leaves behind, there is nothing for her to do but find something or someone new to manipulate and if she must commit crimes to do it, so be it, it’s nothing new.

This time, however, she is getting messy and committing acts that make one question whether there is any humanity within her soul. Through a friendship, she seeks salvation and once she sets her plan in motion, no one is safe. Then we, the reader, go backwards through snippets of her life with her father and the ways they began to leave her mother. Is she a victim? What is the point of lies, what if lies are the only way a person has been taught to survive? Just how damaging is a life of constant renewal and creation? What did dear old daddy teach her, what about her first real love? Her past is poisonous and there are secrets she doesn’t know either.

Gracie is a complicated character, she is disturbed but there are times when I felt empathy while being horrified and disgusted. Monsters really are sometimes made, but can they change? The children, I love that the author lends innocents to the story. Her children are young but not so young that she can always control what comes out of their mouths, and it’s heart breaking to hear the confusion when mommy lies and her child corrects her! Does she love her children? In the only way she knows how, but not enough to stop living the only life she knows.

When she invents another life, she seems one breath away from collapse. It’s shocking how easy people slip out of their suspicions, how their own emotional state blinds them. I didn’t want her to get away with what she’d done, and I also wanted salvation for her and the children. I would love to dissect the entire novel, but I don’t want to give away what happens. Could people really be so gullible? Yes, of course. At the start of the story she is conning people, nothing really dark, easy cons- until the rot emerges through opportunities. Sometimes the devil is in the people you let in. Who better to be a drama teacher than a woman who lives an artificial existence? Just who are you Gracie Mueller?

Publication Date: August 7, 2018

Crown Publishing

Geeze this book was a wild ride! Talk about unreliable narrators.

A twisty turny psychological read that will keep you fully engrossed. Some technical details were off but hey you can't win them all.

The narrator is a true scam artist. Any scam will do. She runs all kinds of scams. This book is a plethora of scams. The reader finds themselves wondering how soon the narrator will be caught in her web of lies. But that turns out to just be the tip of the iceberg.

Very much enjoyed reading this.

From other reviews, I had expected to like this more. Seemed a bit overdone, like it was trying to hard.
Thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

On the surface, Grace leads a charmed life, she has two children and a husband who loves her. Underneath, however, she’s has a lot of secrets. Secrets about her past, about who she really was and what she did. When her husband loses his job, Gracie has to return to her old life, her old way of making a buck – she steals identities. So far she’s managed to get away with it, but her new identity lands her a job as a drama teacher, and she suddenly finds herself questioning her life style choices and why she made them to begin with. An intense and intricately woven tale