This book is maybe the easiest read I've had in a long time. I'm somewhat surprised to say so because of how many characters and POVs there are. It could be a product of the pacing, short chapters, or content, likely a combination of the three.
Kathleen's ability to suck me in was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. I might be a little traumatized as a mother of an almost middle schooler, but I guess I'll have to put my head down and survive.
That being said, I think this is a consuming read. I greatly appreciate that I sympathized for each character from their individual POV and had to give them side-eye when they were not. It's like a tennis match; I felt my attention and concern volleying from character to character sometimes within a couple of paragraphs.
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the review team with @berittalksbooks. All thoughts in this review are my own.

I don't know why this book didn't quite do it for me. Could be several reasons. First- I'm literally living the life of having middle schoolers and figuring things out and taking kids to soccer and having a husband who is going all the time...so maybe it's not so fun reading about things when you are in the middle of it?

I also found all of the characters pretty unlikeable and pretentious. What the heck was it with Meredith's obsession with Sadie being thin and obsessing over what she feeds her? Yuck. The characters kind of all just thought they were better than each other and spent the whole time secretly judging one another. And yes, there was some growth by the end, but it just didn't redeem anyone for me.

I felt similarly about Abbi Waxman's Other People's Houses and Bruce Holsinger's The Gifted School. I'm simply not a fan of reading books about spoiled, privileged, pretentious people and their problems.

I loved this book and it freaked me out too. Probably because Teddy is the same age as my son and junior high is hard for both of us. Ms. West is real in her descriptions of family life with 2 working parents and some family secrets that come out. Timing in life is never right and she does a great job of showing that.

Are We There Yet by @kathleenwestwrites is a rare combination of laugh-out-loud funny and sit-your-kids-down-and-have-a-long-talk horrifying that speaks to being a parent.

The story is about an incident between two boys that’s probably more complicated than it seems on the surface and skyrockets to affect their families and years-long friendships. It’s told from multiple points of view (I think seven). We hear from each of the three moms in a friend group, a few of the middle schoolers involved in the upset, and one therapist grandmother who’s going through an awakening of her own.
The group we don’t hear from are the dads, who all seem to be present and involved (although one is working out of town weekdays), but aren’t given their own voice. Which I think speaks to an important truth I’m not sure I can put my finger on.

The mothers identities are wrapped up in their kids. Some are embarrassed by how their kids reflect on them, some are obsessed with achievement, some have built their lives around supporting their kids in just the right ways to the point of coming off closer to narcissistic than helpful. I say some because there’s overlap in how each deals and I recognized myself in so much of it. I’m not any of these characters, but I’ve acted like all of them and my identity too tied up in my children most days.

My husband is very involved, but I think he knows how to separate and not blame himself. I’m not sure why that’s so much harder for mothers. Or I should say some mothers.

Are We There Yet made me think a lot about technology in my kid’s lives and what I could be doing better or differently, but doesn’t really provide any easy answers. Probably because there aren’t any. The book also makes you think a lot about female friendships and why moms can’t be more supportive and less judgy when we’re all going through different versions of the same thing.

This book comes out Tuesday and I definitely recommend it, even though I wouldn’t characterize it as an easy read. It was, however, compulsively readable.

Thank you to @netgalley, @berkleypub, & @bookishladiesclub for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Middle school was a hard enough time, but adding in technology and social media just seems like a recipe for disaster. And this book makes it crystal clear how hard it is for kids and their parents.

There’s a bunch of different POVs in the story, but it actually added to the depth of the story rather than making it confusing. The story unfolds from the POV of 7 different characters, allowing us to see various sides of what is occurring.

I liked Alice at first, and felt empathetic towards her. But as her life slowly fell apart, her selfish and shallow nature was revealed. I started to see her as more concerned about how people saw her, rather than being concerned about what was actually occurring and how to fix it. Her behavior became more erratic, and she pushed away all the people who were trying to help her.

It wasn’t just Alice, either. Her friend Meredith grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard, too. She acted like she was better than everyone else, and felt vindicated in doing so. It’s like each of the moms in this book was in a competition to have the more perfect life, the more perfectly behaved children, and to be the more perfect parent. It ultimately led to a climate where they encouraged their children to avoid responsibility for their actions.

And the kids? They made horrible choices during the book, but let’s be realistic. They’re 12 years old. And kids at that age are known for making poor choices and doing dumb things. It just felt like the parents were all too busy trying to claim that their kids were little perfect angels, and convincing themselves that their parenting was flawless, so their children would never do anything wrong. Because just like the kids weren’t taking responsibility for their actions, neither were the parents.

One of the POVs was Alice’s mother, and she kind of irritated me also. She was a therapist, but insisted on pushing Alice beyond her limits, even after Alice had clearly stated that she wasn’t ready. It felt like for so much of the book, everyone was so selfish.

While there was a lot of blame being thrown around, there was also a lot of growth throughout the story. That’s what really saved the story for me. It made it feel realistic, as the parents learned how to navigate changes in their relationships with children as they grew up and began asserting their independence. And the kids started to learn that there were consequences for their actions.

I liked that therapists in session were portrayed realistically, but that they were also showed as having flaws in their personal life. So many books fail to portray therapists appropriately, but HIPAA was even brought up and the language even sounded right, which I, as a therapist, appreciated.

Halfway through the book, I wasn’t sure I liked where it was going, but by the end, I really did enjoy it. It was a quick and easy read with short chapters, making it easy to fly through the read in less than 24 hours.

Alice has always felt superior to her friends. She has a great job, a great husband, and her kids aren't like her friends' kids. That's what she thought, until naivete is replaced with a cold splash of reality. Her daughter is falling behind in reading. Her mother has been keeping a secret for three decades. Her son, her darling sweet son, is wielding technology as a weapon against his classmates, and as he grows older, he's pulling further away from her. Unable to hide behind the faults of her friends and other people's children, Alice must look in the mirror and deal with her family's flaws, and her own flaws, before everything is torn apart at the seams. Her life was perfection, and now it isn't, and maybe it won't be again, but can Alice be okay with that?

This is one of those stories that reads like a slowly derailing train wreck, where the drama hits hard, you feel for the parents and the children as it all unfolds, and sometimes they make one terrible mistake after another, and you want to grab them by the shoulders and yell, "Get it together!" But I digress. Alice definitely reads like one of those PTA moms who thinks she's got it all together, but her kid's doing something awful she doesn't even know about. Still, I did sympathize with her a tad, because motherhood is difficult, and as kids get closer to being teens, they can become more unruly and keep more of their antics close to the chest.

The struggles that Alice, her children, and her friends go through are topical, dealing with social media, fake profiles, bullying, modern parenting, and the dangers of making assumptions about others. Because of that, it might at times feel difficult to genuinely like these characters, but I think that aligns with the tone and message of the story, which is that raising a family is a flawed process, and even the so-called perfect families don't make it out unscathed. Are We There Yet?, the latest story from Kathleen West, is recommended to parents, individuals who like genuine family drama, or those who wonder about the impact of technology on children.

⭐⭐⭐.5/5⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

3.5 / 5

So as I was reading this book I couldn’t help but think, I’m so glad I’m past the teenage years with my kids!

The story centers around three kids in the seventh grade: Teddy, Tane, and Sadie. We hear from the kids, and parents alike, but the parent that is given the most voice is Alice Sullivan, Teddy’s mom.

Alice is a working mom with two kids and whose husband is constantly away for work. When her twelve-year son, Teddy, gets in trouble for pantsing a boy at school, it sets off a downward spiral for Alice and her family.

This story deals with a lot of very important topics. Certainly a warning flag of the hidden dangers of social media. Teddy, Sadie, and Tane get themselves in very dangerous situations using social media, even with their parents thinking they have “controls” in place.

So what did not work for me in this book was the negativity. As Teddy gets into more trouble, Alice gets less and less support. Her mother is a psychologist and I found her condescending and belittling. Also, Alice starts to not trust Teddy, giving in to believing what other parents and kids say about Teddy. And, per usual, one of the kids comes out of this looking way too innocent.

West does give us a lot to chew on though - social media, bullying, parenting, teen drama, and family dynamics. She even throws in a little comic relief in the way of some crude graffiti popping up around town.

Thank you to @berkleypub @netgalley for a #gifted copy for the #BLCVIPBookClub buddy read.

This book will be available on March 16, 2021.

Are We There Yet? is an intriguing bit of domestic drama. I'll admit that this genre is a bit of hit or miss for me, often leaning toward the latter, but Kathleen West does such a good job of getting into the heads of these characters that I was quickly caught up in their lives. This is a story about tweens and their parents - each with different parenting styles, but more than that, it's about things not always being what we think they are and how quickly what seems like an as close to perfect as possible life can spiral out of control.
Rather than get into spoiler territory, I'll just tell you what stood out most for me was the characters. Love them or hate them, and most were in the latter category, they felt real enough to touch. These felt like people I'd see around my small town, people others might gossip with or gossip about, people I could know. I may not have agreed with many of the decisions these characters made, but the whole thing felt like something you could hear about in real life. And at the same time, West gives us a nice little escape from our everyday lives as we get sucked into Alice's drama.
To sum it up,. Are We There Yet? is well written with a steady pace, and the characters are wonderfully drawn. This is my first time reading Kathleen West's work, but it certainly won't be my last, and I'd recommend this one to anyone who enjoys domestic drama or women's fiction.

This is a scary read for me in the way that my oldest is almost these kids age and the things they go through in the book, I'm not ready for!
These kids have social media galore at their fingertips and though they are closely monitoted by their parents (apps turned off at certain times, getting to read through messages at will)... Kids are smart and find their way around their parents protections.

There are a lot of people in this book and it took me most of the book to get them all straight. What kids belonged to what parents and such. Alice is at the center POV and she is feeling with a lie. Trying to do well at her job while her lawyer husband is away and having to deal with her kid turned bully? Plus, she just found out her adoptive mom is in touch with her biological daughter and Alice starts kind of acting like a teen herself.

I was bored for the first penalty 60% of this book and all quit... It did pick up a bit but I didn't love this one. It was just ok for me.

Alice is in the middle of her second grader’s parent-teacher conference, which isn’t going as well as she’d hoped, when her phone rings. A call from the junior high is rarely a good thing, and Alice is horrified to learn her son Teddy has been suspended for bullying.

Alice confides in her closest friends — Meredith, whose daughter Sadie has been friends with Teddy since kindergarten, and Nadia, no stranger to the principal’s office due to her son’s behavioral problems. Only her friends aren’t as supportive as she’d hoped, her husband is out of town for business for the foreseeable future, her boss is not understanding of her family problems, and her mother drops another bomb, revealing a secret she’s kept for Alice’s entire life.

Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West is a multiple POV novel, switching between the moms, Alice and Meredith, the tweens, Teddy and Sadie, and Alice’s own mom, Evelyn. I enjoyed having Teddy’s and Sadie’s viewpoints, and I think West did a good job of getting into the minds of kids who are not handling the transition from elementary school and the onset of puberty very well. Evelyn’s story was the one I liked least and she was way too self-centered for someone who’s a therapist, often deserting her daughter when she really needs her.

I definitely felt for Alice, having been blindsided by behavioral and educational issues with my own kids. Fortunately my friends are a lot more supportive than hers, though Nadia does come through in the end. Alice and Meredith growing apart as their kids grow up also hit home for me.

The use of social media was also spot-on – the posts on NextDoor by nosy neighbors, the kids having Finstas and SnapChat hidden from their parents, a sexting scandal from those you’d least expect it. Some X-rated graffiti appearing all over town adds a lightheartedness to the story, though the hashtag included with it isn’t fully explained.

Parents of middle schoolers, former middle schoolers, or people who were once middle schoolers themselves will enjoy this novel.

With a twelve year old daughter set to be a seventh grader next year this one read a bit like a cautionary tale to me. I don’t mean that in a bad way, more like it brought all my worst fears to life but in a very relatable, witty and entertaining way. It tackles some very relevant and timely topics and I think many parents will be super engaged with this one.

I love a family drama, and even better for me is when there are multiple points of view and this one has several. You have from Alice and her son Teddy, and her mom Evelyn. Then there’s Meredith and her daughter Sadie and a couple of random chapters from other characters that I don’t want to spoil. It provided a delicious birds eye view of the events that unfolded in an insightful way and I was totally wrapped up in the drama of all of the characters. A really engaging read that surprisingly gave me a lot to think about.

Wow as a mom of a middle schooler this book scared me a little. Reading the story about the difficulties and drama in middle school had me at wow! The way Kathleen unfolds this story was really good. As much as this book is a fiction man with the hot topics of social media, parental control and so many other hot topics it sometimes reads as a self help. Like momma’s beware! Def had a huge talk with my kids after reading. I look forward to reading more from Kathleen West! Her writing is brilliant and the way she tackles hard real life situations is amazing!

This was a modern suburban drama told from the point of view of multiple families. Usually a book with so many characters would get confusing, but the author did a great job of giving each of them a unique and interesting voice.

Speaking of characters, I have to say that I recognize a lot of the characters in this book: the helicopter parenting, the constant checking of the school portal, social media impacting young lives. The story felt very real and very now.

I think this book works as a cautionary tale of what happens when parents and children stop communicating. I do appreciate that the book ended on a high note.

I recommend this book to readers who enjoy contemporary fiction about families.

3.5/5

Alice is a mom who feels like she has it all together, but her life starts to unravel as a family secret is divulged and her son begins to be involved in conflict at school.

I was so excited for this book as I ADORED Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes last year. It started out with a bang and I couldn't put it down. However, I feel like the book got a bit inundated with the kid's drama and focused a little bit less on the adults, so this is where it lost me. There's no doubt that Kathleen West has a gift for writing how difficult it is to be a parent and the drama that can happen in suburban land, and while I know what was going on with the children was necessary for the story, I was tired of hearing the banter between 12 year olds. It was quite horrifying, and as a parent of a 13 year old it scares me.

It was an okay book. I'm glad to have read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for and ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Le sigh. It’s so hard for me to write this review. I loved Kathleen’s West previous book, Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes. It was such an engaging and thoughtful exploration of parenting, high school, popularity, family, and connection. I was expecting more of the same from Are We There Yet? And while West did manage to create another engaging, emotionally- and situationally-complex story, in the end, my biggest gripe about Are We There Yet? is that I was so disappointed with where the characters ended up. Poor Alice gets served nothing but a garbage sandwich for the entire book, and even though it was all such a DOWNER, I tolerated it, because I thought she’d have her “Wait! I matter! You can’t treat me like that!” moment. But that moment never came, and I couldn’t understand her decisions, and especially her willingness to be bullied. By, like, everyone. Constantly.

I don’t want to give away too much, but I’ll say that the ending was completely unsatisfying. Yes, there is resolution. But the people who treated Alice so badly never get told what’s up. Alice never stands up for herself in a clear, adult, meaningful way. She just takes the abuse until she throws a tantrum like a toddler, disengages, apologizes to everyone else, and then…that’s it. No one else takes accountability. No one else apologizes. (Don’t even get me started on her mother…) There’s just a weird unspoken acknowledgment that, well, people behaved badly and it’s best not to talk about it. Let’s all move on…separately. I just don’t get it. I finished the book and felt angry and sad for Alice and her family. And irritated about the time I wasted reading this book. I’m sorry to say that I just wasn’t a fan of this one.

Kathleen West wrote a book that read like an HBO mini series.

Quick chapters with each one leaving you wanting more information. The character flow was phenomenal. The realness of Motherhood and expectations was great. She also did great connecting us with the two tween characters in the story.

This book is almost an entertaining manual to raising tweens/teens today.

This domestic drama held my interest from the beginning throughout the entire book.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for fair and honest review.

This one is good, suburban drama with middle school kids and fake Instagram accounts, hidden Snapchats and all the drama that can come with bad social media behavior. Oh, and don't forget the moms! This one is about 7th graders but having a 5th grader and a 9th grader in my house, I felt like the kids in this book acted closer to 8th-9th graders. That may not sound like a big difference but during those tween years, one year can make a huge developmental difference. Besides the age group, it felt pretty true to that phase of life. I did like Alice's storyline with her mom (not saying anything else because of spoilers). I definitely know some of the moms that are written in this book in real life! Super relevant and engrossing read. This book reminded me of recent books like Fleishman is in Trouble, The Gifted School, Admission and Cobble Hill so if any of those interested you, you might want to check this one out!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Books for the opportunity to read and review the sophomore novel by Kathleen West - 5 stars! I was a big fan of her debut, Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes, and this one is just as good! I'm a sucker for these type of realistic life stories.

This book finds three friends - Alice, Nadia and Meredith - with their three kids now in middle school. Alice is the one who wants it all - great job as an interior designer and two kids. But now she's questioning how she can do it - her husband is traveling all the time, oldest son Teddy is having issues at school, and younger daughter is having reading difficulties. Nadia has always been known as the mom with the kid with issues, Donovan. Meredith is the perfectionist and daughter, Sadie, is the perfect child - until she does something very wrong. Then there are the family secrets - because of course every family has them, right?

How each mom deals with their kids, each other and life in general is at the heart of this book. Anyone with kids will recognize themselves and their kids in this book. Can I just say once again how grateful I am that I raised my kids before the advent of social media? This is certainly a hot button in this book and for parents everywhere. West's writing style just pulls you into this world and I loved the escape!

I really enjoyed this book about the difficulties of middle school, both for the tweens and for their parents. Middle school is such a time of change and this book portrays those changes very accurately. As a parent of a child this age, it did scare me a bit! These kids have poor impulse control and parents need to be on the watch, although the parents in this book were a little helicopter like and the kids still misbehaved. It is not easy!