A series of humorous stories about Baldwin High School faculty. Cute, easy read. It was so much fun.

This was a quick, engaging read. It felt nostalgic, bringing up hidden memories from high school. I liked the different POVS.

I absolutely loved The Faculty Lounge! I am a retired educator, and the story about the workings of a high school rang so true. I appreciated the comments staff made about upper administration and high stakes testing! The book is filled with likeable and relatable characters. Great read!

“What happened to institutions when they were no longer needed? What happened to legends when they retired? With each passing day, these questions haunted her more and more frequently.”

“The Faculty Lounge” begins when an elderly substitute teacher dies in the lounge at Baldwin High School. The death of Mr. Lehrer briefly shakes the school but, after the PTO president discovers the teachers and principal carrying out his final wishes to scatter his ashes on campus, the school finds itself under a microscope the size of the book’s Texas setting.

Each chapter of the book is told through the perspective of a different teacher. We learn in flashbacks and through their eyes what brought them into the profession, how they experience the school and what they think about teaching in an increasingly volatile environment where learning vital things like critical race theory and kindness are coming under fire.

I don’t understand why this biting yet tender book isn’t getting more hype. Jennifer Mathieu has an incredible knack for creating relatable, big-hearted characters who are at once flawed and realistic. She makes smart, clear points without resorting to beat-you-over-the-head satire. This was a fun, first 5-star read of 2025.

*Thank you to Dutton Books for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.*

An entertaining book featuring a quirky group of characters who are teachers at a Houston high school. Full of problems, pressure, issues and memories.

REVIEW☕️🍎

The Faculty Lounge ~ Jennifer Matthieu
Pages: 304
Genre: Literary Fiction

An Ode to Educators…
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Oh boy, if you’re a teacher this is a must! An inside look at the life of educators - if you’ve been in a classroom, you will just get it! The impact of a close colleague, the luck in a janitor that does it all, the poorly timed PD, the holiday party white elephant, even the text chain that ensues over a parent’s wild email - The Faculty Lounge dives into all of it and couldn’t be more spot on.

I laughed, my heart swelled, I loved the accuracy, and I didn’t want to stop reading. And I haven’t really wanted to read for months. Even if you aren’t a teacher you will most certainly be taken back to a favorite of yours and enjoy getting an inside scoop. Highly recommend. I wish more people were talking about this one as it deserves all the praise!

Teachers do so, so much more than they are ever given credit for. I imagined this being a pretty light read. It was marketed as funny. There is a sarcastic humor throughout the book, but the various stories are more serious in nature. I was invested in the characters and touched by several of the stories. And it's a great reminder that a day in the life of a teacher is never just about teaching the subject matter and grading papers.

The Faculty Lounge takes place across the span of one school year, with the events of the book being kicked off by what is referred to as the courtyard incident. Mr. Lehrer, an English teacher turned substitute in his retirement, is found dead in the faculty lounge. According to his son, his wishes were for his ashes to be scattered in the courtyard of Baldwin High School. The principle, doing his best to follow Mr. Lehrer's wishes, conducts a small ceremony for staff that is discovered by the president of the PTA as the ashes of Mr. Lehrer are mistakenly scattered on the visiting parents. Each chapter of the book follows a different member of staff at Baldwin and explores their relationships to their work and to each other in the aftermath of the incident.

I found this book to be really sweet and funny. All of the characters had a lot of depth to them and it was fun to see their interactions with the other members of staff at the school. Mathieu is able to talk about more serious topics with humor as well as heart, making this book a very heartwarming read. This book will be a great one for readers who enjoy really getting to know characters, fans of realistic fiction, and I think it will also appeal to fans of Fredrik Backman.

Chaos, joy, and tragedy combine in this story of teachers and staff at a high school.

Told using multiple points of view. Teachers and staff are faced with a variety of issues in their work and personal lives.

The Faculty Lounge is a humorous contemporary novel. Heartwarming and entertaining.

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

The Faculty Lounge follows a group of teachers at the largest high school in Houston, TX. Working in education, I found this book equal parts entertaining and depressing. It is definitely true to life and provides a glimpse into several faculty member's lives including the principal, custodian, counselor, substitute teacher, nurse, and more. It really showed the struggles of education and the hardships educators face. The author is a teacher and wss able to capture the realities of education, both good and bad.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange be for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am grateful that the publishers allowed me to read and review a copy of this book.

A a teacher, I could relate to many of the characters in this book. While it sometimes got slightly too political for my personal liking, so many of the sentiments about teaching in public schools today were relevant, relatable, and funny. I really liked the approach that the author took in writing from a different perspective throughout the year. I especially loved hearing from a custodian’s point of view (the unsung heroes of our schools!) and loved the way the book ended in such a touching way. I will definitely recommend this book to my friends who work in education!

I was really drawn to the premise of this book and it was so much more than I thought it would be. I liked that it presented different pov's throughout and that this book really came full circle in such a compelling way. There was a lot of this that was somewhat relatable and current. The character development was really good and offered something unique. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley. I want to read more from this author in the future.

As a former high school teacher turned librarian, I was really excited to read this book. It started off great with an interesting cast of teachers and a dead body in the teachers lounge. I think I thought I might be in store for a bit of a mystery. However, the plot really became more about the fallout after the death of a substitute teacher and the effect he had on the school when he was a teacher there. I think there are some parts of this story that will really resonate with teachers, and the book itself is a story I can see recommending to lots of readers.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group DUTTON for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Faculty Lounge chronicles a year in the lives of the faculty and staff of a public high school in Texas and is a tribute to the trials (good and bad) and tribulations of working in the field. Each of the characters bring their views on the profession and what it's like working in education. There's satire, humor and connection. The book uses multiple points of view to tell the story.

If you are a teacher, know a teacher or have any experience in the field of education, you don't want to miss this one!

A series of humorous stories about Baldwin High School faculty. Cute, easy read.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I probably liked this more because of my time working as a substitute teacher, and I could not stop thinking about a sub who sat down with me at lunch one day and complained that he wasn't allowed to go back to a school where he had fallen asleep while supervising a class.
There isn't really a mystery here, but it's interesting that it starts with a substitute teacher dying while on break and then reveals the stories behind the different people who work in the school. Mr Lehrer was a beloved teacher before he retired and came back as a substitute, and he and the other teacher, students, and parents have so much effect on each other. I think anyone who has worked in education or been involved in school or who remembers what it's like to be in school might enjoy this.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

The cover should have tea, not coffee on it, because Jennifer Mathieu spills the tea on what it's like working in public education in America today. It's a zany, satirical, and humorous look at teaching, but I think it would appeal to anyone working in a large staff environment.

This book starts a bit crazy, and there are some zany antics, but honestly much happens, really, and that’s the charm of this novel - it’s about a year of ordinary teachers living their lives, doing their jobs, and reflecting on their careers. I enjoyed getting to know each of them in their chapters, and being a teacher myself I got the sense that there was so much reality here about what teaching is really like. Each part reads like a vignette about that person, but it all comes together into a cohesive whole, and it’s delightful.

CW: abortion, forced pregnancy, forced adoption, death, alcoholism, alcohol, infidelity, school shooting (mentioned), grief, death of a spouse, miscarriage (mentioned), death of a parent, cancer (mentioned), stroke (mentioned)

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group DUTTON for providing me with a free e-ARC of this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Chronicling a year in the lives of the faculty and staff of a public high school in Texas, The Faculty Life is both at times a satire and a powerful love letter to the profession. The overt formality of the third-person POV (which kind of tosses between omniscient and limited) does take a moment to get used to, but I think the interesting choice in POV works well for this book. With deep dives in each character featured in this book, Mathieu highlights the complexities and multitudes of the people who work in education as well as share in the challenges and joy this profession brings.

So if you’re looking for a contemporary fiction that accurately portrays what it’s like to work in education or you want a feel-good novel to end the year with, I recommend checking out this book.

The blurb for this book and the actual book do not match. There was no mystery and I felt that the story line was lacking depth. I didn't find it interesting. The book had several different POV's from faculty members reminiscing on fond memories, but I didn't fell a connection to any of them. It was just sweet. I think this would have been better as a short story or maybe if there was an actual mystery. I think it would have been much more interesting if it were framed as a faculty murder mystery party or even a real murder at the school.