Advice columnist Annie "married up" and is living a life completely foreign to her roots. Caught in the web of finding a suitable school for her kindergartener (to ensure entry to an Ivy League at 5 years old, natch!) she can see the ridiculousness of it all even through her involvement. Her nemesis, Belinda, the one whose son is always competing for spots in the best schools with Annie's son, has also seemingly become very close colleagues with Annie's husband.

Good general adult fiction novel, but I always love the stories of societal drama set in schools. I like the format of the book which includes some of Annie's columns and emails between Annie and her editor, which are completely ridiculous, but somehow believable.

This is an unusual novel, which at has some extremely fine writing, but it’s simply too much. I felt overwhelmed by the plots and subplots and multiple strands. This means that there are too many names and at times I felt lost. It’s the story of Annie Lewin, mother, writer, wife, friend, who is suffering from stress and hallucinations. I’m honestly not sure why Annie had to be everything. Yet, even with all the different roles, there is a definite predictability.

It seems that the intended main plot is the Manhattan obsession among a very elite class, to get children into a few super, exclusive schools, which these people believe will guarantee them admission to the colleges deemed worthy of attending. So, Annie is the midst of this maelstrom when her 4 year old must move into kindergarten. At the same time she becomes known for her web based column, Mother Superior. Readers get to sample her writing, which is certainly the best part of the book. For me, the BUT is all the issues surrounding her which for some reason includes weird hallucinations. Is Brickman trying to inject a sci-fi element?

I thank Netgalley for this ARC of a novel by a talented writer.