Review: Are We There Yet? By Kathleen West (Blog Tour)

Genre: 

Fiction 

Format: 

E-ARC 

Publisher: 

Berkley 

Release Date: 

March 16, 2021 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Among fake Instagram pages, long-buried family secrets, and the horrors of middle school, one suburban mom searches to find herself.

Alice Sullivan feels like she's finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son's school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin.

When it comes to light that the incident is part of a new behavior pattern for her son, one complete with fake social media profiles with a lot of questionable content, Alice's social standing is quickly eroded to one of "those moms" who can't control her kids. Soon she's facing the very judgement she was all too happy to dole out when she thought no one was looking (or when she thought her house wasn't made of glass).

Then her mother unloads a family secret she's kept for more than thirty years, and Alice's entire perception of herself is shattered.

As her son's new reputation polarizes her friendships and her family buzzes with the ramification of her mother's choices, Alice realizes that she's been too focused on measuring her success and happiness by everyone else's standards. Now, with all her shortcomings laid bare, she'll have to figure out to whom to turn for help and decide who she really wants to be.

My Review

Alice Sullivan has her hands full with two young children, a full time career and her husband out of town most of the time on business.  She’s totally thrown for a loop when her daughter’s teacher informs her that she has a reading problem.  Then she learns her 12-year old son is being accused of bullying.

Her first inclination is to make light of the situation because she knows these things can’t be true of her children.  However, it’s not long before she realizes things are much worse than she thought.

This is a realistic look into today’s world of kids getting involved in social media, bullying, betrayal and denial.  I felt the characters were realistically portrayed although they continued making poor decisions, but that’s part of reality.  We don’t all make the right choices and children aren’t always perfect either.  

There are other characters in this book, such as Alice’s friends and other kids, but the main focus is on Alice and her family.

Each chapter is written in the POV of a different character.  It gives readers a chance to get into everyone’s head.  For me, I quickly devoured this book. It was fast-paced and the technique of changing the POV with each chapter worked well for me.

By the end of the book, all the loose ends are wrapped up, although a bit abruptly.  Still, it’s a satisfying ending.  I was completely absorbed in this story.

For reading challenges:

Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2021

Literary Escapes Reading Challenge 2021 (Minnesota)

NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2021

FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.