Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West : Book Review

Let’s face it – raising a family can be challenging. Raising a family in the era of social media is even more challenging. Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West is the story of one woman who changes her perspective when life throws her several curveballs.

Plot Summary

Alice Sullivan feels she has it all. She has a great job as an architect and interior designer, is married to a successful man who she adores, and has two perfect children. She displays her perfectly designed home and life on her business instagram page with pride. She has great friends who meet regularly and discuss the local gossip. That is, until the one day her perfect world starts to fall apart. At a parent teacher interview that takes place while her husband is out of town, she’s told that her seven year old daughter is not reading at the level she needs to be at in order to move on to the next grade. During this interview, she’s called by twelve year old son Teddy’s middle school regarding a situation that must attended to immediately. All this on the day she was to meet her wealthy, new potential clients she’s hoping to impress.

Alice quickly determines that Teddy’s behaviour this day is actually part of a pattern she wasn’t aware of. The school community, including several of Alice’s friends, soon begin to gossip about Teddy and question Alice’s parenting skills. Through a series of events surrounding Teddy and his peers’ access to social media, a perfect storm of events transpire which questions everything she thought she knew about Teddy.

Alice’s chaos does not stop there. As if life wasn’t stressful enough for Alice, her mother drops a bombshell that she’s been holding for more than thirty years. This new development has Alice questioning her own relationship with her mother as she tries to determine her own new normal.

Book Review

I absolutely loved this book. The characters were well developed and the story insightful. I found the book to be entertaining, and it flowed easily. I felt empathy for Alice and followed with interest how she would manage to reconcile all these stressors. The author highlights parenting in the age of smart phones and presents relevant information for all parents to consider.

What I Liked About Are We There Yet

• Great character development with likeable characters
• It highlights the impact of social media on children
• It is highly engaging with great flow to the story