Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Other Parents

If you liked Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty then you'll probably like this.

This is a multi-POV story centring a small school community. West Burntridge is the sort of small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. Drama is kicked off by the PTA opposing new LGBTQIA inclusive curriculum. We know from the start that things will escalate to a court date. We just don't know what crime has been commited.

Lately the gossip mill had been fuelled by local celebrity, Rachel Saunders moving her husband out of their family home and moving her new girlfriend in. Its easy to understand why the PTA's homophobic rhetoric would feel like a direct attack.

It's centred around and told from the perspective of 5 very different women. Lots of really important, heavy, topics are tackled and handled in very interesting, nuanced ways.

The characters are flawed and not entirely likable but it's all compelling.

I hadn't seen anyone talking about this book but it was great. Read it.

Content Warnings

ellalucys's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

louisericks's review

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dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I really liked this. It took a while to get into, especially because of the four different points of view, and at first I wondered whether they were all needed. They were needed, but some main characters were stronger than others, so it felt like one of the four points of view was more of a convenience. The story was interesting though and took a turn that I didn't predict, which I like. And it's great to read some contemporary sapphic fiction that isn't purely romance.

Content Warnings

ilhaanreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

elementarymydear's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book drew me in with it’s premise, it’s setting, and kept me hooked for hours at a time. The start of the book delivers on the promise of the blurb: at a small town’s primary school, battle is waged between an out-and-proud mother of three and the homophobic head of the PTA. Before long though, the story takes a much darker turn, as secrets are revealed and loyalties tested.

First of all, the things that worked for me: I really liked the multiple perspectives. Sometimes too many perspectives can feel crowded, but I thought it was done really well and helped us to understand all the characters’ points of view. There was very little communication between the characters or development of one particular character, so having those multiple perspectives really helped us as readers understand where all of the different characters were coming from.

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This is the sort of book that you cannot put down. I read the whole thing in one day, picking it up every spare minute to find out what happened next. Every time I said to myself “okay, last chapter”, there was a big reveal and I had to know what happened next.

The problem I had though, is that the pacing and the plot relied too much on the big reveals and not enough on the actual development of the characters or storyline. The first half of the book, with the initial premise, never felt resolved or completed, as the story became something else entirely that bore little to no relation to the beginning. If I had known what the plot actually was, I don’t know if I would have picked this book up (and I recommend to anyone wanting to read this book that you check the content warnings first).

With all the big twists and reveals, I found myself being pulled out of the story as it became less believable. Some storylines, shocking when first revealed, turned out to be nothing much. Some things were extreme but didn’t feel as important as they should have. Some things felt too unrealistic; surely a headteacher would know more laws regarding minors than she seemed to in this book? Some things were just little bug bears: I have never met a homophobe who hasn’t made a point of getting the letters “LGBTQ” wrong, or similar moments where frankly the politically incorrect words would have made more sense coming from the characters thinking or saying them. All of these things are little things, but they added up as the book progressed and ultimately undermined it for me.

Overall, while I was gripped while reading this book, it was the plot that let it down for me as it progressed.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

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