A review by jaclynday
Cutting Teeth by Julia Fierro

3.0

Hmm. I don’t know. This novel (about a group of New York-based members of a mommy group doing a weekend together with their families at the beach) was stressful. I like flawed, annoying characters as a general rule, but this group’s passive aggressive/sometimes actually aggressive in-fighting grew exhausting. There is the requisite adulterous temptation and the sanctimommy of the group unable to shut up about how advanced her child is. (The others think the girl is sociopathic instead.) There are the kids, causing extreme emotional grief and upset for the parents. The kids bite each other. They whine. They cry. One suffers a particularly memorable midnight constipation episode. There are at least 15 personal or interpersonal conflicts happening in one claustrophobic beach house and I stopped caring about most of it about halfway through. I enjoy fiction about parents dealing with honest, realistic problems, whether in their partnership (or non-partnership), or in their life in general or what-have-you, but goddamn—these people were awful. It was an interesting setting and the issues each character faced were compelling, but the characters themselves—my god. The increasingly unrealistic events of the book were emotionally manipulative—a propulsion system designed to keep me reading. “I know you hate these people by now, but how will they cope with THIS AWFUL THING? STAY TUNED!” If nothing else, this is an excellent cautionary tale: A weekend vacation with dramatic adults and too many kids in a too-small house is no vacation at all.