Cutting Teeth

by Julia Fierro

One of the most anticipated debut novels of 2014, Cutting Teeth takes place one late-summer weekend as a group of thirty-something couples gather at a shabby beach house on Long Island, their young children in tow.

They include Nicole, the neurotic hostess terrified by internet rumors that something big and bad is going to happen in New York City that week; stay-at-home dad Rip, grappling with the reality that his careerist wife will likely deny him a second child, forcing him to disrupt the life he loves; Allie, one half of a two-mom family, and an ambitious artist, facing her ambivalence toward family life; Tiffany, comfortable with her amazing body but not so comfortable in the upper-middle class world the other characters were born into; and Leigh, a blue blood secretly facing financial ruin and dependent on Tenzin, the magical Tibetan nanny everyone else covets. These tensions build, burn, and collide over the course of the weekend, culminating in a scene in which the ultimate rule of the group is broken.

Cutting Teeth captures the complex dilemmas of early mid-life—the vicissitudes of friendship, of romantic and familial love, and of sex. It confronts class tension, status hunger, and the unease of being in possession of life's greatest bounty while still wondering, is this as good as it gets? And, perhaps most of all, Julia Fierro’s thought-provoking debut explores the all-consuming love we feel for those we need most, and the sacrifice and self-compromise that underpins that love.

All this is packed into a page-turning, character-driven novel that crackles with life and unexpected twists and turns that will keep readers glued as they cringe and laugh with compassion, incredulousness, and, most of all, self-recognition. Cutting Teeth is a warm, whip-smart and unpretentious literary novel, perfect for readers of Tom Perrotta and Meg Wolitzer.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Family, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Parenting

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer(St. Martin’s Press, 2017) and Cutting Teeth (St. Martin’s Press, 2014).

A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where she was awarded a Teaching-Writing Fellowship, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and it has since become a creative home to over 3,500 writers in NYC, Los Angeles and Online. Sackett Street was named a “Best NYC Writing Workshop” by The Village Voice, Time Out NY, and Brooklyn Magazine, and a “Best MFA-Alternative” by Poets & Writers and the L Magazine.

Julia’s work has been published, or is forthcoming, in The Millions, Poets & Writers, Flavorwire, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications, and she has been profiled in the L Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The Observer and The Economist.

She lives in Brooklyn and Santa Monica with her husband, writer Justin Feinstein, and their two children. She can be found online at juliafierro.com and on Twitter @juliafierro

Reviews

[Oriana]

Full disclosure: I think Julia is just wonderful. I know her glancingly; we interact on the various social medias and have met a couple of times. She's an amazing literary force in Brooklyn, and I was just giddy to get my hands on this book.

In fact I was so giddy, I didn't really take a moment to see what the book was about, which was pretty boneheaded of me. Because what it's about is a slew of parents and their very young children. And because I am kind of a heartless asshole, those are just not topics I love.

This is a domestic drama with very clearly drawn and fully developed characters. The basics of the plot is that all the families in a Brooklyn playgroup spend a weekend together in a beach house on Long Island—that's five families, each with at least one child, covering various kinds of multiculturalism and progressive familial structures, which equals a whole lot of people under one roof. There's shifting alliances, snobbery, privilege, a particularly urban kind of paranoia, pregnancy and the aching lack thereof, children behaving badly, adults behaving worse, an ill-fated canoe trip, lots of mood enhancing drugs, a semi-magical nanny, the chasms caused by recalcitrant misunderstandings, and on and on.

Julia is a great writer, and this is a very well-constructed book. Just make sure before you pick it up that you (unlike me) can handle a good deal of baby talk interwoven into a plot.

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that was right up my alley. Mothers with young children? Check! Mommy group? Check. Unfortunately, what seemed like a perfect fit ended up being just the opposite.

Fierro has a great writing style. It's quite readable and her dialogue is spot on. My technical issue with this book is that the various narratives (I think there 6 or 7 narrators) never really comes together for me. I think that Fierro tried to bring everything together at the end, but it just didn't work for me.

Now, here is my personal issue with this book. I think that Fierro writes for a reader who has a sense of humor that differs from mine. My guess is that someone who leans toward sarcastic or cynical humor would probably enjoy this book more than I did. Frankly, I found this a very hard book to stand. The characters, in my view, were just stereotypes of issues that a parent might face. It is all fine and good to take an issue and build a character out of it, but Fierro seemed to be taking characters and building issues out of them. With the exception of Tenzin, the Tibetan nanny, I found every single adult (and many of the children) to be absolutely loathesome and, really, could care less about any of them.

A different reader may have a different take on this, but this reader says to skip this one.

I received an electronic copy of this book in return for an honest review. I received no other compensation for this post.

[Larry H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd rate this 3.5 stars.

Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalleys in exchange for an unbiased review.

It takes a talented author to keep you reading a book in which you're not very fond of many of the characters but you're so drawn into the plot you want to see where it leads. That is definitely the case with Julia Fierro's Cutting Teeth—while I found nearly every one of the characters tremendously unappealing because of their behavior and their attitude, I couldn't stop reading the book, even as I kept saying to myself, "God, I hate these people!"

A group of thirty-something parents in New York City, linked together by their children's playgroup, decides to spend Labor Day Weekend at a beach house on Long Island. Nicole, whose parents own the house, is a successful author and instructor who is becoming increasingly paralyzed by her phobias and fears, and her need to protect her son. She moves from obsession to obsession, from fears of swine flu and bird flu to fixation on a rumor that a major attack will happen in New York City over the holiday weekend. She's barely holding it together, with thanks only to a hidden stash of marijuana she secretly smokes, but even that can't calm her down.

Leigh seems to have it all, but the former debutante is actually dealing with serious money problems and the pending discovery of a secret that could ruin her. Leigh's son, Chase, is sweet but developmentally challenged, and he is straining her patience and her marriage. If it weren't for her Tibetan nanny, Tenzing, she would be utterly lost.

Allie and Susanna are newlyweds who met when Allie was Susanna's college instructor. They're the parents of twin boys, and Susanna is now pregnant with a third child and resents that she put her art career on hold for motherhood and to allow Allie's career to continue to thrive, while Allie isn't sure she's cut out for motherhood or the domesticity of married life and the beach house outside of the city that Susanna so craves.

Rip is the only father in the playgroup. Although he considers himself just one of the mommies, he never stops reminding the women that he's all man, despite the fact that his wife, Grace, is the breadwinner and refuses to consider having a second child so Rip can continue being a stay-at-home dad. Although Rip is in love with their son, Hank, and loves being needed, Hank's sensitivity troubles him.

And then there's Tiffany, the only mother in the playgroup with a daughter (diva-in-training Harper), who vacillates between mean girl gossiping and playing the mothers against each other, flirting with Rip and using her sexuality to get what she wants, and being the know-it-all mommy who preaches organics and letting your child breastfeed until they're ready to stop. She'll stop at nothing to ensure her daughter gets the life she didn't have as a child.

As if five preschool children and an infant (as well as a pregnant mother) in one house weren't enough to cause chaos, all of the problems facing these parents and their individual foibles will come to a head during this weekend. Secrets will be revealed, relationships will be tested, fears will be exposed, and feelings (at the very least) will be hurt. Will these parents be able to keep their cool and retain their relationships with each other and their significant others? Will the world end over the weekend, as Nicole fears it will?

Cutting Teeth is a slightly over-dramatized look at modern-day parents in New York City. It's disturbing to think that people really behave and think this way, and you'll probably recognize someone you know in at least one of the characters. These are troubled, deeply flawed people, but for the most part, they are trying their best to be devoted parents, no matter how challenging that is given what is going on around them. I don't think I'd like being around these people in real life, but I found their fictionalized stories somewhat amusing, and I waited to see who would get their comeuppance.

I think this will be a fun and compelling beach read, as long as you don't plan to spend your time in a house with lots of little kids and other high maintenance parents. Perhaps the characters will annoy you as they did me, but hopefully you'll still find the story as readable as I did.

[Caeli Widger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, THE book that captures the complexity, intensity, and situational dilemmas of early mid-life. Set at a beach house at summer's end, CUTTING TEETH is, on the surface, about parenting young children and relating to other parents and to one's self. But it's more expansive and deeper than that, too: it's also about identity, the vicissitudes of romantic and familial love, sex at early-mid-life, class tensions, and the unease of being in possession of life's greatest bounty while still wondering, is this as good as it gets? It's about the terrifying, all-consuming love that we feel for our children, and the resentments and self-compromise that underpin it. It's about committing the bad behaviors we thought we'd leave behind I our 20s. All this, packed into a page-turning, character-driven novel that crackles with life and unexpected twists and turns that will keep readers glued as they cringe and laugh with compassion, incredulousness, and most of all, self-recognition.

[stacia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a novel about privileged Brooklyn parents and a Tibetan nanny in their employ for a summer weekend together. She quotes the Dalai Lama and speaks in broken, childish, singsong English. Her name is Tenzin.

I did finish this book but not without skimming some long passages of exposition meant to humanize the shrill, unlikable characters by giving them somewhat sympathetic back stories. Perspectives shift a lot but there wasn't a single point if view shift I was looking forward to. Some characters had just one predominant characteristic/compulsion, so ht whenever point of view shifted to them, their whole chapter is just more whining and plotting and handwringing about that one thing (Nicole = paranoia/prescription drug use; Leigh = special needs son/old money newly lost; Susanna = moving from the city to the country and morning sickness; Tiffany = manipulative social climber; Rip = infertile and obsessed with a second child). There's a lot of repetition of details and situations previously noted/revealed.

The Tenzin chapters also seem not only one note, but vaguely offensive, too. Her one characteristic/compulsion is to be reunited with her family, left in Tibet while she seeks U.S. asylum. She's uncomplicated and selfless, even in her own POV, caring as much (maybe more?) about her white employers' children than her own.

I see other readers have called this a "clear satire," but it's hard to tell. Even if the narrative exists to mock these parents and their pretension and frivolity, it fails for me. They're presented self-seriously and there isn't a narrative voice pushing back against the lot of them. Tenzin could've functioned as that voice if she herself weren't so earnest and Mammy-like.

I don't think I'm the audience for this book, but I can appreciate the strength of the descriptive work and dialogue. I liked some of the internal monologue we're often given. I also liked that some of the children (particularly Hank, Harper and Chase) seem fully realized.

[Edan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable, thoughtful book, one that made me laugh and nod in acknowledgment (the description of watching a toddler poop is terrific and totally accurate! Ha.), and gnash my teeth at the characters' (believable) dysfunction. Fierro has created fallible, complex and even frustrating characters. (Lordy, am I glad I don't raise my kid in Brooklyn! Those parents are cuh-razy!) I loved the shifting POV and the way it allowed me access into the private, conflicted minds of these people. I especially loved the nanny, Tenzin, and the stay-at-home dad, Rip. I thought Nicole was the most well-rounded of the group in some ways, and Fierro wonderfully evokes her anxieties, understandable and far fetched; I really felt for her.

Sometimes I wondered how this group of people could ever keep a moms/dad group together since they didn't seem to like each other much. I also found a few references to products--like one character's brand of jeans--distracting and unnecessary. That character, Allie, was distinctly drawn, particularly her struggles to be a parent and an artist, but her art career itself was convoluted to me, and I couldn't get a clear, real sense of what kind of photography she did.

Other than that, I was totally riveted by this one...!

[Sarah Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never knew I could hate a book as much as I hated this one. If everyone who doesn't have kids yet read this book, the human race would go extinct. I don't know who these people are that hate their children and their spouses and themselves so much, but I sure don't know them, nor do I want to.

[Keija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fierro's debut is witty, wise and wonderful. It's also, at times, excruciatingly real, and many parents will recognize themselves and their struggles in her characters, who are funny, irreverent, and far from perfect. Their mistakes--some mundane, and some of great consequence--make for a thoroughly entertaining read. In addition to the well-drawn characters, another strength of CUTTING TEETH is its pacing. I read this every night before bed, and thanks to the beautifully calibrated pacing, I just zipped along, page after page, until it was long past my bed time. While this book is smart and dark, it is also incredibly _pleasant_ to read, going down smooth as a nice glass of wine. And there's a great deal to be said for an author who has obviously thought a lot about the experience she is gifting the reader--I've read many an intellectually impressive novel where the author seems to forget all about the reader. Thankfully, Ms. Fierro doesn't do this. With her fluid and clear prose, she creates a world you want to live inside for as long as you can, peering in on the tangled lives of these flawed but sympathetic characters, cringing at their missteps, cheering their triumphs, marveling always at the complexity of the human condition always on display in this excellent book.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the woes of modern day parenting! Nicole decides to host a weekend getaway during summer's end at her parents beach house in Long Island for the parents and children of her playgroup. Shamed that the house isn't up to the groups high standards, Nicole can imagine just how disappointed her friends must be. Nicole has some serious issues, but so do the rest of them. Rip is the stay at home daddy of the group, who is yearning for another child, his career wife- not so much. There is also a dangerous attractive between him and one of the mommies. Allie, is the lesbian and hungers to rid herself of her family. She wonders where the exciting person her wife, Susanna, once was went. Tiffany is the beautiful, provocative one who had far more humble beginnings and still doesn't seem to fit into the high class group. Her friend Leigh has a Tibetan nanny named Tenzin who has a wonderful gift for soothing children and parents alike. Tiffany wants Tenzin's help for herself, regardless of how Leigh feels. Leigh and Tiffany's friendship seems to be falling apart, and unbeknownst to them all, Leigh is not as 'well off' as everyone thinks and may in fact have done something 'criminal'. There is a fracture running through all these friendships. Cutting Teeth is a study on how we try to fit in with other parents in order to help our own children develop and forge friendships. It is also an exploration on having children that are not biologically yours. There is a particular part in the novel involving Rip, about the way strangers react upon learning his child is not biologically his that touches the heart of the reader. It exposes how one always feels just a bit on the outside, despite being a fantastic father, often even more involved than those who are biological parents.
One of the children is struggling with his differences, and the way everyone feels about him will out over the weekend. The struggle when you're child is the 'odd man out' comes alive in Cutting Teeth. It will be a sore spot for parents with children who have been through this. Not everyone is delighted by the princess child of the group, Harper, either. As the friends relax and let inhibitions lose, the delicate structure of the group tears. What each feels about each other and their children is examined and revealed.
This is a novel of love and what we give up to build a family but it is also a story about how much we hold back to maintain friendships. It exposes too the vulnerability we risk in having children. Not all insights about the children and partners are kind, and that's what makes this novel believable. I really enjoyed how Fierro was able to get into the minds of each character. Good read!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) A hip, fun look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of becoming parents in the modern age, set over a New York City play group’s 2010 Labor Day getaway at a beach house. We get chapters from the perspective of eight out of the ten adults on the vacation – which means that you get a great range of perspectives and experiences, but you don’t necessarily go very deep with any of the characters. Only one of the highlighted characters is male, for instance, whereas other daddies are nonexistent or barely mentioned. I wondered what would have resulted if Fierro had tried some sections from the POV of some of the children, or even a fetus. “It was as if they’d landed on some foreign planet and were surrounded by a clan of small, bloodthirsty aliens” – why not try to get inside the heads of some of those aliens?

I didn’t much like the attempts at modern media, such as loads of text messages and interaction on the “Urbanmama” and “Tryingtoconceive” web forums. I also thought that the apocalyptic fervor stirred up by the 2010 swine flu worries seemed strangely dated and over-the-top. I couldn’t decide if I really liked Tenzin (the “Tibetan Mary Poppins” nanny two characters share) as a different voice – that of reason, poverty, spirituality and optimism – or if she just seemed clichéd, what with her habit of constantly quoting the Dalai Lama.

Despite these slight misgivings, I thought this was a great panoramic look at modern, worry-filled parenting, and how it brings together this very diverse bunch: “[Nicole] had spent hours and hours with them [other mommies and daddies] only because they shared the story, which was a comedy, and occasionally, a tragedy. A story about loving little children.” The novel will probably be most appreciated by yuppie parents with young children, but that doesn’t mean singletons and older folk can’t enjoy it all the same. I look forward to what Fierro will come out with next.

Related reads:
• Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld (another insider’s look at parenting)
• Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead (so much can happen in a weekend)
• The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For graphic novel by Alison Bechdel (there’s a lesbian couple in Cutting Teeth; Allie, probably my favorite character here, reminds me of some of Bechdel’s characters)

[Jes Singer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huh. This vacillated between a 1/2 and a 4 for me. It is a character study, of fairly uninteresting characters - NYC parents of young children (yes a category I happen to fall into) together for a weekend at a beach house on Long Island. Not plotty at all (truly nothing happens save for a couple of near-misses with the children) so not my favorite type of book to begin with, and I found most of the characters loathsome and unrelatable. Told in shifting viewpoints of 7 of the parents and one Tibetan nanny (by far the most likable, relatable character), the novel explores each of these person's insecurities in provocative, sometimes unbelievable, dialogue and thoughts. Interestingly, the only working parent whose voice we heard was also one of the more relatable, likable characters - Allie, the primary bread-winning-half of the one lesbian couple. Otherwise the "story" is told by the moms and one stay-at-home dad who formed the basis for the beach weekend - a Friday afternoon playgroup that had spanned a few years and cultivated these friendships and animosities. At first I hated these characters and the book and found it all unbelievable. The author largely created characters, really caricatures, around singular, cliche issues (over-anxiety, infidelity, infertility, social status concern, want to move to the suburbs, drug/alcohol abuse, etc.) that didn't resonate, seemed overdone, and didn't advance any story-line. But, the writing is filled with some very insightful observations on human nature and relationships that I loved and even evoked empathy for some of these people. The Tibetan nanny character, Tenzin, was extremely well done - gave a very unique perspective on the parents and children and linked all together nicely. I also loved her grappling with American idioms and the way the author cleverly wove these throughout as chapter titles and in the overall theme of deception/things not as they seem. So, although I found myself eye-rolling and thinking "who does that? No way!" several times throughout, I did enjoy the author's writing style, replete with some very insightful observations, analogy, clever imagery, and the more subtle themes beyond the insecurities. Not for everyone, but I ended up liking it much more than I thought I would at the outset.

[Robin Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia Fierro plunks her readers into a complete universe - a social sphere of the parents of Brooklyn, a child-centric society in which thirty-something adults seem torn between wanting to maintain their own identities and wanting to merge entirely with their kids. It's a subject that goes beyond the basic description of this book: A "mommy" group (including one daddy) spend a weekend together with their families at the beach where many mixed feelings, physical passions, and old tensions all come to head. That's all there and it's expertly and vividly conveyed. But really this is more than a weekend romp for the characters or the reader. It's a serious look at a very confusing time in the life of many contemporary (financially comfortable) parents, whether in Brooklyn or Brookline. The push of society that your kids and their over-programming be EVERYTHING to you; and the ensuing guilts and resentments that arise when that just isn't possible, or isn't what you want. The book also explores a phenomenon I find very interesting and know well: that of new parents who are panicky all the time, seemingly hysterical with fear at the new responsibility of keeping these tiny beings alive and well. There's so much ground covered here, much of it slyly slipped into the pure pleasure of the read and the social observation that's pointed and at moments wicked. CUTTING TEETH holds much more depth and insight than that first impression of a fun read - which it is - would imply. A wonderful debut that will find a huge, devoted audience.

[Jodi Paloni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I opened this book over a plate of pasta, alone one night at home for dinner. On page 56 I finally looked up, cleaned the kitchen, and climbed into bed so I could keep going. The novel is a domestic page turner. I could relate to all of the POV characters, of which, there are many. Julia employs the many voices of parents in a preschool play group to shine the light on human foibles and vulnerabilities as the characters try in vain to look like they have it all together. 'Cutting Teeth' portrays universal themes that span all groups (parents or not) and I can see this book as entertainment in the hands of just about anyone whose interest lies in the plight of community cultures as dealt with in fiction. The prose is solid. The story sharp. In particular, I was delighted and surprised by Julia's nanny character, Tenzin who is the the quiet observer, the outsider looking in. There is something very clever about a multiple POV novel having yet one more POV who is in some ways, the fly on the wall, witness to the sum of all of the parts. This is not your typical novel about parenting. Just look at the cover to believe me.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★ Loved this debut from Julia Fierro! It is a super good story about contemporary mothers (and fathers), parenting, friendships and what we all bring to the plate as parents. It is so well written, and the characters are so *alive* with so much personality that I still can't figure out which one was my favorite (Allie & Susannah have the edge...). I have a strong feeling that it is going to be a big hit! I could barely put it down. I will surely be recommending it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read it early. I loved it. I wish my review could do it justice.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Half a star because the cover is kindof cool, but that's being generous. I hated this! I raced through the last 100 pages this morning just so I could be done with it, and when I finally finished I pushed it away and exclaimed, loudly: "yuck!"

It is yuck. The characters are miserable and they made me feel miserable and I'm just not sure I get any of the alleged humor Fiero's trying for. Why would anyone want to spend a weekend with these horrible frenemies?

My friend Walker said, in her review of this, that it made her question her desire to have children. It made me question the goodness of people. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

[Julia Fierro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still think it's a decent book. ;)

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I began reading Julia Fierro's debut novel Cutting Teeth, I thought it was going to be a novel about a bunch of whiny, overprotective, rich, Brooklyn parents and their spoiled (yet gifted or challenged) children. I didn't see how I could relate.

Then as I read the book, I saw how Fierro brought these characters I probably would not befriend to vivid life in her novel. It begins with something I wish more multi-character novels would have - a chart explaining the who the characters are and how they relate to each other. This is so helpful when you begin a book, and if a book is as well-written as this is, you find you don't need it to keep track of the characters, you are invested enough in them to know who is who.

They came together as a playgroup for their four-year-olds. Nicole, who has OCD and is afraid that the world is coming to an end this Labor Day weekend, has invited the four other couples and their children to her parents' Long Island Sound vacation cottage. Nicole's husband is rapidly tiring of Nicole's OCD behavior and her fears, her constant monitoring parenting of message boards, and has trouble relating to their son Wyatt and his behavior issues.

Leigh comes from a wealthy family who has lost much of their fortune in the economic downturn. Her husband works for her family's business, so their livelihood is in jeopardy, which causes Leigh to do something that could cost her everything she holds dear. Her son Chase may be somewhere on the autism spectrum, and she has pinned all her mothering hopes on her baby daughter, who was conceived in vitro.

Rip is the stay-at-home daddy in the group. He is an earth father, making his family organic homemade foods and loves caring for his son Hank, who is shy and wants to dress like a princess. He wants another baby but his wife refuses to consider it. She has a difficult time relating to Hank and Rip.

Rip is attracted to Tiffany, who runs a music class for children and whose daughter Harper, the only girl in the group, is a Queen Bee. Harper orders the boys around and expects them to do as she tells them. Tiffany likes to stir up trouble in the group, and when we get her backstory we see why.

Susanne and Allie have twin boys, Levi and Dash, and Susanne is now hugely pregnant with another baby. Allie is an artist, a photographer, and Susanne has started a home business renting strollers and car seats to parents. Their relationship is strained at the moment.

Maybe the most interesting person in the novel is Tenzin, a Tibetan political refugee who fled her home country leaving behind her loving husband and three children. Tenzin is nannying for Leigh, and Tiffany is trying to bully Leigh into sharing Tenzin with her. Tenzin loves and understands the children and seeing these people through her eyes in a brief chapter is interesting. I wish we had more chapters narrated by her.

There are tensions, sexual and otherwise, among the parents and between various couples, and anyone who has vacationed with a big group may recognize these scenes being played out. The weekend culminates in one big uncomfortable scene where the underlying problems bubble to the surface and explode.

Cutting Teeth is a character study of contemporary parenting in an urban setting. The competitiveness of getting your child into the right preschool, maintaining a expensive lifestyle, trying to sustain a marital relationship in the midst of all this, making friends, and the helicopter parenting that has led to children being labeled and over scheduled is all examined in this terrific novel that fans of Tom Perrotta's Little Children will enjoy.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Cutting Teeth by Julia Fierro, five members of a Brooklyn playgroup, their partners and children, gather in a Long Island beach house for a weekend's respite, but what they hope will be a relaxing late-summer getaway devolves as the their alliance crumbles under the strain of secrets, resentments and unresolved tensions. Exploring parenthood and the guilt and sacrifices that underpin it, relationships, sex, ambition, career, domesticity and desire, this is an shrewd portrait of modern day, upper class families.

There are elements of Cutting Teeth I can relate to as a mother of four - the all day 'morning' sickness, the horrors of the witching hour (I had three children under three!), and the free floating anxiety of parenting, but the world of Fierro's 'mommies' is far removed from my own. I've never had a nanny, competed for a place in a private preschool, or bought a $300 nightgown for my daughter. I couldn't afford to solve my brief issues with fertility with IVF (there is a 7 year gap between my first and second child) and I've never had a problem telling my children 'no', loudly and often. All this to say, I had some empathy for these characters and their vulnerabilities, but it thinned considerably in the face of their privileged whining and helicopter parenting.

Few of Fierro's characters are wholly likeable, but their flaws ensure they are at least interesting. Hostess Nicole is plagued by catastrophic thinking, Leigh has helped herself to her son's preschool's treasury account, Tiffany's smile hides a calculating heart, and stay at home daddy Rip desperately wants his wife to have another baby. It is Susanna I find most sympathetic, heavily pregnant with her third child, she struggles with her wife's ambivalence towards their twin boys. Tenzin, a Tibetan devotee of the Dalai Lama, and Leigh's nanny, observes the 'mommies' with bewilderment while pining for her own children she hasn't held in four years.

Though the cast is pretentious, Fierro's writing is not. This is a well crafted story with an incisive narrative. The perspective shifts between that of Nicole, Rip, Tiffany, Allie and Leigh exposing their insecurities, fears, strengths and dreams, proving the wise observation made by Tolstoy that '...every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.'

Cutting Teeth is, at least in part, a satire of a specific cultural demographic, but also an observation of the universal dynamics of parenthood and relationships. I did find this novel entertaining and thought provoking but without the connection to a specific character, it didn't resonate with me in the way I hoped.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of those parenting angst novels where almost everyone is completely unlikeable except for the glimmer of compassion the author stirs in the reader. It is a train wreck people.
Probably my biggest complaint is that the author should have culled some of the problems a little bit. There is Nicole:the OCD/ apocolypse obsessed mommy, Leigh: the former high class + current school fund embezzler mommy, Tiffany: the slutty, trashy had a rough life but social climbing at any cost mommy, Susannah: the lesbian in search of fresh suburban dew mommy and Rip: the daddy constantly struggling with the gender roles of parenthood mommy.
Wait, there's more!
There is the Tenzin: the Tibetan Mary Poppins/ spiritual guru nanny, Allie: Susannah's wife, an artist and much to Susannah's chagrin a self-describe part time mommy, Michael: a man's man, and Grace: the other half of Rip who is impatient with parenthood. Then there are the kids! Chase: a wild child who is difficult to control, Harper: possibly a sociopath and Hank the opposite of Chase basically sensitive in the other direction.
It's a hot mess. On the upside, I feel pretty good about my life now.

[Chaitra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty sure being a new mommy played a huge part, but I dug this book pretty hard. It's the old classic bunch of people who don't know each other well shut up in an isolated beach house with the addition of monsters (their kids). And then we get to read about meltdown after meltdown, popcorn in hand. It's excellently paced and structured, and while I liked not a single character, the jumping-around POV chapters at least made me feel like I knew them. The language is simple but good, and the mommy talk accurate. The subject matter makes this a huge win for me - the mommies could be me, when they're dealing with their kids. Leigh gets the best writing - she's the one dealing with a special needs kid, and she's the one who dwells on her babies the most. She is my favorite character for this particular reason. The rest are not bad. I did have a slight issue - I'm not sure I liked the ending to any character except Nicole. Which is why 4 stars. Well, more like 4.5 - I'm on board for Julia Fierro's follow-up.

[Nance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully observed, gripping and humorous novel that had me in its thrall. Fierro gathers her characters together, gives them each a secret agenda, and then the reader gets to watch them interact. The book is full of tension and also sharp, sharp humor. Fierro lampoons modern parenting even as she reveals its trials, its many manifestations, and its heartfelt moments. Her characters are neurotic, confused, ambitious, lonely, and occasionally ridiculous, but that's what makes them human and relatable. And the children are captured perfectly. I'm betting that this book will be adapted for an HBO series or a movie very soon.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

So loved this debut novel. Characters that are broken and trying very hard to appear to have it all. Each "mommy" and Rip doing their best, often feeling alone, clinging to each other and sometimes the internet for answers and reassurances. I loved the variety of couples, married, partners, lesbians, stay at home dads, wealthy and wanna bees. A weekend full of surprises.

Full review on the blog to come!!

[Anmiryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go pick this up on Tuesday when it comes out, or if you want a bit more persuasion, you can read my longer review here: http://bit.ly/RrsP8J

Either way, just read the book. It's smart and funny about the struggle to be an adult while raising children and figuring out what it means to be satisfied when what looks like a perfect life from the outside isn't quite all it's cracked up to be.

[Sharon Shields · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is horrible. Every single character is a whining jerk. There are no redeeming characteristics in anyone and you spend the entire book waiting for something, ANYTHING, to happen. There is nothing realistic in the portrayal of parents in the midst of parenting babies and young children while attempting to maintain relationships with anyone.

[Bk-mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant...funny...honest...page turner about what it means to be a parent, a spouse, a friend and just simply a person trying to make sense of this beautiful world at this unique moment in time. Fierro's writing is gripping and packed with insight, humor and intelligence. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

[Caroline Lafrance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope... I kept thinking while reading the book, how can these people all be friends?! No one is nice! Lol! Every time I thought something interesting would finally happen, nothing ever did.
Just too unbelievable for me that a group like that would actually get together at a beach house... !

[Andrea MacPherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the novel. Authentic characters, good use tension and pacing, very readable. Strong voice, strong style. The ending and Epilogue let me down a little, but overall a great read.

[lp · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt like I was watching a bad play.

[Andrea DeAngelis]

Can't wait to read this!

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hated all the characters and their children too.