Looking for relatable and finding boring

I played hooky today so I could take a kid to a doctor's appointment.  That, and the impending library due date, felt like the perfect excuse to hang out with a book that is described as "relatable, irreverent, and hilarious" -- Class Mom by Laurie Gelman.

First let me say that I know we should be talking here about books that students may enjoy, and this book for sure isn't for a high school audience.  Parents of high schoolers, maybe, but not the kids.  I have no intention of sharing this book in class or doing a book talk about it.  Personally, I need a break sometimes from YA to venture into something more adult, more, as this book promised, "relatable."

I went into Class Mom hoping for something that truly was relatable.  Jen, the protagonist, is a woman who is the kindergarten class mom, the one in charge of helping the teacher organize class parties and schedule parent-teacher conferences.  Class Mom follows her adventures in nut allergies, torrid and secret adult affairs, and horrific field trips for the course of the year.  Many years ago, I was the PTO secretary, and it was a nightmare.  I hoped Jen would speak to those like me who hated the  over-the-top demands of elementary school parenting.  The opening page set my expectations high.  As class mom, Jen writes an e-mail to the parents which includes gems like this:  "Miss Ward has also requested that you drop off a photo of your child before the first day of school.  Let me repeat that . . . before the first day of school.  I'm not sure, but I think she plans to use them in some sort of Wiccan ritual to 'cleanse' the classroom."  I chortled at the e-mail and was so hoping that tone continued throughout.

Nope.

Too soon the novel degenerated into a flimsy story with flat characters that I didn't care one whit about.  The humorous tone that was clever on page one was repetitive by page 20 and mostly gone by page 50 when I started skimming.  By page 70, I was only browsing the right-side pages.  In doing that, I got the gist of the story in about an hour and when I reached the end, my response was, "Well, of course that's how it ended up.  Ugh."

Do understand that I have been accused of being a "book snob" by my youngest kid, and they're right.  I like my fiction books to be LITERARY and if not literary, at least unique or engaging.  Class Mom was none of the above, and it bored me. I have read many a YA novel that was more literary, unique, and engaging, and that will send me into YA for my next read, either They Both Die at the End or A Map for Wrecked Girls, two new, recommended YA books.  Here's hoping for something great -- perhaps even relatable -- from them.