Cutting Teeth: A Novel Kindle Edition

CUTTING TEETH is the debut novel by Julia Fierro and one of the most anticipated books of 2014. As soon as it was available, I downloaded it, and having read CUTTING TEETH I can tell you, you don’t want to miss it.
Do you find reading about dysfunctional people compelling? Reading about how the characters interact in CUTTING TEETH is like watching a car accident or a train wreck happen in slo-motion. You’re surprised and shocked but you can’t turn away, so you keep turning the pages. I love complex, self-involved characters with distinct voices. I also enjoy getting to know characters I don’t like if they’re written well and CUTTING TEETH is filled with them.
A Brooklyn preschool playgroup of mommy’s, daddy’s, their kids and a nanny head out to the Long Island beach house of one of the parents for the Labor Day weekend. The group barely gets along once a week. A whole weekend together out at the beach is a recipe for conflict and bringing painful truths to light, especially when alcohol and pot are on the menu.
There’s Nicole, who’s stopped taking her anti-anxiety meds and is obsessed with a website making end of the world predictions. Her husband Josh can tell when she gets too nervous and threatens to call her shrink. Stay at home dad, Rip, and father of Hank wants another baby with wife Grace, but she’s against it. Meanwhile they worry 4-year old Hank may be too feminine because he wants to wear princess clothes. Tiffany grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and is now uncomfortable with her upper-middle class lifestyle, but loves her body and uses it to get what she wants. She’s teaching her little daughter, Harper to be a mini-mommy and boss around the boys in the group, like she does to her fiancé, Michael. And there’s Allie and Susanna, a lesbian couple and parents of twins Dash and Levi. Allie is a famous artist and Susanna the biological mother who carried the twins to term with a friend’s sperm. Allie now imagines leaving her wife and kids for her art. And finally there’s Blue-Blood Leigh, mommy of Chase and Charlotte who is wealthy in name alone, but no one knows that. She may be on her way to jail for stealing money to fund the fertility treatments to conceive her daughter. Leigh has her Tibetan nanny, Tenzin, to help her with Chase who is “on the spectrum.” Tenzin is the only one able to calm Chase down when he gets riled up. That’s why hubby Brad isn’t on the vacay. Tiffany calls Tenzin “The Tibetan Mary Poppins” and is trying to hire her away from Leigh.
These are people with issues. From the outside they may appear to have it all, but there are cracks in the façade. We as readers are voyeurs into their misfortunes. They’re trying to fit in, be friends, but if it wasn’t for the playgroup, I doubt they’d ever be in contact with one another.
I really enjoyed CUTTING TEETH and I don’t have children. When I started reading the novel, I wondered if that was going to affect how I responded to the book but it didn’t. As I already wrote, the characters are brilliantly created and written. I’m so excited to read what Julia writes next. Be sure to check out her website and join her Facebook and twitter accounts. http://www.juliafierro.com
FYI: Author, Julia Fierro provides a “Family Trees” chart at the beginning of the novel, so you get acquainted with the characters before and can refer back throughout while you’re reading. Trust me. This is a very good thing, and I hope other authors will follow her lead when they have multiple families and characters.

With Labor Day weekend approaching and with the threat of the bird flu lending a state of panic to some, Nicole arranges for a weekend retreat at the beach. The "mommies play group" members are all invited. The year is 2010 and the characters reside in Brooklyn.

They include Susanna and Allie, the lesbian mothers of twins; Leigh, the debutante, whose son Chase has behavioral problems, and her infant Charlotte, who is a blessing to Leigh; Tiffany, who looks and acts like the group princess, or possibly the seductress, is resented by most, and whose daughter Harper is like a mini-me; and Rip, the Mr. Mom of the group, whose son Hank is shy, and some might say "effeminate."

Spouses and partners might also be joining in...and, of course, the children, all preschoolers or infants, will be there en masse.

In alternate chapters, we follow each individual's perspective, and while they all seem like cardboard cutouts in the beginning, we gradually see them fleshed out.

Nicole is anxious, almost neurotic, and with her son Wyatt, heads out to the beach house first.

Susanna and Allie's issues are evident when we first meet them. Susanna has given birth to the twins and is pregnant again. Does she resent being the one carrying the babies? Allie is wrapped up in her career and feels like an outsider in the group she has labeled Mommy Camp.

Rip's wife Grace feels like an outsider, too, and some issues are evident between her and Tiffany almost immediately. Is Tiffany purposely trying to horn in on Rip? What does her partner Michael add to the mix?

The group of children seemingly swarm the place. Their behavior seems out of control, since these parents seem reluctant to curb their impulses. One child, especially, seems inappropriately coddled: Harper, at four, is still nursing, and her mother Tiffany seems blatant about it, knowing some are uncomfortable. Is Tiffany trying to show that she is above the rules to which the others adhere?

Tenzin, the Tibetan nanny, has accompanied Leigh, her boss, but is struggling to understand the language and the sayings that float around her through the day and night, while she longs for information from her homeland and her family.

For an entire weekend, we slog through the ins and outs between the parents and children, and can I say how annoying they all are? If I had to pick one over another, I would say Tiffany wins the prize as most annoying, along with her daughter Harper. Allie was the least annoying, in my opinion, and mostly because she recognizes that coddling the kids is not helping their behavior.

Meanwhile, many of these characters have big secrets. Something rather explosive will happen near the end that will change how they relate to one another...and may even turn their playgroup upside down. The explosion did shake things up a bit, and for a minute, I was interested in what might happen. But then the moment passed.

Parents of young children may enjoy Cutting Teeth: A Novel, but only a certain demographic of overly privileged parents could relate to the characters, in my opinion. 3.5 stars.

As a mother of four children ages 10 and under, I can absolutely relate to the characters in this book. When I think back to the 3 years after my first child was born (my first two are three years apart), I can see parts of myself in Nicole, Leigh, and Rip. The pressure to eat all organic, keep to the "schedule", expose the children to enrichment activities like Tiffany's music classes, and all the while look blissfully happy doing it. Everyone around me seemed to be doing it right while I secretly worried that I was doing it all wrong.

Julia Fierro exposes those raw feelings in these characters. Underneath all the perfection are flawed, real people, all getting together and trying so hard to cover up those flaws. As the book progresses, each and every character reveals their flaws, and unlike most books, it's not all neatly wrapped up at the end with everyone headed home to Brooklyn to continue on with their perfect happy lives.

What I wanted to tell every character in the book was to hang in there, have another baby, let a few things slide, the kids will be OK! Only time and experience allow that ability to let go. Reading this book brought me right back to all those feelings, worries, anxieties, and fears of new motherhood/parenthood.

I bought Cutting Teeth two days before the start of my vacation and made the mistake of just taking a peek. I couldn't put it down. Although it was a compulsive read, the characters were complex and realistic and the story lines thoroughly developed and intriguing. A witty and honest tale of modern parenthood and optimistic resilience.