Books that explore motherhood are universally popular. These narratives that spotlight the pressures parents face often serve as social critiques, highlighting how modern parenting has become entangled with personal identity, privilege, and societal expectations. In particular, I’m drawn to stories that scrutinize the idea of competitive parenting.
When a parent’s identity is judged by their children’s status and success, the push for recognition and perfection is a breeding ground for judgement, scandal, and moral compromise. Beneath the glossy image of a supportive family, often lies anxiety, envy, resentment, and secrecy. What fodder for fiction!
My suspense novel, What’s Yours Is Mine, fits neatly into this sub-genre, featuring one overzealous, helicopter mother living vicariously through her daughter, and another pragmatic, controlling mom steering her ambitious daughter away from her dreams. The two teen girls must survive their manipulative parents while preparing for a fierce competition and a path for their future. Rivalries form. Tension mounts. A violent attack sabotages everything.
As if navigating my own experience with school and sports politics wasn’t enough raw material, I also read dozens of novels that depicted various worlds of cutthroat parenting.
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Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies
Moriarty, in my opinion, really kicked off the trend of books about hyper competitive parents. This book, deceptively breezy, is a brilliant take on schoolyard scandals, mommy cliques, particularly the working mothers versus the stay-at-home moms, and little lies to keep up appearances that can turn lethal.
When one child is accused of being a bully, mothers immediately take sides and battlegrounds are formed. We see how little divisions can pit people against each other and stir a silent warfare.
This is one of my all-time favorite novels and one of the rare few that the TV series lives up to the original work.
Bruce Holsinger, The Gifted School
In this fictional town, parents battle to get their children accepted into an elite new school. The fierce competition leads to strained friendships and moral compromise.
I took a special interest in this book as it came out a few years after my son was denied entrance into the gifted program at our local school. He’d been tested three separate times at the teachers’ insistence. No one could understand why he couldn’t pass this test when he was so incredibly smart.
After each failure, my son’s confidence plummeted and I became resentful of all the special field trips and experiences earmarked only for the gifted. I was defensive, afraid people thought he wasn’t good enough for their program. A clear depiction of how labels can incite rivalry.
Incidentally, years later, when my son was high school valedictorian and had been accepted to every ivy league school he applied to, in his speech he reminded the audience he’d never been labeled as gifted.
Laurie Gelman, Class Mom
In this hilarious romp about an elementary school in Kansas City, Gelman exposes the underside of school room mothers. The main character, who already raised two grown children, deals with a whole new generation of mothers when she takes on the role of class mom to her five-year-old son.
I loved how this explored how much parenting has changed in the last couple of decades from a free-range, low parental involvement (how I was raised) to a new expectation where the parents must be overly involved in every little event and decision even as detailed as what cupcakes and snacks are acceptable.
And this new crop of hyper-involved mothers often judge other parents if they don’t comply to this new standard.
Asha Elias, Pink Glass Houses
Set in Sunset Academy, a coveted public elementary school in Miami Beach, this story takes the competition outside of the classroom and to the battle for PTA president. Social climbing is shown through a glamorous fundraising event and an unspoken contest to define who belongs inside the inner circle.
A newcomer to town gets pulled into the crossfire between the reigning ultra-rich alpha mom and an outsider attorney who wants to expose the mean underside of the school politics. The layers of scandal unfold showing that the perfect exterior the moms—the perfect houses, perfect clothes, perfect Instagram reels—is hiding the real truth.
A fun look into the lives of the ultra-wealthy.
Sarah Harman, All the Other Mothers Hate Me
This book, set in a posh private school in London, explores the themes of social exclusion and a culture of silent rivalry. The main character (one of my favorites in the last several years) is a very casual, non-traditional mother.
Surrounded by prim, proper, and affluent women, Florence is a partier with a history of being in a pop band. And she’s unapologetic about her lifestyle and choices. When a student goes missing, the uppity mothers ostracize and target Florence’s son because they are non-conformists.
An inciteful look at how we judge people based on their past.
Megan Abbott, You Will Know Me
This book explores inside a tightly knit community of gymnasts and their hyper-involved families whose lives revolve around their children’s athletic futures. This was the first book I read that demonstrated how parents become consumed with their children’s accolades outside of an academic setting.
Being that I spend a lot of time inside the world of high-pressure sports, this story spoke to me. It really encapsulated how parents will sacrifice everything—time, money, emotional stability—to support their children’s athletic success. In a world where every parent thinks their child is the best, tension and competition boil at every opportunity for playing time, recruitment, and scholarship opportunity.
This book revolved around gymnastics and the strive for the Olympics, but it could so easily take place inside of any athletic endeavor. Her dark, tense writing style effectively portrayed the stress simmering inside parents, praying for their kids to win.
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