The Drama Teacher by Koren Zailckas – ☆☆☆

This one was a bit of a slower book and I considered stopping a few times throughout reading it. I did end up finishing it, but it was just okay. There were parts where it would start to get exciting, but then would just fizzle out again. Gracie and her two kids live in the Catskills; her husband, Randy, spends most of his time in Florida trying to run his real estate business. Times have been hard and money is tight; the bank is foreclosing on their house and, desperate for money, Gracie goes back to the one thing she knows how to do best: scam people. Raised by a thief of a father, Gracie spent her formative years as an accomplice to his cons. Gracie sets herself on a housewife from nearby Woodstock, and while things went smoothly for awhile, things eventually took a turn and Gracie and her kids are on the run again. This book was a slow burn that eventually connects everyone and everything together in a final stand off at the end. It was a little too slow for me and I found myself taking a lot of breaks for this one and contemplated not finishing it several times as well. I think this could have been trimmed and condensed and probably would have been a lot more enjoyable. Despite this, I will say that the book was very well written. Gracie is not always the most likable person, but yet the reader still understands her motivations, even if they don’t always agree. The way the flashbacks unfold was done well, too, and very slowly Zailckas starts to show that Gracie’s memory is actually maybe not what she always thought, as memories start breaking through the surface of her mind. There were a few points where she surprised me and something I didn’t see coming happened, and it was really these points that were the saving graces because it was what kept me interested and continuing to read. I wish there were more of those moments in the book. Thanks to NetGalley for this book in exchange for an honest review! The Drama Teacher will be out on August 7th, 2018.