Book Review: Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman

Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even with the cutthroat days of being Class Mom behind her, as a freshly minted mat mom of the Pioneer Middle School (PMS) wrestling team, Jen Dixon cannot catch a break.

This year, as her son joins the ranks of the PMS wrestlers, Jen faces mystifying new social dynamics with her trademark combination of reluctance and resigned acceptance. The sights and smells of her son’s wrestling matches are more than enough for her to deal with, but Jen also finds herself fully immersed in sports-mom competitiveness. These parents all seem perfectly unassuming until their kids start to wrestle, and then some become raging momsters.

Jen steels herself for the indignities of middle school life, but she cannot quite fathom the extents to which some kids (and moms) will go for the sweet taste of victory. Add to this some truly bizarre encounters with students from her spin class and deeper challenges managing her parents, and Jen has more gum than she can chew…and even her riotously funny one-liners might not get her through it this time.

I did it! I’m all caught up on the Class Mom series. And Max has caught up to my daughter – they are both in seventh grade now. Unlike my daughter, Max is on the wrestling team so Jen has a whole new group of moms to deal with – the Mat Moms. They all seem to take wrestling way more seriously than she does. Most of the moms are welcoming but one is downright mean.

In the meantime, Jen’s aging parents are becoming more of a handful and her adult daughters are trying to start a business. And Jen is still teaching spinning classes. One of her students is getting a little demanding. So as usual, Jen’s plate is full but it’s with all new problems so it feels fresh. There is a little bit of sadness in this book and also a point at which I wanted to shake Jen because she was being very unreasonable. I wasn’t expecting a Class Mom book to get me worked up!

Smells Like Tween Spirit was very satisfying but I hope that Laurie will write another one – I’d love to see what Jen gets up to when Max is in high school.

My reviews of the rest of the series:

Class Mom (Class Mom #1)
You’ve Been Volunteered (Class Mom#2)
Yoga Pant Nation (Class Mom #3)