The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu

The Faculty Lounge

by Jennifer Mathieu

**An instant National Bestseller!** 

A July 2024 LibraryReads Pick! 

By the acclaimed author of Moxie, a funny, bighearted adult debut that is at once an ode to educators, a timely glimpse at today’s pressing school issues, and a tender character study, following a sprawling cast of teachers, administrators, and staff at a Texas high school


With its ensemble of warm and unforgettable characters, The Faculty Lounge shows readers a different side of school life. It all starts when an elderly substitute teacher at Baldwin High School is found dead in the faculty lounge. After a bit...Read more

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Faculty Lounge is a compassionately written slice of life novel by Jennifer Mathieu. Released 23rd July, 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Dutton imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.

Warmly written "comfort reading", set around a fictive (but realistically rendered) high school in Texas and the staff who call it home, it's got good bones and the author makes good use of the vignette format to interweave the stories of the large cast of characters. 

After the death of a retired elderly substitute teacher on a sofa in the school faculty lounge, the story radiates outward in ripples, tracing the interconnections between the late Mr. Lehrer (10th grade English) and his colleagues, former students, and others... and with the connections between the characters themselves. 

Four stars. It would be a good low stress choice for a book club discussion, for public library acquisition, or for home use. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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  • 22 March, 2025: Reviewed