AustLit

'Liv Winsome is in crisis. Mother to three school-age sons, wife to a busy lawyer, a part-time/full-time investigator, Liv is overwhelmed and sinking. One weekend, her crisis crystallises when her fourteen year old son Jai is embroiled in a school internet sexting scandal and her husband Duncan accidentally locks her in the family car.

'Liv is quickly in damage control as her boys' co-ed school Carmichael Grammar is upset and the girls' mothers are irate. These mums are led by Jess Charters, mother of Alex, Jai's girlfriend; Jess posts her outrage on a community Facebook page and is both supported and trolled for her efforts. Adding insult to injury, Jess doesn't understand why her super-girl daughter has shared such a slutty selfie.
When Liv and Duncan meet with Carmichael's principal, Liv realises the school's gender politics is stuck in the dark ages. It seems she alone can see the link between the Instagram crisis and the school's culture, her son's blase attitude to the uproar and her overload. Liv demands that the school does better, while she focuses on rejigging her home life, and conceives Mums for Equality, an action group for change at Carmichael.

'Jess Charters becomes a surprising ally and together the mums ask more of the school, which itself has realised the need to quell its community's discontent and related bad press. The school appoints an expert, Dr Cato, to re-educate the students on gender and respectful relationships both online and off.

'Liv's husband Duncan is on board with her agenda - just. With a busy legal practice and little else engaging him, Duncan is grappling with his own mid-life disillusionment. Inspired by his wife, Duncan makes changes at work, which ripple through to the family.

'Dr Cato makes a raft of tweaks, and change comes amazingly quickly to Carmichael. But not everyone is happy...' (Publication summary)