I heard of this a few days ago and it was a great premise--what it's like at a magical school from the Muggle parent's POV. Vivian and her husband Daniel lived a normal Muggle life until one day Vivian and her 5-year-old daughter Aria were out hiking and Aria was brutally attacked/infected by a rogue werewolf. AT FIVE, the poor kid wolfs out all the time and now has food allergies to chocolate and eggs (food allergies go along with some supernatural conditions), and became a social pariah--and bit her psychiatrist.
While the pack the rogue werewolf belonged to has been helpful with offering assistance, and especially in getting Aria into the title school and moving the family to a magical-friendly town--that still means that Vivian, as the stay-at-home-mom, to make sure everyone fits together and fits in in an environment that wasn't meant for them. Hell, just back to school shopping and dealing with food issues and social requirements is bad enough. Vivian tries to get in with the Queen Bee ladies, which can only go so well when her child is perennially having some kind of issue. Vivian joins the PTA as their financial person since she was a CPA before having a kid, but the previous officeholder seems to have left under bad terms and Vivian definitely finds some Issues with the finances that the new headmistress doesn't seem to have any interest in investigating. Husband Daniel is perennially at work in the city and is of little help--and him getting pissy at times doesn't help either, I started feeling a bit resentful at Daniel. There's a lot of analogies here about having a special needs kid, for sure. Plus the adult social issues. Plus feeling left out because you're the only non-magical person around. Plus Aria perpetually wolfing out and struggling.
I'll say this: the sheer amount of Unhappy going on in this book for about 60% of it was heartwrenching. Vivian is trying her damndest, dammit, and she's trying SO hard. Dealing with Queen Bee shit triggers both Vivian and Daniel's childhood issues and essentially, they don't have any family of their own that support them, so they're in all of this alone. And poor little Aria is just trying to figure out being five and wolfy and how to have friends, then has to worry about passing exams so she can STAY in school... Oh yeah, and some kinds of weird Incidents keep happening every time there's an exam event. And then both Vivian and Aria seem to be getting vaguely targeted, and it's implied they might be involved in a prophecy that nobody wants to have happen. For a book that has relatively low-ish stakes most of the time, I'm reminded of Donald Maass's "tension on every page." And hoo boy, there is tension! By the time Vivian and Aria actually have a good day, ohmygod, it was such a relief.
As for the conclusion of the book: it gets...a bit jumbly and suddenly there's several potential issues being juggled as "is THIS what's going on here?" (I did crack up when it got kinda "Operation Varsity Blues" for a bit.) Eventually it's sorted out, but it was a bit messy. But Vivian manages to come to a better place and get some better friends, and I was happy for her on that. Overall, giving it four stars for being compelling even on what might be kind of "minor"-ish subject matter? Making sure they fit in in a magical community is High Stakes, and the author handles that well and it's gripping.