The Woman in Cabin 10
Ruth Ware, 2016
Gallery/Scout
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501132933
Summary
From New York Times bestselling author of the "twisty-mystery" (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea.
In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins.
The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant.
But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…
With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10—one that will leave even the most sure-footed reader restlessly uneasy long after the last page is turned. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1977
• Raised—Lewes, Sussex, England, UK
• Education—B.A., Manchester University
• Currently—lives in London
Ruth Ware is the British author of mystery thrillers. She grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before returning to the UK. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language, and a press officer. She now lives in London with her husband and two small children.
After her debut In a Dark, Dark Wood was published in 2015, Ware was asked by NPR's David Greene about mystery writers who had influenced her:
I read a huge amount of it as a kid. You know, Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Sherlock Holmes. And I didn't consciously channel that when I was writing, but when I finished and reread the book, I did suddenly realize how much this kind of structure owed to...Agatha Christie. And it wasn't consciously done, but...I would say I definitely owe a debt to Christie.
Indeed many have noticed Christie's influence in both of Ware's books, including her second, The Woman in Cabin 10, released in 2016. Ware's third novel, The Lying Game, came out in 2017, and her fourth, The Death of Mrs. Westaway in 2018. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A fantasy trip aboard a luxury liner turns nightmarish for a young journalist in The Woman in Cabin 10, the pulse-quickening new novel
Oprah Magazine
Ruth Ware is back with her second hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck-tingling tale.
Marie Claire
[U]nderwhelming.... Those expecting a Christie-style locked-room mystery at sea will be disappointed.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Ware's follow-up to her best-selling debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood, is a gripping maritime psychological thriller that will keep readers spellbound. The intense final chapters just might induce heart palpitations. —Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [A] dark, desperate tension that will appeal to Ware’s and Gillian Flynn’s many fans. This is the perfect summer read for those seeking a shadowy counter to the sunshine.
Booklist
[A] a classic "paranoid woman" story with a modern twist in this tense, claustrophobic mystery.... Despite [its] successful formula, and a whole lot of slowly unraveling tension, the end is somehow unsatisfying.... Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What’s the effect of having Lo’s e-mails and various news reports interspersed throughout Lo’s narration? In what ways do they help you better understand what’s happening aboard the Aurora?
2. When Lo first enters the ship, she says, "I had a sudden disorienting image of the Aurora as a ship imprisoned in a bottle—tiny, perfect, isolated, and unreal" (p. 37). In what ways does this statement foreshadow the events that take place on the ship? Describe the Aurora. In what ways do you think life on the ship may seem unreal? Discuss the book’s title. Why do you think Ware chose it? Did the title influence your reading of the novel? If so, how?
3. Who is Carrie? Did you like her? Why or why not? Describe her relationship with Lo. In what ways, if any, are the two women alike? How do Lo’s feelings about Carrie change as Lo gets to know her? Did your opinion of Carrie change as you read?
4. Lo questions Alexander about eating fugu during dinner aboard the Aurora, and he tells her that the fact it is poisonous is "what makes the experience" (p. 74). What does Alexander mean by his statement? Lo seems dubious about the appeal of it. Does Lo strike you as someone who takes risks? Were you surprised by any of her risky actions aboard the Aurora? Which ones, if any?
5. After Lo’s flat is burglarized, she calls Velocity’s assistant features editor, Jenn, and tells her about it. Lo says, "I told her what happened, making it sound funnier and more farcical than it really had been" (p. 13). Why do you think Lo underplays the break-in? How might this make her feel more in control? Have you ever underplayed an event of significance in your life?
6. When Lo panics on one of her first nights aboard the Aurora, she says, "I imagined burying my face in Judah’s shoulder and for a second I nearly burst into tears, but I clenched my teeth and swallowed them back down. Judah was not the answer to all this" (p. 49). Why is Lo so resistant to accepting help from Judah? Do you think that she’s right to be reticent? Describe their relationship. Do Lo and Judah support each other?
7. When Nilsson challenges Lo’s claim that she’s seen something happen in the cabin next to hers, she tells him, "Yes, someone broke into my flat. It has nothing to do with what I saw" (p. 141). Did you believe her? Did you think that the break-in made Lo more jumpy and distrustful? Give some examples to support your opinion.
8. When Lo first speaks to Richard Bullmer, she notices that he gives her "a little wink" (p. 79). What is the effect of this gesture? What were your initial impressions of Bullmer? Did you like him, or were you suspicious of him? After a prolonged conversation with Bullmer, Lo says, "I could see why [he] had got to where he had in life" (p. 194). Describe his manner. What does Lo think accounts for his success?
9. Archer tells Lo that self-defense is "not about size, even a girl like you can overpower a man if you get the leverage right" (p. 73). Is Lo able to do so? What kind of leverage does she have? What different kinds of power and leverage do the people on the Aurora use when dealing with each other? How did you react?
10. Judah tells Lo that "I still think, in spite of it all, we’re responsible for our own actions" (p. 334). Do you agree? In what scenes did you think the deception and violence that occurred were justified? In what scenes did you think it not justified?
11. When Lo sees the staff quarters on the Aurora, she says, "the rooms were no worse than plenty of cross-channel ferries I’d traveled on.... But it was the graphic illustration of the gap between the haves and have-nots that was upsetting" (p. 113). Contrast the guest quarters to those of the crew. Why does Lo find the discrepancy so unsettling? Much of the crew seemed unwilling to speak to Lo. Do you think this was caused by the "gap between the haves and have-nots"? Or some other reason?
12. Lo tells Judah, "You don’t know what goes on in other people’s relationships" (p. 333). Describe the relationships in The Woman in Cabin 10. Did you find any particularly surprising? Which ones, and why?
13. Bullmer tells Lo, "Why wait?... One thing I’ve learned in business—now almost always is the right time" (p. 190). Do you agree with his philosophy? In what ways has this attitude led to Bullmer’s success? Does this attitude present any problems aboard the Aurora? Do you think Lo shares the same life philosophy as Bullmer? How would you describe Lo’s philosophy on life?
14. Describe Lo’s relationship with Ben. She tells him "[e]verything I hadn’t told Jude. What it had been like....that I was vulnerable in a way I’d never thought I was before that night" (p. 82). Why does Lo share all this information with Ben rather than Jude? Did you think that Ben had Lo’s best interests at heart? Why or why not? Were you surprised to learn of their history?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Siracusa
Delia Ephron, 2016
Penguin Publishing
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399165214
Summary
An electrifying novel about marriage and deceit that follows two couples on vacation in Siracusa, a town on the coast of Sicily, where the secrets they have hidden from one another are exposed and relationships are unraveled.
New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, travel to Italy with their friends from Maine—Finn; his wife, Taylor; and their daughter, Snow.
“From the beginning,” says Taylor, “it was a conspiracy for Lizzie and Finn to be together.” Told Rashomon-style in alternating points of view, the characters expose and stumble upon lies and infidelities past and present.
Snow, ten years old and precociously drawn into a far more adult drama, becomes the catalyst for catastrophe as the novel explores collusion and betrayal in marriage.
With her inimitable psychological astuteness and uncanny understanding of the human heart, Ephron delivers a powerful meditation on marriage, friendship, and the meaning of travel.
Set on the sun-drenched coast of the Ionian Sea, Siracusa unfolds with the pacing of a psychological thriller and delivers an unexpected final act that none will see coming. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Born—July 12, 1944
• Raised—Beverly Hills, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Barnard College
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Although born in New York City, Delia Ephron was raised in famed Beverly Hills, California, by her screen-writing parents. She was the second of four daughters, the oldest of whom was Nora Ephron (1941-2012).
Ephron attended Barnard College (now part of Columbia University) and after graduation stayed in New York, where she met David Brock at a 1969 Martin Luther King rally in Central Park. The two married and, when Brock was offered a teaching position at Brown University, moved to Providence, Rhode Island. In 1971, using her married name, she co-authored two craft books with Lorraine Rodgers: The Adventurous Crocheter and Glad Rags.
In 1975, the couple split up, with Ephron returning to New York and to her maiden name in order to pursue writing. A humorous 500-word article for The New York Times Magazine, "How to Eat Like a Child," was expanded into a book in 1978. It became a bestseller, and Ephron became a contributing editor for New York magazine—her writing career was launched.
Ephron met Jerome Kasner, a screenwriter and playwright, who taught her how write a screenplay. They fell in love, and Ephron moved with him back to Los Angeles, where she remained for many years—writing books (for kids and adults) and screenplays and producing films—until eventually returning to New York.
And her relationship with her more famous sister, Nora? "Very close," according to Delia. In 1978 She told Judy Klemesrud of The New York Times that Nora was her best friend:
Nora encouraged me. She's always been wonderful. She has looked at my work, and I've looked at hers, too. She's one of the best editors in New York. She'll look at a piece and say just one thing, and the whole piece is better.
The two worked together on many projects. After losing Nora to cancer in 2012, she wrote her 2013 memoir, Sister Mother Husband Dog (Etc.). In an interview, Ephron told Publishers Weekly that she never expected to have to go through life without her sister. "Grief stops you in your tracks, it makes you feel you should move on, but you can’t." Ephron eventually did move on, of course, and in 2016 published Siracusa, a suspense novel about two families traveling together in Europe.
Books | Film | |
How to Eat Like a Child (1979, Illus., Edward Koren) Teenage Romance: Or, How to Die of Embarrassment (1981) Funny Sauce (1986) Do I Have to Say Hello? Aunt Delia's Manners Quiz for Kids/Grownups (1991) The Girl Who Changed the World (1993) Hanging Up (1995) Big City Eyes (2000) Frannie in Pieces (2007) The Girl with the Mermaid Hair (2010) The Lion Is In (2012) Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc (2013) Siracusa (2016) |
—SCREENWRITER How to Eat Like a Child (TV, 1981) Brenda Starr (as "Jenny Wolkind") This Is My Life (1992) Mixed Nuts (1994) Michael (1996) You've Got Mail (1998) Hanging Up (2000) Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) Bewitched (2005) —PRODUCER Sleepless in Seattle (1993) You've Got Mail (1998) Hanging Up (2000) |
Book Reviews
An irresistible novel for fans of psychological thrillers, or those considering vacationing with former lovers and spouses (often one and the same).
Oprah Magazine
[A] suspenseful, thoroughly delicious tale. You can almost taste the gelato.
People
(Starred review.) A seductive and edgy dissection of two imploding marriages—and an unhinged mother-daughter alliance.... Each of these toxic relationships puts the characters on course to careen headlong into a dark place of deceit and rage in Ephron’s brilliant takedown of marital and familial pretense.
Publishers Weekly
This could be a quick beach read for those interested in romantic suspense or travel writing, as long as they don't mind the cast of unlikable characters. —Kate Gray, Boston P.L., MA
Library Journal
A master of precise and keen character development, a virtuoso of pacing and surprise, a wizard at skewering convention and expectation, Ephron offers a bewitching take on relationships—marital, parental, casual, and serious—in this read-in-one-sitting, escapist escapade with a message.
Booklist
Siracusa starts innocuously enough, as an ironic travelogue about American sophisticates abroad....with each narrator recounting and interpreting the same encounters from vastly differing perspectives….As the clues pile up, the coming storm is expertly foreshadowed—but when it arrives, it’s utterly surprising.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Siracusa...then take off on your own:
1. Lizzie comments at the beginning of Siracusa: "Husbands and wives collaborate, hiding even from themselves who is calling the shots and who is along for the ride." What exactly does she mean, and how does that observation portend events to come in the novel? Would you say that statement holds true for many marriages, if not most?
2. This book is about two imploding marriages. Talk about each marriage and what is at the root of those implosions. What are the ways in which the two couples differ from one another? Where are the fault lines, not just within the relationships, but also within each of the four personalities?
3. Michael, a novelist, says: "As for lying, in this story, which is also my life, I will make a case for the charm of it." What does he mean? Is he distorting his own life for literary purposes?
4. What role does Snow play in all of this? How would you describe her?
5. Talk about how the characters are prone to both deception and self-deception. Do you find one character more sympathetic than the others? Lizzie, perhaps?
6. Describe the mother-daughter relationship between Taylor and Snow. Healthy? Unhealthy?
7. Of the various perspectives in this book, whose narration did you trust the most? Did that change over the course of the novel?
8. What do you make of Kath and her sudden appearance?
9. As a novel of psychological suspense, Ephron expertly piles up the clues. Were you able to sort them out by the end? Were you caught off guard?
10. Ultimately, what portrait does Ephron paint of marriage? Is her assessment overly dark, even cynical? Lizzie says, "Marriage can't protect you from heartbreak of the random cruelties and unfairnesses that life deals out." Is she right...or not?
11. Lizzie also tells us that "good comes of bad and all the absurdities play out in your favor." Does the story's plot seem to bear her out? Does real life?
12. Inevitable comparisons have been made between Siracusa and Ford Maddox Ford's masterpiece, The Good Soldier (1915). If you've read Ford's book, in what way do the two books resemble one another? If you haven't read The Good Soldier, you might consider reading it next and comparing the two.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Underground Airlines
Ben H. Winters, 2016
Little, Brown and Co.
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316261241
Summary
It is the present-day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: the Civil War never occurred.
A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service. He's got plenty of work.
In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right—with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.
A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation, and works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail.
But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case, as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child who may be Victor's salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all—though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.
Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government will preserve at any cost.
Underground Airlines is a ground-breaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we'd like to believe. (Adapted from the publisher. Retrieved 7/19/2016.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1975-76
• Where—Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., USA
• Education—Washington University, St. Louis
• Awards—Philip K. Dick Award; Edgar Award
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Ben Winters, an American author, journalist, teacher and playwright, was born in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. In high school, Winters played in the punk band Corm alongside John Davis, now of Title Tracks. In 1998, he graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was active in the comedy group Mama's Pot Roast. He is married and now lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and three children.
Career
Winters was first known as the author of the 2009 New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. In June 2010, Android Karenina was released. Next came his two-book series for young adults, The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman in 2010 followed by The Mystery of the Missing Everything in 2011. He also published Bedbugs in 2011, a horror novel for adults.
In 2012, Winters published The Last Policeman, the first in a trilogy of detective novels set in a pre-apocalyptic United States; that book won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category Best Paperback Original. The second novel in the trilogy, Countdown City, came out in July 2013 and won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award for Distinguished Science Fiction. The third and final book, World of Trouble, was released in 2014.
Winters' 2016 novel, Underground Airlines, is set in a present-day alternate universe in which the American Civil War never happened and four states continue to practice human slavery—legally. The book's protagonist, a U.S. government bounty hunter, and former slave, attempts to infiltrate an abolitionist group known as the "Underground Airlines."
Winters is also a playwright. His work includes the Off-Broadway musical Slut (2005), as well as four children's musicals The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (2006), A (Tooth) Fairy Tale (2009), Uncle Pirate (2010), and the Neil Sedaka juke-box musical, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (2005). (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/19/2016. Retrieved 2/19/2016.)
Book Reviews
Ben H. Winters’s chilling new thriller....tackles the thorny subject of racial injustice in America. It takes place in a contemporary United States where the Civil War never happened, and slavery remains legal in four states, and it’s narrated by a former slave who has paid a steep moral price for his freedom.... Attica Locke, a mystery novelist and a writer for the television show Empire, said she was taken aback at first when she picked up the book.... "For me, as a black writer, I have to be like, ‘What’s Ben trying to do here?" Then she got sucked into the story and was "blown away," she said.
Alexandra Alter - New York Times
[A] terrifying conceit at its heart...[t]he book is set in a country that largely resembles the contemporary United States.... A little past its halfway point this novel takes a surprising, but wholly necessary turn, directing Victor and the reader straight into the darkness that persists in [the remaining] four slaveholding states.... [Yet the] he novel succeeds so well in part because its fiction is disturbingly close to our present reality.... Winters has written a book that will make you see the world in a new light.
Jon Michaud - Washington Post
Underground Airlines will start a lot of conversations. A lot.... Most readers will happily overlook [some of] the cookie-cutter details as they'll be caught up in the alternate nation the author has created, one in which...some states have old-fashioned towns that keep Jim Crow statutes. If the denouement comes too late for us to care, well, we've learned along the way that this alternate nation...is ugly and evil.
Bethanne Patrick - NPR.org
(Starred review.) Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man meets Blade Runner in this outstanding alternate history thriller..... The novel’s closing section contains several breathtaking reversals, a genuinely disturbing revelation, and an exhilarating final course of action for Victor.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) In this alternative history, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated en route to his inauguration. His death leads legislators to come together with one last proposal to keep the Union intact.... Explosive, well plotted, and impossible to put down.
Library Journal
For the most part, Winters neatly blends dystopian fiction with old-fashioned procedural.... If it lacks all the dramatic punch it might have had... [it's] smart and well paced. The story could use a little fine-tuning, but it moves deftly from a terrific premise and builds to a satisfying conclusion.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime use these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Underground Airlines...then take off on your own:
1. Why does Victor refer to himself as having no name...
As being not really a person at all. A man was missing, that's all, missing and hiding, and I was not a person but a manifestation of will. I was a mechanism — a device. That's all I was.
2. (Follow-up to Question #1) Victor is a complex character with layers of emotion and history. Talk about Victor and his conflicted nature regarding his past and his present self.
3. This book falls under the genre of "alternate history." Describe the America as presented in Underground Airlines. What is it like, particularly the Four Hard" states?
4. The novel presents the idea that societal change is difficult if not impossible. According to Victor, "shit does not change." Absent a bloody, hard-fought civil war would it have been possible to transform our society? Consider that many in this alternate reality oppose the Hard Four's continuation of slavery. Consider, too, that slavery still exists in the Hard Four.
5.Talk about Victor's own change by the novel's end. Does he achieve redemption?
6. Should a white man have even attempted to write this book?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
All Is Not Forgotten
Wendy Walker, 2016
St. Martin's Press
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250097910
Summary
It begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where everything seems picture perfect.
Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault.
But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, struggles to pretend this horrific event did not touch her carefully constructed world.
As Tom and Charlotte seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town—or perhaps lives among them—drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1966-67
• Where—Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Brown University; J.D., Georgetown University
• Currently—lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut
Wendy Walker was born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, where she still lives, practicing law and and writing novels.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Brown Univeristy, spending a year abroad at the London School of Economics, then heading to Georgetown University for her law degree. She has been a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs and is now a family lawyer.
Divorced and the mother of three sons, Walker recalled writing her first novel "on the fly in her minivan," as The New York Times put it—a la J.K. Rowling, without the welfare check."
That first novel was Four Wives (2008), set in the fictional town of Hunting Ridge in wealthy Fairfield County. Walker's next two novels, Social Lives (2009) and All is Not Forgotten (2016), a thriller, are also set in her native Fairfield County. Emma in the Night (2017) is Walker's fourth novel. (Adapted from the author's website and various online sources. Retrieved 7/19/2016.)
Book Reviews
Because we are kept in a constant guessing game about the ending (I, personally, had three possible conclusions), we go from back and forth from sympathetic to suspicious about each character. It’s a wonderful ride—a fast-paced read that delivers an ending that makes you wish you had been savvy enough to guess. It’s no wonder that Warner Bros. has optioned the rights to the book and is collaborating with Reese Witherspoon in development. You definitely want to read this book before you run to the theater to see it! READ MORE …
Kathy Aspden, AUTHOR - LitLovers
(Starred review.) The rape of 15-year-old Jenny Kramer in the well-to-do town of Fairview, Conn., propels this exceptional psychological thriller.... While secret after secret...add to the suspense, Forrester’s secrets may be the most stunning of all.
Publishers Weekly
The traumatic memories of a teenager's rape are medically erased, but lingering thoughts of the attack remain.... [A] busy story whose resolution is anything but satisfying... makes it difficult to focus on the true victim...of this ridiculous plot.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our generic mystery questions for All Is Not Forgotten...then take off on your own:
GENERIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Mystery / Crime / Suspense Thrillers
1. Talk about the characters, both good and bad. Describe their personalities and motivations. Are they fully developed and emotionally complex? Or are they flat, one-dimensional heroes and villains?
2. What do you know...and when do you know it? At what point in the book do you begin to piece together what happened?
3. Good crime writers embed hidden clues in plain sight, slipping them in casually, almost in passing. Did you pick them out, or were you...clueless? Once you've finished the book, go back to locate the clues hidden in plain sight. How skillful was the author in burying them?
4. Good crime writers also tease us with red-herrings—false clues—to purposely lead readers astray? Does your author try to throw you off track? If so, were you tripped up?
5. Talk about the twists & turns—those surprising plot developments that throw everything you think you've figured out into disarray.
- Do they enhance the story, add complexity, and build suspense?
- Are they plausible or implausible?
- Do they feel forced and gratuitous—inserted merely to extend the story?
6. Does the author ratchet up the suspense? Did you find yourself anxious—quickly turning pages to learn what happened? A what point does the suspense start to build? Where does it climax...then perhaps start rising again?
7. A good ending is essential in any mystery or crime thriller: it should ease up on tension, answer questions, and tidy up loose ends. Does the ending accomplish those goals?
- Is the conclusion probable or believable?
- Is it organic, growing out of clues previously laid out by the author (see Question 3)?
- Or does the ending come out of the blue, feeling forced or tacked-on?
- Perhaps it's too predictable.
- Can you envision a different or better ending?
8. Are there certain passages in the book—ideas, descriptions, or dialogue—that you found interesting or revealing...or that somehow struck you? What lines, if any, made you stop and think?
9. Overall, does the book satisfy? Does it live up to the standards of a good crime story or suspense thriller? Why or why not?
(Generic Mystery Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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Here Comes the Sun
Nicole Dennis-Benn, 2016
Liveright Publishing
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781631491764
Summary
In this radiant, highly anticipated debut, a cast of unforgettable women battle for independence while a maelstrom of change threatens their Jamaican village...a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas.
At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate.
When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman—fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves—must confront long-hidden scars.
From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1981-82
• Where—Kingston, Jamaica
• Education—B.A., Cornell University; M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York, USA
Nicole Dennis-Bann is a Jamaican writer whose debut novel, Here Comes the Sun, was published to wide acclaim in 2016. With eductional opportunities fairly limited at home, Dennis-Benn left Jamaica when she was 17 to attend Cornell Unviersity. As she told Diane Daniel of The New York Times,
My fmaily was working class, and it's very hard to move up. On topof that, with being a lesbian in a homophobic place, the U.S.s seemed the best choice.
She went on to earn her M.F.A., from Sara Lawrence College and now teaches writing at Baruch College in New York City, where she also lives with her wife.
Dennis-Benns's writing has appeared in Elle Magazine, Electric Literature, Lenny Letter, Catapult, Red Rock Review, Kweli Literary Journal, Mosaic, Ebony, and the Feminist Wire.
She was awarded a Richard and Julie Logsdon Fiction Prize, and two of her stories have been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in Fiction. She has also received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference and Lambda Foundation, among others. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] lithe, artfully-plotted debut....Margot is one of the reasons to read this book. She is a startling, deeply memorable character. All of Ms. Dennis-Benn’s women are. The author has a gift for creating chiaroscuro portraits, capturing both light and dark.... Here Comes the Sun is deceptively well-constructed, with slow and painful reveals right through the end.
Jennifer Senior - New York Times
One of the most stunningly beautiful novels in recent years…Dennis-Benn's writing is so assured, so gorgeous, that it's hard to believe Here Comes the Sun is a debut novel…it feels like a miracle.
Michael Schaub - NPR.org
Dennis-Benn writes movingly about the ways in which social distinctions and stigmas limit individual freedom, and the tradeoffs that keep fragile hopes alive.
Jane Ciabattari - BBC.com
Striking…Here Comes the Sun arrives in the season of the beach read, but with eloquent prose and unsentimental clarity, Dennis-Benn offers an excellent reason to look beyond the surface beauty of paradise. This novel is as bracing as a cold shower on a hot day
Connie Olge - Miami Herald
Betrayal, forbidden trysts, innocence lost: for two Jamaican sisters wrestling with identity and womanhood, life in a seemingly postcard-perfect paradise is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Cosmopolitan
Remember this title: It'll likely be the buzzword in all upcoming literary awards competitions.
Marie Claire
The novel, with its knife fights and baroque blackmail schemes, often threatens to stray from operatic intensity to soap opera melodrama. But Dennis-Benn redeems it with her striking portrayal of a vibrant community...[and]how shame whips desire into submission.
Publishers Weekly
Not for the faint of heart, as the women are often unlikable and their circumstances dire, but readers and book clubs interested in complicated characters and challenging themes will appreciate this first novel. —Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD
Library Journal
Dennis-Benn reveals a sure hand, creating a world she knows well, while offering intimate portraits of characters readers will care deeply about even as their struggles lead to less than stellar choices. An impressive debut.
Booklist
(Starred review.) [A]n astute social commentary on the intricacies of race, gender, wealth inequality, colorism, and tourism.... Haunting and superbly crafted, this is a magical book from a writer of immense talent and intelligence.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for Here Comes the Sun...then take off on your own:
1. Riding to work one day, Margot says, "Can't wait to leave dis godforsaken place." When the taxi driver says, "we live by di sea," Margot responds "This is not paradise. At least, not for us." Talk about the disparity between Jamaica's image as a tourist destination and Jamaica as a place to live for its residents. If you've visited Jamaica, or other Caribbean Islands, where you surprised by life portrayed in Here Comes the Sun?
2. What do you think of the three women characters—Dolores, Margot, and Thandi? The choices they make are problematic, to say the least. Can their choices be understood, even acceptable, given the dire poverty the women face?
3. (Follow-up to Question 2) What do you think of the "extra job" Margot undertakes in order to raise money for Thandi's schooling? What else does Margot do to get ahead. Is she blameworthy or can her choices be defended?
4. Dolores believes that in her culture a woman is valued for "what's between her legs." Is this a realistic assessment or a warped and cynical one?
5. What are the promises—and threats—of the proposed new hotel? Will it bring hoped for prosperity or only destruction of the village?
6. Discuss Thandi's decision to undergo skin bleaching and the hierarchy of race as explained by the woman who administers the skin treatment.
7. The book poses significant questions about greed and sacrifice, about being desperate in paradise. What are the many humiliations undergone in order to achieve security? What would any of us do—what would you do—in order to survive in a culture and economy like these women face?
7. Discuss homophobia in Jamaica. The author, herself a lesbian, chose to leave Jamaica rather than live in a hostile environment. What about Margot and Verdene? Will living in a gated community offer the protection Margot dreams of?
8. Given the desperate lives the women lead and the choices they make, do you find this book difficult to read? Is it simply too grim? Or does the writing—in particular, the depth of the characters and the complexity of the issues—redeem the book in your eyes? (There is no single or right answer to this question!)
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)