You Were There Too
Colleen Oakley, 2020
Penguin Publishing
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781984806468
Summary
A heart-wrenching and unforgettable love story about a woman who must choose between the man she loves and the man fate has chosen for her, in a novel that reminds us that the best life is one led by the heart.
Mia Graydon's life looks picket-fence perfect; she has the house, her loving husband, and dreams of starting a family.
But she has other dreams too—unexplained, recurring ones starring the same man.
Still, she doesn’t think much of it, until a relocation to small-town Pennsylvania brings her face to face with the stranger she has been dreaming about for years. And this man harbors a jaw-dropping secret of his own—he's been dreaming of her too.
Determined to understand, Mia and this not-so-stranger search for answers. But when diving into their pasts begins to unravel her life in the present, Mia emerges with a single question—what if? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Colleen Oakley is the author of three novels, You Were There Too (2020), Close Enough to Touch (2017), and Before I Go (2015).
Oakley is also the former senior editor of Marie Claire and editor in chief of Women's Health & Fitness. Her articles, essays and interviews have been featured in the New York Times, Ladies' Home Journal, Marie Claire, Women's Health, Redbook, Parade and Martha Stewart Weddings. She lives in Georgia with her husband, four kids and the world's biggest lapdog. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review) Oakley blends an old-fashioned love story with a fresh psychic mystery for a satisfying look at commitment, forgiveness, and fate in this can’t-put-it-down story.… There is a splendid blend of humor throughout Oakley’s…foreboding love-conquers-all tale.
Publishers Weekly
[P]oignant… [with] a fascinating premise.… [T]he tension between Mia and Harrison, the fortuneteller and Oakley’s breezy writing all encourage the reader to stick with the book, which tells a sad story to a bouncy beat. Full of misdirection and a few gentle red herrings..
BookPage
(Starred review) Oakley keeps readers wondering… about Mia and Oliver, while the emotional journey… is realistic. Keep a box of tissues handy—the ending is a gut-punch that will leave readers who have invested in these beautifully drawn characters reeling.
Booklist
Readers expecting a simple happily-ever-after should look elsewhere, but those looking for a Me Before You-style sobfest are in the right place. A heartbreaking and thought-provoking exploration of fate, love, and choice sure to bring on a few tears.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Near the beginning of the book, Mia admits she’s been dreaming about a man on and off for most of her adult life. Have you ever had any recurring dreams? What do they mean to you?
2. When we meet Mia, she tells her sister, "It doesn’t feel like this is where I’m supposed to be." Why do you think she feels that way?
3. Mia and Harrison suffer a third miscarriage. What does the way they handle it tell you about their relationship? Do you think they have a strong marriage?
4. When Mia runs into Oliver a second time, he offers to help her with her garden and after spending the day with him, she realizes she feels like she’s known him forever. Have you ever felt that way when you first met somebody? What, if anything, do you think it means?
5. After Harrison misses Mia’s first appointment with the fertility specialist, she thinks, "The downside of being a surgeon’s wife isn’t just the long hours, but that strangers’ misfortunes can impact you so greatly." Do you think there are any circumstances where the demands of one partner’s job should be more important than the marriage?
6. When Mia and Harrison have dinner with Caroline and Oliver, she inevitably compares Oliver with her husband. Did you note any similarities between the two men? What are the biggest differences between them?
7. Mia decides not to tell her husband right away when Oliver confesses to dreaming about her too. Do you think it’s a betrayal? Should spouses tell each other everything? Or is it sometimes understandable to keep something to yourself?
8. Even though Harrison said he needed time, Mia continues to seek out information about IVF. Do you think she’s being too pushy, or is Harrison not being supportive enough?
9. On their mini getaway in New Jersey, Mia describes marriage as being like her television from childhood: "The connection gets loose sometimes—even to the point where you think it might not work anymore—but then something jars it and the wires slip back into place, exactly where they belong, lighting up the screen and bringing back the sound; everything working as it should." Did that strike you as an accurate description of a marriage?
10. After Mia spies Harrison with Whitney downtown, she remembers that Harrison doesn’t believe in soul mates. What does a soul mate mean to you?
11. In a drunken moment, Harrison finally reveals the burden he’s been carrying for months—that he feels responsible for the death of a young patient. Why do you think he kept this from Mia?
12. When Oliver shows up at Mia’s house, bewildered at the realization that Mia was at his best friend’s wedding years earlier, he repeats a Yogi Berra quote: "This is too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence." What do you think that means?
13. What qualities do you think Mia needed in a partner? Who did you think was a better match for her?
14. After talking to Raya, Mia drives back to Hope Springs and makes her decision about who she wants to be with. Were you surprised by her choice?
15. Have you ever had a dream that came true before? Do you believe people can truly dream about the future?
16. At the end, when Oliver stops by Mia’s to see how she’s doing, she wonders why Oliver was in her life, and that "maybe Harrison was right—maybe there’s no rhyme or reason to it all." Why do you think people come into our lives? Do you think it
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Sourdough
Robin Sloan, 2017
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780374203108
Summary
In his much-anticipated new novel, Robin Sloan does for the world of food what he did for the world of books in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions.
She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues.
The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.
Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.
When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?
Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young writer. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1980
• Raised—Troy, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., Michigan State University
• Currently—lives in Berkeley, California
Robin Sloan is an American novelist and short story writer — the author of the New York Times bestselling novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012), and Sourdough (2017), as well as the novella Annabel Scheme (2009) and an assortment of short stories.
Sloan was raised in Troy, Michigan, and earned a degree in economics from Michigan State University. While still a student, he co-founded a literary magazine called Oats. For 10 years, (2002-2012), he worked at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Current TV, and Twitter — in various positions, all of which explore the future of media. Currently, Sloan works as a "media inventor" out of the Murray Street Lab in South Berkeley.
In addition to his writing and media work, Sloan and his partner, Kathryn Tomajan, lease three acres in Sunol, California, where they produce extra virgin olive oil. Sloan makes his home in Berkeley, California. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
The magical world Robin Sloan used to such affect in Mr. Penumbra’ 24-Hour Bookstore shows up in his newest, Sourdough. The “magick” here, though, is less Harry Potter and more of the Garden Spells variety: whimsical rather than mystical.… The writing is, in parts, smart and insightful, particularly when describing the tech world. The how-tos of baking, the invisible “empire” of microbes, and the politics of agribusiness are also quite good. Overall, though, while pleasant and occasionally clever, Sourdough feels somewhat lackluster. READ MORE…
Molly Lundquist - LitLovers
In his novel Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, Sloan unraveled a mystery about a web designer who takes a job in a peculiar all-night Bay area book shop. New technology clashed, then melded, with classic history. Sourdough promises a similar sort of tech and analog mashup, in this case involving the food industry: a software engineer learns to bake bread and uncovers a secret underground market. We’re already hungry for it.
Miami Herald
Delightful…equal measures techie and foodie fodder, a perfect parable for our times.
San Francisco Magazine
As he did in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan will have readers looking for magic in the mundane.
Nora Horvath - Real Simple
Sloan captures contemporary work environments, current reality, and future trends. It’s a busy novel, crammed with some excellent bits…and some bits that are just creative hyperactivity…. [M]uch to savor, but like the starter it proves rich and buoyant at first, then overreaches.
Publishers Weekly
[B]uoyant, touch-of-magic prose.… How many novels can boast an obstreperous sourdough starter as a key character? A delightful and heartfelt read.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Filled with crisp humor and weird but endearing characters.… At once a parody of startup culture and a foodie romp.… [A] delight, perfect for those who like a little magic with their meals.
Booklist
A listless coder discovers inspiration—and some unusual corners of the Bay Area—via a batch of sourdough starter.… But the absurdities of the plot twists…ultimately feel less cleverly offbeat than hokey.… Fluffy but overbaked.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Sourdough … then take off on your own:
1. Talk about Lois, especially as the book opens. How does she feel about her job, and how has the job affected her outlook on life? What might her experience, as presented in the novel, suggest about contemporary jobs in Silicon Valley?
2. What does Lois mean when she says, "Here's a thing I believe about people my age: We are the children of Hogwarts, and more than anything, we just want to be sorted." Why does that belief or idea inspire her to leave Michigan for San Francisco?
3. Do you find the robotic blue arm just a little creepy ... or funny? Is it the wave of the future? While you're at it, can you understand, even define, proprioception? It is truly a marvel of human ability, isn't it?
4. In what ways does the sour dough starter function as a symbol in the novel? Compare, for instance, the sourdough to both the blue arm and Tetra Pak nutritional gel. Think of the meaning of the word "starter" itself.
5. Follow-up to Question 1: Once Lois has taken up kneading dough and building a brick oven, consider her statement about exhaustion : "When I fell into my bed, I was truly tired; not merely the brain-spent Well, I guess I’ll give up now tiredness of a day at the robot factory, but something deeper, actually muscular." How else does her life change? Better yet, how does she change?
6. What do you think of the innovative Marrow Fair Lois is invited to join — funny, frightening, off-putting, even slightly repulsive? All or none of the above?
7. What is Agrippa's empire of microbes — "This is their world, not ours, and their stories are greater."
8. Robin Sloan seems to be taking on both the farm-to-table movement and giant agribusiness. What is his criticism, and does he offer up a solution for feeding the world's growing population?
9. Why does Alice turn down the job offered to her by the doyenne of the California food world?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Ottessa Moshfegh, 2018
Penguin Publising
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525522119
Summary
A novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she?
She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance.
But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva.
It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be.
Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 20, 1981
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Barnard College; M.F.A., Brown University
• Awards—Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award (more below)
• Currently—lives in New England
Ottessa Moshfegh is an American author and novelist who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Croatian mother and Jewish-Iranian father. Both parents were musicians, who taught at the New England Conservatory of Music. Moshfegh herself learned to play piano and clarinet as a child.
Education and Career
Moshfegh received her B.A. from Barnard College in 2002. After graduation, she moved to China where she taught English and worked in a punk bar. In her mid-twenties, she moved to New York City where she worked for Overlook Press and then as an assistant to the author Jean Stein. After contracting cat-scratch fever, she left the city and earned an M.F.A. from Brown University.
Ottessa's first work of fiction was the novella "McGlue," published in 2014. Her debut novel Eileen was released in 2015 and won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and selected as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
In 2017 Moshfega published a collection of stories, Homesick for Another World. Her second novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, was published in 2018, and Death in Her Hands, her third, came out in 2020.
Moshfegh is a frequent contributor to the Paris Review; she has published numerous stories in the journal since 2012.
Awards and honors
2013–15 Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University
2013 Plimpton Prize for Fiction (Paris Review) - "Bettering Myself" (story)
2014 Fence Modern Prize in Prose - "McGlue"
2014 Believer Book Award winner - "McGlue"
2016 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award - Eileen
2016 Man Booker Prize (shortlist) - Eileen
2018 The Story Prize finalist for Homesick for Another World
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/29/2018.)
Book Reviews
Because this is a novel by the superabundantly talented Moshfegh—she’s an American writer of Croatian and Iranian descent with a name like that of an avant-garde London restaurant—we know in advance that it will be cool, strange, aloof and disciplined. The sentences will be snipped as if the writer has an extra row of teeth.… Moshfegh is an inspired literary witch doctor. She invents many of the drugs her heroine ingests, [which] …have serio-comic names like Valdignore and Prognosticrone and Maxiphenphen and Silencior.… If she’s on downers, the prose in My Year of Rest and Relaxation is mostly on uppers. Like its narrator, this is a remorseless little machine. Moshfegh’s sentences are piercing and vixenish, each one a kind of orphan. She plays interestingly with substance and illusion, with dread and solace on the installment plan. This book builds subtly toward the events of Sept. 11.… Moshfegh writes with so much misanthropic aplomb, however, that she is always a deep pleasure to read.
Dwight Garner - New York Times
This book isn’t just buzzy and maniacally entertaining—it’s a mean-spirited, tenderhearted masterpiece.
New York Post
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is the most poignant, vulnerable, mature, and—dare I say it?—sincere work that its gifted author has yet produced.
Boston Globe
One of the pleasures of reading Ottessa Moshfegh is that—unusually, these days—she rarely writes in the present tense. Instead, the sense of immediacy, the sense of being inside a character, the sense of things happening and having psychic value, both to the writer and her reader, is provided by the structure and content of her sentences. Matter of fact, full of bravado yet always wryly observational, these stack up steadily to construct the brisk interior landscape of her third novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation.… One of the other pleasures of reading Moshfegh is her relentless savagery. All this is delivered as comic—it is comic—but it’s not exactly funny, though of course we laugh.
Guardian
Ottessa Moshfegh is easily the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible. She has a freaky and pure way of accessing existential alienation, as if her mind were tapped directly into the sap of some gnarled, secret tree.… Watching Moshfegh turn her withering attention to the gleaming absurdities of pre-9/11 New York City, an environment where everyone except the narrator seems beset with delusional optimism, horrifically carefree, feels like eating bright, slick candy—candy that might also poison you.
The New Yorker
[A] strange, exhilarating triumph.… Moshfegh writes with a singular wit and clarity that, on its own, would be more than enough.…. But the cumulative power of her narrative—and the sharp turn she takes in its last 30 pages—becomes nothing less than a revelation: sad, funny, astonishing, and unforgettable.
Entertainment Weekly
Darkly hilarious.… [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.
Vogue
You’ll emerge from this darkly hilarious novel not necessarily rested or relaxed but more finely attuned to how delicately fraught the human condition can be.
Marie Claire
Electrifying.… Moshfegh’s narrator’s final gesture, transforming herself into a piece of half-living art, echoes the odd and combative passivity of Herman Melville’s Bartleby, a scrivener who suddenly, inexplicably, refuses to perform his duties.… In a country that celebrates doers, such a preference is grotesque, an inversion of the American ideal of prospering through hard work. But it also serves as a reminder that there is something to life outside the economic exchange of time for money and money for goods, even if that unnamed thing is obscure and perplexing and just a bit monstrous—particularly as a woman. Literature may not have the all the answers, but it can show us the power and allure of saying no.
Vanity Fair
[C]aptivating and disquieting.… Though the novel drags a bit in the middle… ,it showcases Moshfegh's …mix of provocation…. Following the narrator's dire trajectory is challenging but… fascinating, likely to incite strong reactions and… discussion among readers.
Publishers Weekly
Interest in the narrator's long-lasting sleep trial may diminish before the novel ends…, but this work is not nearly as dark[ as her previous Eileen], though it's certainly as provocative and even occasionally funny. —Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis
Library Journal
(Starred review) Moshfegh concocts [her haze] with delirious clarity…. Readers might have trouble “getting” her, but there is one thing they’ll know that she doesn’t, given the time and place. Propulsive, both disturbing and funny, and smart as hell. — Annie Bostrom
Booklist
(Starred review) Checking out of society the way the narrator does isn't advisable, but there's still a peculiar kind of uplift to the story…. A nervy modern-day rebellion tale that isn't afraid to get dark or find humor in the darkness.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion of MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION … then take off on your own:
1. What do you think of our narrator? Is she mentally ill? Or is she the sanest character you've ever come across in literature? Perhaps she's something in between.
2. On the surface, our narrator seems to have it all—good looks, money, education, and a Manhattan apartment. What then is her reason for wanting to sleep the year away? Her motive isn't suicide, so what is she trying to escape … or find?
3. Follow-up to Question 2: The narrator says she's seeking "great transformation." But what kind of transformation—from what … into what?
4. Talk about the state of the world (at least in the U.S) during the year the narrator is checking out; how does the author portray the era? We know that 9/11 is around the corner. Why might the author have chosen to set her story in this particular time, in New York City, and right before the World Trade Center cataclysm? In what way does your knowledge of what is to come (9/11) affect your reading experience or your understanding of the book?
5. Did some (many?) of the narrator's observations and quips ("Caffeine was my exercise") get you laughing? How would you describe her type of humor?
6. If you were Reva, the narrator's friend, what would you do or say to the narrator? What do you make of Reva?
7. Why does the narrator decide that if she can't make art (she tells Reva she has no talent), then she'll become art. What about her project makes it "art"? Once the public sees the completed film, what is their reaction? How would you have reacted?
8. Why does Png Xi want to film the narrator as she burns her birth certificate? The narrator thinks, "He needed fodder for analysis. But the project was beyond issues of 'identity' and 'society' and 'institutions.' Mine was a quest for a new spirit." What does the narrator mean—and why is her "project beyond" identity and society, etc.?
9. Toward the end, the narrator does experience a transformation. She attends the Metropolitan Museum of Art and begins to re-engage. Talk about the nature of that change. How has she been altered?
10. Follow-up to Question 9: As she looks at the paintings of great artists hanging in the museum, the narrator wonders about the artists' lives and whether "they understood …that beauty and meaning had nothing to do with one another." She wonders if the painters would have preferred spending their days walking through fields of grass or being in love. What do those notions mean? Are these thoughts the transformation she hoped to achieve? Do her thoughts suggest a new understanding of life or of consciousness …or of what?
11. Despite the museum guard's warning to step back, the narrator reaches out to touch the canvass of a painting. Why is touching so important?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Holly Jackson, 2020
Random House
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781984896360
Summary
An addictive, twisty crime thriller with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about a closed local murder case that doesn't add up, and a girl who's determined to find the real killer—but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
Everyone in Fairview knows the story.
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.
But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?
Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent … and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.
This is the story of an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you'll never expect. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Holly Jackson started writing stories at a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a novel when she was fifteen. She graduated from the University of Nottingham, where she studied literary linguistics and creative writing, with a master's degree in English.
She enjoys playing video games and watching true-crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective. She lives in London. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is her debut novel. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Jackson sprinkles the fast-paced narrative with Pip’s notes, project logs, and interview transcripts—as well as several cleverly placed red herrings—…[and] caps her suspenseful, well-plotted mystery with a few twists readers likely won’t see coming (Ages 14–up).
Publishers Weekly
Jackson wonderfully crafts the mystery so that readers can create their own hypotheses as Pip puts the pieces together—but they won't find out the truth until she does.… A wonderful addition to any library collection (Gr. 9–up). —Amanda Borgia, Uniondale Public Library, NY
SchoolLibrary Journal
Fans of true crime will be hooked by the hunt for a killer, but there’s more to this Guide than just a whodunit. It’s a story of families, community and the ways a crisis can turn them against one another in the blink of an eye.
BookPage
Pip's sleuthing is both impressive and accessible.… Jackson's debut is well-executed and surprises readers with a connective web of interesting characters and motives.… A treat for mystery readers who enjoy being kept in suspense (Young Adult).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our GENERIC MYSTERY QUESTIONS to start a discussion for A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER … 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.)
Good Me Bad Me
Ali Land, 2017
Flatiron Books
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250087645
Summary
How far does the apple really fall from the tree?
Milly’s mother is a serial killer.
Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school.
But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.
When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother's daughter. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
After graduating from university with a degree in Mental Health, Ali Land spent a decade working as a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Nurse in hospitals and schools in the UK and Australia. Ali is now a full-time writer and lives in a creative warehouse community in North London. Good Me Bad Me has been translated into over 20 languages. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The new Girl on The Train, which was the new Gone Girl. You get the picture. This psycho-thriller by Ali Land is set to be massive.”
Cosmopolitan (UK ed.)
A gripping tale about a teenage girl waiting to give evidence at her serial-killer mother's trial. Unsettling and unforgettable.
Heat
Uncomfortable, shocking, and totally compelling, put this to the top of your to-read pile.
Sun (UK)
Unsettling. Holds our attention from the opening page. There is so much to praise here.
Guardian (UK)
(Starred review.) A deliberate pace and a skillfully woven plot conspire to create a visceral read that’s at once a gripping psychological thriller and a devastating exploration of the damage wrought by childhood trauma.
Publishers Weekly
[H]er mother is a serial killer and a child abuser, too… [so] 15-year-old Milly is given a new identity and placed with a posh foster family. Then her foster sister starts bullying her,…and Milly's intentions to be good—unlike her mother—start to buckle. Lots of buzz for this debut novelist.
Library Journal
A sense of creeping dread drives the narrative.… Readers will be more than happy to go along for the ride and may be surprised how they feel about the conclusion, proving the unmistakable spell that Land has cast. Sly, unsettling, and impossible to put down
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Good Me Bad Me is narrated by fifteen-year-old Milly. Discuss her voice. Why do you think the author chose to write the book in this style?
2. Milly is placed in a foster family that, on paper, looks ideal but behind closed doors is anything but. Is there such a thing as a normal family? Are the Newmonts "normal"? Do you think a different foster family would have changed who Milly became? Was it was the right decision to place Milly in foster care or should she have remained in a secure, psychiatric unit—and for how long? Forever?
3. Why do you think the author chose a female serial killer who is also a mother? Are bad women somehow worse than bad men?
4.Milly strikes up a friendship with a younger, vulnerable girl named Morgan. Discuss their relationship. There’s a scene in Milly’s bedroom where she’s tempted to harm Morgan but doesn’t. What does that tell you about Milly, and why was Morgan an important relationship for her to experience?
5. Lord of the Flies is referenced a number of times in Good Me Bad Me and particularly in the school scenes. Do you think the prevalence of mobile phones and social media has made school a more savage place? Had it been a mixed school, both boys and girls, do you think Milly would still have been subjected to such brutal bullying?
6. Phoebe is painted as the bad cop in the book. To what extent could you say she is also the product of her mother? Was she justified in her feelings toward Milly? Are there similarities between the two girls, and what do you think would have happened if they’d teamed up instead of going head to head?
7. Milly testified in court against her mother but she didn’t have to; she could have given evidence by a video link. Should she have been allowed to take the stand? Should any minor be allowed to? Why did she want to, need to, do this?
8. Following the court case, Milly makes a devastating confession to the reader about Daniel. Were you shocked by her confession? Did it make you feel differently about her?
9. Mike is a skilled psychologist and spent the most time with Milly, yet he missed what was going on between Phoebe and her. Or did he? How much did he choose to ignore the tension in his household so he could fulfill his own goals and have access to Milly’s mind? Do you hold him at all responsible for what happened at the end of the book?
10. What scared you the most in Good Me Bad Me?
11. The nature/nurture debate rages on. Are there particular points you think the author is trying to make about this debate? Has reading this book changed your opinion on nature versus nurture?
12. Compare how you felt about Milly at the beginning of the book with how you feel about her at the end. Both the opening and closing lines of the book are "Forgive me." Does she need forgiveness? Do you forgive her? The ending was deliberately ambiguous; what do you see for her future?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
top of page (summary)