September's Book Club

I started a Twitter Book Club in June. 

So far, we've read and discussed Circe by Madeline Miller and Normal People by Sally Rooney.

This month the book chosen (via Twitter Poll), was Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucie Mcknight Hardy.

Here's the blurb:

The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusion doesnt bring any relief. As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft collecting talismans from the sun-starved land. That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her, and has his own secret rites to divulge.

What's so great about a Book Club, is that you can discover things you didn't see when you first read it. People read books differently and the insights that can come from another person's perspective can add to the reading experience.

Anyway, 22 people read the book this month and scored it out of 10.

Overall, the writing throughout was praised and the majority of the group agreed that the author smashed it describing the heatwave and the atmosphere in the village.

The main character wasn't particularly likeable and some of the group struggled to feel empathy with any of the characters in the book.

The writing has been compared to Shirley Jackson, in a sense that there was this undercurrent of dread and discomfort throughout, which a couple of people agreed with, but a number of people said that they saw the "ending" before it finally happened.

In fact, the ending was the thing that frustrated most people (and the animal cruelty...). So whilst most people thought the writing was great, this was a bit of a downer.

Having said that, there were mixed feelings and the scores out of 10 reflected this, as marks ranged between 4 and 8.

The overall average was 6.1

So, if a bit of dark fiction is your thing, check it out.

NEXT month's book choice is When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Here's the blurb;

England, the 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between inter-war London and Shanghai, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return

The discussion will start on Tuesday October 15th from Midday. 

There's a special Twitter DM group where the discussion is held, so as not to clog up everyone's timeline with the chat, so if you want to be a part of Book Club, please tweet me @biggreenbooks with the hashtag #BGBookClub and i'll join you to the group. 

If you want to buy the book from me, you can paypal £8.99 to biggreenbookshop@hotmail.com, (using family and friends please) and then DM me your name, address and the word ORPHAN. 

I shall post it out to you asap. 

There are now over 80 people in the Book Club, and there's no pressure to read the book, so if you want to get involved, let me know.