A note before we begin: it’s the last week to sign up for my Worldbuilding class with Write or Die! Link to sign up is here, and feel free to forward it along to anyone you think might enjoy it.
I’m a book club drop out. I’ve tried. Hang a dunce sign on me and throw me in a corner, but I cannot. I am too stubborn for them. I do not want to read what *you* want me to read when *you* want me to read it. I will get around to the book when I good and well feel like it!
The idea of book clubs is truly tantalizing. Sitting around, chatting about books, with snacks? Perfection. Try to get me to do that on a schedule? No thank you.
So here’s a non-exhaustive list of bookclubs I have dropped out of:
1) My job’s.
It was my first job out of college, and I was looking for friends in a new city. Books, I thought. A great way to bond! I only ended up reading 1 book with the group.1 The second book, Ready Player One, I wasn’t into. So I didn’t get the book. Didn’t go. Became overwhelmed by the amount of work I had, never went back.
2) Emma Watson’s book club, Our Shared Shelf.2
It’s online. I don’t even have to show up. But alas, I could do no more than casually follow the posts on Goodreads. I did read that one Gloria Steinem book, though.3 But there was no accountability, so I never did anything beyond that.
3) Roxane Gay’s book club,
The Audacity is a great Substack, if you don’t already follow. I joined when The Audacity launched in 2021, and I made it through the whole year! Yay! The wheels immediately fell off in 2022. I attended a few of the live talks, because if nothing else, I love hearing authors talk about their work. But ultimately, the pressure of having to keep up meant I stopped putting in the effort.
4) Feminist Book Club’s book club.
Feminist Book Club is an online book club where members vote on their picks for the next month. There are author talks, and subscription boxes and Q &A’s, and a community over on Mighty Networks.4 Much like The Audacity, everything is virtual, and their picks are intersectional and feminist. What’s not to love?
But yet again, we run into the problem of: I have to read specific books on a specific schedule, and I don’t want to do that. I was able to keep up for a few months, and then…
5) Small Format’s RI Queer Book Club.
I can’t even say I’m a drop out of this one because I haven’t even successfully made it there. Small Format is an adorable local cafe in Providence and they have a monthly book club featuring Queer authors. I put in the effort and read the book for this month, A Queer and Pleasant Danger.5 The meeting was last night. Did I go? Nope. Why would I have done that?
At this point, you should see a pattern. No amount of prestige is going to make me commit to your book club. It’s not for lack of trying. The idea of book clubs and discussing books isn’t the problem. I’m the problem. It’s me.
Unintentional Taylor Swift reference aside, I do love talking about books. I say I will ‘book club’ a book with you as in: if we have read the same book, I will gladly discuss it with you.
So if I say I want to Book Club something? It means I want us to 1) read the same book, 2) at our leisure, and then 3) decide upon a mutually agreed upon time to discuss it. I do not want to *actually* participate in a book club.
Last week, my friend Andy6 and I did just that. We previously agreed to read The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, and then chat about it later. No pressure, no time limits, no deadline. This is helped by the fact that we are a plane ride away from each other, so our discussion could only happen virtually.
Andy is a great person to discuss books with. We went to college together! We studied abroad in Paris at the same time! We both read bilingually! She has a Little Library she manages! And while we may have failed on getting the snacks part of Book Club together, we did have a great conversation.
Potential Spoilers ahead - read at your own risk
My philosophy on rating books differs from the collective. I don’t tend to rate books, mainly because what I’m looking for is very different than most people. I’m often interested in the craft, worldbuilding, and plot aspects. Am I entertained? Can I tell I’m reading a book? Was I transported or was I pulled out of the narrative too much?
Because I’m also a writer who fully understands how damn hard it is to actually *write* a book, I hesitate to be critical of another author’s work. That being said, if I had to give this a rating, I’d say this was a 3.5 or a 3.75 read. It was 350 pages, but this book moved. The pacing was excellent, and it did not feel as big as it was. It was also different than most YA I’ve encountered. The primary topic is living in a society governed by a puritanical religion, which isn’t something I’ve often seen treated in YA.7 In fact, I’d even go so far as to say this book isn’t YA at all. By the character’s ages they are, but the themes treated in this book are very mature.8
That being said, I had a lot of questions about the world itself. I have a phrase I use, the logic isn’t logicking, and at times the lack of thought in the worldbuilding left me with more questions than answers. There was a lot of infodumping in the beginning, and that slowed me down. (Shameless plug: learn how to not do this with me this weekend! Wheee!!! →Sign up here←)
The main character, Immanuelle, felt like she was just being a good person because that was what the plot asked her to do - not necessarily because she had any deep desire to do so. And honestly, if given a choice between witches looking to burn down the puritanical religion, and the hero trying to preserve it? I’m siding with the witches.
I would still recommend giving this a read if any of the topics interested you. It’s on theme for Spooky Season, and the feminine rage is on point.
I believe this book is going to have a sequel, but it’s really unclear what the timeline is on that. If so, Andy and I had a few requests:
a map9
greater breakdown of the magic system - does the magic the witches and the magic of the ‘Gifts’ that the religious flock have come from the same source? If not, where do they come from? How is one different than the other? Why are the Gifts fine but the witches’ magic heretical?
building on that, a greater understanding of how the characters *use* their magic. A few characters suddenly gained powers and they just - had them? And could use them? With no training or thought otherwise? Suspicious.
I definitely would read a sequel, though, if nothing else to get these questions answered.
Then we chatted about Andy’s cats, our jobs, and life stuff. Overall a successful evening. So if you ask me to join a book club going forward, understand that I will politely decline unless there are no stakes whatsoever.
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, about which I HAVE THOUGHTS, foremost of which being: I didn’t realize it was a French book and I read it in English, which is a really specific pet peeve of mine. Anything else is spoiler territory, but this book is a mess.
As of this writing, Our Shared Shelf does not appear to be active.
Which if you’re unaware, is the small business version of Facebook. It’s a way to have community without having to be on Facebook.
A harrowing read at times that made me realize just how truly dangerous Scientologists are.
She’s @belmontbookworm on Instagram if you want to follow for more bookish content.
Always happy to be proven wrong. LMK if there are others.
If you’re interested in reading, CW for: physical and sexual violence, repressive religion, and a fairly graphic birth scene.
Andy didn’t care that much - *I* really wanted a map.