Welcome October! 🍂
It was kind of nice meeting back at the library's meeting room on a brisk, rainy Tuesday afternoon to discuss our latest read. We will plan to continue to meet back at the library now for the foreseeable future... or at least until the weather warms again!
We have several copies of Broken Ice coming in, but just in case you don't need a copy and you haven't already let me know, would you please leave me a quick note in the comments below so we can keep the call list updated? Thank you for your help!
To the book!
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds.
The overall response to this book was positive~ no one really loved it, but no one hated it either. We thought Moore did a great job with character development and the premise for the story was a good one. We believed her characters, even though we didn't necessarily like them all.
The handful of criticisms we collected were that, for some, the book seemed a little long. A couple people said there were too many characters that got tricky to keep straight as the story unfolded. Also, there were a couple unnecessary plot lines, possibly red herrings, that only added to the character count and the length of the book.
Another small group of readers enjoyed the book right up to the ending where it all seemed to fall apart. Would 13-year-old rich, privileged Barbara really be ok living all alone on an island for five years until she became a legal adult... even with the presumed regular help/visits from TJ? Would Judy, a police investigator, really row out into the water, discover 13-year-old Barbara alone on the island, and row away again, taking Barbara at her word that she's OK... and never tell anyone/intervene?
A few of us would have liked one more page, just to know how everything shook out for TJ, Barbara, Alice and Judy. We wondered if now that the truth was known, could it have meant that Barbara and Alice could have healed their relationship? Could Alice heal and move forward in a healthy direction with her rotten husband and father-in-law in prison for their crimes?
The votes are in!
Would we recommend this to a friend to read? No
Would we
recommend this to another book club for discussion? Yes
Rate the
book 1-5 stars, with 1 being the lowest rating: 3 stars
