Alysa’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2015)

Alysa’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Judith wrote: "DQ Part 3 - Saturday
10. How do you feel about the ending of the book in the present? What are your thoughts on the past reveal? Was the cave in too Deus ex Machina?
It was a let down. I feel like ..."

@Judith - yeah, I think most of us felt let down. So much potential, so many problems. *sigh*

Next time something I nominate wins, it had better be great! :D

Judith wrote: "Late to the party, but I finally made it

DQ Day 1-2 : beginning to 32% (p101)

1. What attracted you to this book? Do you tend to read a lot of horror/thriller/suspense novels (or not), and what a..."

Glad you are here! :)

Finished two more.


Definitely not one of my favorite Margaret Atwood books to date, but it’s still Margaret Atwood, so. Plus this was one of my beat up paperbacks so I could take it on a day at the beach :)


This was a sequel to a book I read ages ago but still remember vey well. Oddly gripping but not very good and should probably have stayed hidden in the author’s drawer.

Finished book on Friday but have not had time for GR!!!
Here I go...


DQ Day 5-6 : 63%-End

10. How do you feel about the ending of the book in the present? What are your thoughts on the past reveal? Was the cave in too Deus ex Machina?

Still having problems suspending my disbelief on too many points. There's the town being so well-preserved like I mentioned before, there's Aina having survived in what seems like relatively good physical health, there's the fact that no one ever thought to check the mines after everybody disappeared or at any time since then. It's all just way too convenient. It's like a movie that looks very stylish but makes no sense when you examine the details even a little bit.
I'm also left scratching my head over things that were so straightforward to me that I was convinced they could not be true. Like, how did they go with Birgitta being the mother of the baby when that was THE most obvious answer from page one? They treated it like some kind of big reveal, but I had been convinced that there was no way a book like this could be so straightforward so the baby was Aina's or something but Birgitta took the blame.

11. Were you surprised by how Max acted?

Disappointed, yes. Surprised, not really. This was typical Nice Guy™ bullS41t, and I wish that Alice (and the book) had called it out more.

12. Did you feel sad for any of the character deaths? Past or present?

I felt sad that Emmy died immediately following the reconciliation with Alice. I was also sad for Elsa, and of course what happened to Birgitta was just horrible.

13. What are your thoughts on the epilogue? Was it necessary?

It was of a piece with the rest, so in that sense it neither pleased nor bothered me.

Bonus: 14. Getting back to the mental health quote, do you think this book actually discussed the issue? Do you think Tone was portrayed realistically or sympathetically or just as a red herring?

So, I have to confess here that I did not originally expect this book to be about mental health, or female mental health, or anything of that sort. The description of my edition mentions nothing of the sort, so I was a bit "Huh?" when Cat first brought it up.
But since the book did turn out to have several female characters with various types of mental health issues, the topic is certainly relevant insofar as we can discuss how they were portrayed, and whether or not mental health is the main theme.
I think the book did an okay job with Alice's history of depression, and maybe with Birgitta as a woman living in a time and place where there would have been a dearth of understanding, let alone treatment. We can never be sure what was actually wrong with her, but it's strongly implied that whatever it was, Tone inherited it, which in turn implies that it could have been treatable with modern medicine.
Aina clearly went insane but that was more like a "horror movie crazy" and not meant to approach realism.
Tone's portrayal is by far the most problematic. I don't even know where to start.

I agree with some of y'all that we think harder about BOMs than we might if we were just reading independently. This book was a fun diversion the way that a B horror movie is a fun diversion. I'm not sorry I read it, and it had its good points (creepy atmosphere especially!) but it was not great. It sure did not change my general wariness about suspense/thriller novels that, on the whole, overpromise and underdeliver.

Cat wrote: "Whatever, I very much doubt that Mattias himself dies (cult leader types rarely join their brainwashed followers into death). Does that mean one of the team is his grandson, and doesn't want the truth out???"

Or Mattias himself, age 90+, is living with his followers in a bunker somewhere, and sending minions out to "haunt" the town and mess with people! IDK!
I don't think Birgitta was the baby's mother, but Mattias was for sure the father.

Marie (UK) wrote: "this is my problem with the book. Both timelines are slightly off for me and it is difficult to work out what the divvil is going on. This is either a very clever narrative ruse to make the reveal more shocking or else the reveal is going to be ridiculously unbelievable"

THIS!
IDK what is going on, but I am really hoping all the pieces come together in a clever and not stupid way!

Side note -
Is anyone else struggling to suspend their disbelief over how well-preserved everything is in this town? Like, apart from unmitigated exposure to seasonal elements -- which is paid lip service but doesn't seem to have done much damage beyond one rotten bridge and a couple of weak stairs for characters' feet to fall through -- how has the whole place not been heavily vandalized and all its houses' contents looted? There are still clean sheets on the beds, FFS. It's been 60 years and no bored kids or "urban explorers" have heard local legends and come to do their thang? Unless there really is something supernatural going on, I have a very hard time buying it.

DQ Day 3-4 : 32%-62% (p198)

6. Alice muses on the different perceptions of Esla from her grandmother and Aina, and of course we are in her POV for the Then sections? What do you think about Elsa?

I like Elsa. She seems like a strong woman trying to do the best she can in a very difficult situation.

7. Emmy and Alice have a big disagreement over Tone's injury and how to respond. Do you favour one side of the argument over the other? Was Emmy's decision to take off to get a call out justified?

It's true that Tone is an adult who should be able to make her own decisions… But Alice is also biased against leaving the site before finishing the film work, and doesn't seem to take seriously the possibility that Tone's emotional connection to the site could be clouding her (Tone's) judgement. That, plus her alleged mental instability. I would have suggested staying a little longer, but heading to a hospital if Tone's ankle wasn't better in some agreed-upon amount of time. 24 hours or something.
Regarding Emmy's decision… Hard to say, because even Alice wasn't sure (after the fact) how she would have responded if Emmy had just asked first before sneaking off to make a call (if that is in fact what she was doing).

8. Do you think Alice was right to keep Tone's secrets? Conversely, do you think Max was right to share both her secrets?

Alice was right, initially. Tone's secrets are Tone's to tell. Especially the mental health stuff, which was absolutely not anybody else's business. I didn't realize that Max knew about Tone's mother being the Silvertjärn Baby, and I don't fault him for telling Emmy and Robert after Tone disappears, but I do fault him for revealing someone's prescription medication -- which I'm not entirely convinced is Tone's rather than Alice's, btw.

9. What the divvil is actually going on?! (In either timelines)

Okay, so, now we've got a total cult situation in the 1950s. But also maybe slight vindication on my "criminal hiding from the law" theory. Maybe not a convicted criminal but certainly persona non grata. I don't think Mattias ever managed to become a real church-approved pastor, but somehow found out about this vulnerable rural town where he could take over and pose as a pastor because the old one was such a mess, and use his position and charisma to prey upon women and girls. It's strongly implied that he raped his cousin as a teenager, that he raped Birgitta, and that his brainwashing of Aina had a sexual component. I don't know yet how this will cause the eventual disappearance of every last townsperson besides the Silvertjärn Baby (and Birgitta's corpse), but I hope the author sticks the landing, whatever it is. Like Lexi, I don't appreciate being let down by Reveal Fail.
I don't know if there's anything supernatural going on in the "now" sections. It seems like this might be one of those books that lets readers decide if there really were ghosts or if the characters were just imagining things.

bamaace83 wrote: "Team slow driving in the left lane."

Haha I was about to say this one!
XD

DQ Day 1-2 : beginning to 32% (p101)

1. What attracted you to this book? Do you tend to read a lot of horror/thriller/suspense novels, and what are your expectations for them?

I requested this book on NetGalley a while back because I was intrigued by the mysterious abandoned town setting. I like abandoned town settings! I'm a bit more likely to read horror (esp Supernatural horror) than to read thriller/suspense novels, as I tend to find myself disappointed by underlying misogyny in the majority of them. I've had better luck with female authors in this regard, but I also have to be drawn to the premise and/or setting (such as here), so given that combination… it's still relatively few.
I expect horror/thriller/suspense to have a good creepy or tense atmosphere, at a minimum. Some sense of dread! Without that, there's no point.

2. Poor doomed Silvertjärn was a "Company Town" where the company shut down. Do you think the 1950s sections do a good job of describing what it was like for the townspeople at that time?

So sad when this sort of thing happens. That's part of end-game capitalism, when a town's only significant employer turns its back on its people, and there is no back-up plan.
Oddly, I didn't get a sense that the townspeople had any idea that the mine might be shut down. There's often a period of decline with this sort of thing, as natural resources are depleted, but this was like BANG sudden, no? Or am I forgetting something?
Beyond that, I think the book does an okay job of describing the upset caused by the shutdown, what with people leaving, people drinking to excess, people turning to the Church, etc. But it's not totally over-the-top misery… yet...

3. The relationships in the modern day sections are interesting. Things seem complex and messy, especially between the female characters. Alice is the only one who knows about Tone's real connection to Silvertjärn. The bad blood between Alice and Emmy causes a lot of tension. The possible romantic entanglements are unclear. What are your thoughts about these relationships? What do you think of Alice's reasons for bringing Max, Tone, Emmy, and Robert onto this film project?

I don't see it going well when the others find out that Alice knew Tone's mother was the abandoned baby of Silvertjärn and didn't tell them -- especially Max, because he and Alice are supposed to be close. I don't get what Alice and Tone have holding them together besides their mutual interest in Silvertjärn; is that enough for real friendship and trust? Alice asked Emmy to come be part of the crew on this passion project because she'd exhausted all other options (and Emmy is good at her job, besides). But if they don't air their dirty laundry it's going to make things worse. Why did Emmy accept the job? Hard to say. Maybe she's not doing as well in her career as Emmy thinks. Maybe she felt like she had to say yes because she knows Alice wouldn't have asked if it weren't super important, and she does feel bad deep down about how their friendship ended. Maybe some combination? Alice seems to find her annoying, but to me it looks like she's just doing her job. From the backstory, we know they have very different personalities. If it really went down how Alice says (Emmy ignoring Alice's suicide attempt), that's rough. Hard to know if we're getting the full story there though. Don't know what to make of Robert yet. He's the most random, a package deal with no direct connection to Alice.

4. We're getting hints that Pastor Mattias was at the center of a weird religious sect. Do you think this will turn out to be true, or just a red herring?

I agree with Mary and Cat -- it doesn't make sense that a second pastor would be sent out to this dying little town. So where did he come from? WTF? -- but I didn't get any cult vibes so far, in the 1950s sections. Maybe something else hinky, like he's a criminal hiding from the law, and outsiders glommed onto the cult theory later, because of things like the Jonestown Massacre, as was mentioned. Possible red herring? Although I also would not be surprised if religion played a role in Birgitta's death, so.

5. Before the "official" DQs kicked off, our lovely mod Cat mentioned being struck by the timeliness of reading "a book about how society views women suffering from mental illness." How do you think the book has handled this topic so far?

Without having seen that description, I wouldn't necessarily have discerned, at only 1/3 of the way through, that that would be one of the book's main themes. I mean, Birgitta was clearly neurodiverse, but we don't yet know if/why people turned against her to the extent that they (or at least someone) must have.
Alice has suffered from severe depression, at least as far as we know from hearing her side of the college-years story. I assume we'll hear more about this too, and I'm wary of what comes next. That is, it remains to be seen whether the book reveals Alice as an unreliable narrator, perhaps. Or conflates suicidal depression with everyday Millennial blues (no offense meant to Millennials, or anyone else), as it kind of tried to do earlier a little bit. Though perhaps that was an intentional conflation and this author is very nihilistic. She was born in 1992, hah.

DQ Day 1-2 : beginning to 32% (p101)

1. What attracted you to this book? Do you tend to read a lot of horror/thriller/suspense novels (or not), and what are your expectations for them?

2. Poor doomed Silvertjärn was a "Company Town" where the company shut down. Do you think the 1950s sections do a good job of describing what it was like for the townspeople at that time?

3. The relationships in the modern day sections are interesting. Things seem complex and messy, especially between the female characters. Alice is the only one who knows about Tone's real connection to Silvertjärn. The bad blood between Alice and Emmy causes a lot of tension. The possible romantic entanglements are unclear. What are your thoughts about these relationships? What do you think of Alice's reasons for bringing Max, Tone, Emmy, and Robert onto this film project?

4. We're getting hints that Pastor Mattias was at the center of a weird religious sect. Do you think this will turn out to be true, or just a red herring?

5. Before the "official" DQs kicked off, our lovely mod Cat mentioned being struck by the timeliness of reading "a book about how society views women suffering from mental illness." How do you think the book has handled this topic so far?

I am aiming to get the first set of DQs up before 1:00 EST on Tuesday, if that helps anybody plan their time :D

Congrats, Team Lord Vetinari!

If we've learned anything from Lord Vetinari, cold and calculated scheming wins the day! LOL

I need read the story but will first say THANKS TINA for putting it together!!! That can't have been easy!!!

BTW, our official team spreadsheet is not counting Lisa's BOM points for Pumpkin Spiced Omega for some reason, even though it is logged properly. Probably a formula thing. I only noticed 'cuz right now it looks like I have the most BOM points but I know it should be Lisa. 🙂

Didn’t Christina T chime in a little bit ago about having more books? I might be thinking of someone else.

Finished


On spreadsheet.

Woohoo!!!

Tina ❣ wrote: "Thanks for the book updates everyone. I'm adding them all in to the main sheet so hopefully it will bump us up"

Final task and bingo will certainly help. Plus our Guards!Guards! BOMs haven’t been added for the bonus points… So there is hope for us yet, lol.

Completion Post


On spreadsheet

I’ll finish my last book (for last Bingo square!) in the morning with plenty of time to spare.

I'm nearly done with both of mine remaining!
😃

Completion Post


Details on Spreadsheet, including BOM info!

Can't believe we're so close to the end!