Carpe Librum Book Club discussion

The book we'll be discussing in July 2014 is Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. The discussion will begin on the 29th.
Happy reading!

I hope you all enjoyed Where Things Come Back! What did you think?

I enjoyed the book, but it didn't really live up to my expectations. I didn't find it nearly as heart-wrenching or comedic as it was made out to be. Although there was a bit of absurdity. As in, what is up with the zombies? Why does Cullen imagine his friends/family/Russell turning into zombies all the time?

One thing I really did like was the chain reaction of Alma moving to Georgia that eventually ended in Gabriel's abduction. All of the characters that played into it were interesting - strange, but relatable.

I didn't like the romance so much. Cullen's obsessed with Ada, gets the girl, and then she goes back to the guy she doesn't like out of guilt. No, thank you.

I actually loved this book and it really did live up to my expectations. I thought the beginning had a "The Catcher in the Rye" type of feel and I loved "The Catcher in the Rye". I also loved pretty much every single character introduced in the book. They all had detailed back stories (something I always look for) and they were all complex characters that seemed to come alive on the page.

I thought the author had a brilliant style that kept the story moving. The whole symbolism thing with the woodpecker was very interesting and I loved it. I also liked the sections that began with "when one..." I know a lot of people didn't like these sections but I loved them. What did everyone else think?

Finally, I thought the ending was really well done. All the characters' stories came together smoothly in a way that, frankly, shocked me.

I agree with you, Emma, I also did not really enjoy the romance part of the book, but it did bring out some interesting questions about Ada's guilt about her previous boyfriend.

Maybe I didn't like it because of my hatred for The Catcher in the Rye!

I agree with you about the ending; a lot of books with "colliding stories" don't really fit together well, and Whaley did a good job with it. The characters were awesome, too - I loved them.