Shelf Indulgence Book Club discussion

Please no spoilers after page 203.

The mom, dealing with the loss of her children owen and wil, i found rather irritating in the way ocd was so obviously stuck in there. Tapping the stones and doing thing to safe guard her children. I dont know it bothred me. Maybe if it was more alluded to instead of blatantly sticking it in there. After reading about the author i found out that she suffers from ocd, i can see why she put it in there. I also didnt like how the kids would try not to aggravate the mothers ocd, it just seemed to have no other use in the story other than the author suffers from it as well and the mother is a wonderer offering no resolve. Maybe thats in book two.

I’m beginning to feel that this is a lot like Shatter Me (except different writing styles of course). Girl’s touch causes death. Meets a guy who is immune to her touch. I will probably throw this book if Loom ends up with some magical ability too, lol.

I haven't read Shatter Me, so I have no point of comparison. But there better be a really good reason as to why Loom is immune to Wil's power.

I do like the similarities that we learn about the two kingdoms. It is a solid plot point for Loom to want to use Wil's power.

I'm also enjoying that we get to see glimpses of whats going on with Wil's family. It's nice to see that there is the possibility of Wil and Gerdie being reunited later in the book. And we get more depth into how the family operates and fleshes out some of the characters with these scenes.

I am a little disappointed that at the lack of complexity in Wil's father and Baren. I guess we are just supposed to accept the way they are stems from unexplained corrupt power and a desire to be first heir?

And I'm still longing to see more description of the steam-punk aspect of their world. It touches on it here and there, but I think it would've made for an interesting addition to have more throughout. Especially since there are hardly any steam-punk YA novels.

Quick side note for steam punk YA novels...read the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld! It's amazing and very steam punk!

I haven't read Shatter Me either so I don't have any comparison either but I do agree we need a good explanation to why he is immune to her powers. I do want more character development from Baren and the King but since this is a series I'm not too worried yet. I do like how the author shows us about the characters rather than tell us. For example, when Gerdie learned Wil and Owen were dead, Baren just smiled as the Queen cried showed so much about his character and how power hungry he is rather than just telling us. I really want to know more about the King. So far his character seems complex. He hates 3 of his children but loves Own and his wife. I'm interested to know more about Loom. I like his intent to save his people but the way he wants to use her magic doesn't make him much better.

I haven't completed the Shatter Me series but I wasn't a huge fan of her writing and I don't mind the writing style in this book but I can definitely see similarities with the two series. Can we talk about how stupid the name Loom is... every time I read his name I kind of scoff in my head about how stupid that sounds.

Still frustrated with how shallow of a character Baren is especially because you can tell how important he is going to be in the book. This goes for the King as well, he feels more of a shadow in the book than an actual character.

I'm loving that chapters we get to touch back with Gerdie though as he is one of my favorite characters so far and we get to see how the family is dealing with the loss. Speaking of what the heck is up with Baren seeing ghosts when Wil isn't dead? Was anyone else confused by this?
I think I'm going to like Zay as well but it's too soon to tell.

Hahaha, Hannah did you wait until the last minute to finish this book? :P

Every time I read the name Loom, I literally didn't think of a person. I kinda started skimming the name because it was mildly distracting.

I agree about the King and Baren. I guess we'll get more about them in the second book, but still we are getting pretty much nothing of depth about them in this one. Quite one dimensional.
Like I get Baren not being a golden son and him being jealous because he was 2nd born, but that is pretty much no reason for him to be as "evil" as he is. Was he just born that way? Because honestly, based on the other 3 kids turning out all, right there is probably no reason for him to be this dark.
And his seeing ghosts kinda came out of left field for me. Maybe he has a mental condition, or there is some legitimate thing driving him crazy that we'll learn about later?

Hahaha maybe... I'm a terrible procrastinator. Someone yell at me if I haven't started commenting on the thread for the next book half way through the month.