2026 Reading Challenge discussion

*Featured Buddy Read*
This buddy read is featured on the homepage and is pinned to the top of the January Buddy Reads folder. Otherwise it works just like every other buddy read!

If you are new to Buddy Reads, check out the sign-up thread for instructions and to sign up for future buddy reads!

You can join in the discussion even if your name isn't on the list!

This thread is to discuss The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.

Pages: 272 pages

Length: 1 month (January)

Participants: Valerie, Lorraine, Susan, Beth, TerryJane, Sophie

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

I listened to an interview with the author and bought the book a year ago, now I want to read it

I should start this book at the beginning of January. I have never read this author before. There is some information available on the Booker Prize website, which I will certainly look into.

I would like to join please!
I just bought the book and I like being able to discuss what I read

You are welcome to join Denise!

I loved this book. What a crazy ride this book has been. So many emotions running together and back and forth.
I hope you all like the book too! 🙂

I’ve finished Part 1 of The Safekeep. For a reader who enjoys atmospheric stories, I feel I’m in for a treat. Wow. (view spoiler)[Part 1 almost feels like a ghost story. At one point, I was even expecting the ghost of the mother—or someone else we don’t yet know about—to appear and explain Isabel’s strange behavior.
For now, I have no idea why she is counting everything in the house. Anxiety? An obsessive disorder linked to something in her past? I really hope we’ll find out. As for the relationship between Isabel and Eva, it’s already clear that it won’t be easy… and I’m curious to see how this will affect Isabel. (hide spoiler)]

I am almost halfway through this one. I have my suspicions about two aspects of this novel. It's short enough, that I may know the answers by day's end.

Finished Part 2. I’m not quite sure what to make of this section. (view spoiler)[ Is it a love story, or rather the story of an obsession? And what about Isabel’s behavior? She moves from someone who is, let’s say, socially withdrawn to a very assertive—almost domineering—presence toward Eva. If I’m not mistaken, this is her first relationship, which makes the transformation even more unsettling. I find myself quite uncomfortable with the change taking place in her. And Eva—was she there only for the money? I don’t know. (hide spoiler)] Let’s see what Part 3 will reveal. My goal is to finish the book today.

I finished this book last night. Suspicions confirmed. (view spoiler)[Isabel's furnished home resulting from holocaust situation; house having formerly belonged to Eva's family; Eva's Judaism. Was Sebastian also Jewish? If she said, I missed it. (hide spoiler)]

I would have liked to learn more of Eva's side of the story, rather than Isabel's being the primary focus.

This book seemed to drag unnecessarily for me. Usually, I would finish a book of this length in much less time, but it didn't hold my interest well, and I kept having to back up and re-read.

Planning to start this in the next couple of days. I suggested this book because it was recommended by one of my oldest friends and she’s usually a very reliable judge of what I will enjoy. Let’s see if she is right this time!

I’ve finished The Safekeep, and I have to say that, like Isabel, it took me a long time to understand what was really happening—(view spoiler)[ namely that Isabel’s house had in fact belonged to Eva’s parents and had been abandoned during the Holocaust. This was probably difficult for me to grasp because it concerns a part of history I didn’t know very well. I can understand why some people would rather not remember this past, or why parents might choose to tell their children a different story.

Although I find the novel’s central theme quite original and compelling in theory, the book itself did not truly engage me. First, I was uncomfortable with the changes in Isabel’s personality. I understand that the author wanted to show that Isabel was deeply infatuated with Eva, but to me her behaviour sometimes felt borderline abusive.

Secondly, there are many aspects of the story that remain unexplained. How was Isabel’s family able to occupy the house in the first place? Why, after the war, were the original owners unable to reclaim it? And what about the brothers—did they know the truth? (hide spoiler)]

Because of these unanswered questions, the novel did not live up to my expectations, despite the strength of its underlying idea.

Part 1. Definitely a tense, almost sinister atmosphere here, and I agree with Lorraine (view spoiler)[ that there is a sort of haunted, ghostly feeling about the house. There must be something in Isabel’s past to be uncovered- maybe the parts she doesn’t remember are hiding some kind of trauma. I suspect that Eva is not what she seems but no idea what her agenda is so far (hide spoiler)]. A strangely compelling read so far.

Part 2. I agree, Lorraine, that there are a lot of unanswered questions by the end of this section, although (view spoiler)[ the revealing of Eva’s surname confirms my suspicion about why the house feels haunted by its previous inhabitants (hide spoiler)]. I’m assuming that was one of your suspicions too, TerryLane. I also have another one and wonder if it was your second one too. We will see. Intrigued to see how this all plays out (view spoiler)[ I’m sort of expecting something shocking and violent (hide spoiler)]

Finished. I was really captivated by the story even though, like TerryJane, I had guessed (view spoiler)[ that Eva was one of the Jewish former inhabitants of the house. Sebastian was mixed race. My brown skinned husband faced similar hostility in a small Dutch village when he tried to order food in a cafe! Lorraine, the houses of displaced Jews were repossessed by the banks (due to them not being able to pay mortgages) and then sold so, technically (if not morally) they legally belonged to their new owners. As to how much her brothers knew, I suspect at least Louis would have been old enough to understand and Hendrick just didn’t want to dig in the past. Isabel seems to have suppressed the memory of Eva and her mother coming to the house. I imagine selective memory loss was common in many parts of Europe. (hide spoiler)]
This intense and complex novel certainly held my attention and the issues it raises will linger with me I believe.

I will start the book in the next few days had to read for some book clubs first. I'm guessing I'll finish a few days after I start as it's pretty short