Meeting Notes: Impossible

We had our very first book club meeting at Kayla's last night to discuss Impossible. I think we can all agree that the evening was a success. Kayla was a great hostess and set the bar high, as Bess said. I, for one, know that there's no way I'll be able to even compete with the food and drinks she offered us... So I'm not even going to try :)

Kayla made a delicious pomegranate beet salad and yummy drinks with St. Germain and champagne. She grabbed some ideas from our friend, Dulcie's blog, Two Tarts.

Even the straws and napkins were cute... Oh, and I promise, we did talk about the book. We just talked about a lot of other stuff while eating on Kayla's back patio.

What is better than having some drinks, some good eats, and discussing a book with a few of your best friends?

It rained for about 20 minutes, so we had to bring the party inside, where our real discussion was held.  We tried to video several segments of our book discussion, but it was pretty hand-done and much of what we said about the book wasn't captured on tape. We'll share the videos with you in the next post.

 

But for now, I can tell you that we were all kind of disappointed with the novel. It had a lot of potential and got good reviews. Unfortunately, it just didn't seem to live up to that potential for several reasons, which Bess will summarize here:

**Spoiler alert!! 

When we tossed around book titles at our very first book club get-together, we were uniformally intrigued by Impossible. But when we had our book club discussion on the YA novel, it was clear that we were disappointed by it, some more than others--no one gave it a higher rating than a 3. In short, we felt like the author brought up big issues like date rape, mental illness, and true love, but either wasn't able or wasn't willing to adequately deal with them. For instance, the boy who raped Lucy was possessed by someone else's spirit and then died, so his culpability and her shame and anger were washed away. We loved how the author brought in the song "Scarborough Fair," we loved learning about the different versions of the song and the folklore, and we loved the puzzle. We just thought the characters, tension, and themes fell flat, which was the one word Melisa used to describe the book.

What was your reaction to the book? 

Discussion of Impossible on Video

Rather than doing a podcast, we decided to go with some video segments of our first book club meeting.  We didn't get everything on camera; we figured it might get long and tedious to watch. We also didn't do any editing, so apologies in advance for the initial giggling and other awkwardness.  But we are bookworms, so I suppose we are naturally a little awkward and weird. I don't think any of us was completely comfortable being on camera... Actually, Marissa looks pretty comfortable, but she's a born performer. So here are some highlights from our discussion of Impossible. Feel free to respond to our questions or to give your reactions in the comment field.  We want to hear from you! We really do.

Assuming you read the book, you know how important this song is to the plot. As I said, Marissa is the performer in the group.

**The rest of these clips contain spoilers! If you don't want to know what happens in the novel, stop watching/reading here.

In this clip, I introduce our discussion, and we each give the book a rating on a scale of 1-5.

Bess asks the first discussion question regarding the issue of date rape in the novel.

I ask an additional question, and we discuss...

Some conclusions...

We are big fans of the Name Game, so it only made sense for us to go around and say one word to sum up the book.
Our words: Fable, Impossible, Fenella, Rosemary, and Flat.

We really had fun last night. As the evening progressed, we moved away from "serious" topics and did a little bit of dancing. We then took a cab to a nearby bar.  The cabbie thought it was "hot" that we were book clubbers going for drinks.  If he saw all of these nerdy videos, I think he'd change his mind. At the bar, we had a Padraig sighting, and I believe someone actually informed this stranger that he looked exactly like a character from our book club book. His response? "How do you know what a character in a book looks like? Especially if there is no movie..." Umm... has this dude ever read a book? Because often times those things are described... Like in words...

So, all silliness aside, please join in on our discussion of the novel. What were your thoughts on our questions? What question would you have asked? What would your "one word" be? Is there anything else you'd like to see in our next video discussion? This was only our first one, so we are trying to come up with an organization that makes sense and is enjoyable to watch. Feedback is much appreciated. Just keep it nice :) It was a little nervewracking for us to put this out there. Happy reading, bookworms.

Oh! We will announce the next book shortly, so please check back.

This Is It: Impossible

Meet Kayla: the hostess

So, the bookworms are getting together tonight to discuss Impossible, our very first book.  We've decided to take turns hosting. Kayla's our first host(ess). Our plan was to create a podcast.  We've never done one before.  We'll have to see how it goes. I'm bringing my flip camera, (for short video segments), as well as a regular camera, so that you'll at least be able to participate with some of what we discuss. We'll also be selecting book #2 at our meeting, so stay tuned. Okay. I've gotta go finish the last 40 pages of Impossible.
Check back later for our thoughts on the book. And happy reading, book nerds!

What Are We Reading?

We are currently reading Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. Read it along with us. Our deadline is July 9th. After reading the book we'll do a podcast of our conversation about it, which we'll post here on the blog.

About the book:
Werlin combines magic, romance, and a family curse in this 21st-century fairy tale based on the ballad "Scarborough Fair." On the night of her prom, Lucy, 17, is raped by her date and becomes pregnant. She decides to keep the child, and she is supported by her foster parents and Zach, her childhood friend whose love for Lucy changes from platonic to romantic as the story progresses. The teen discovers the curse on the women in her family when she reads her birth mother's diary. Lucy is destined for madness at 18 unless she can perform the three impossible tasks described in the song and break the curse of the Elfin Knight. She is determined to rid herself and her unborn child of the curse, and her family and Zach help her as she works to solve the riddles. This unique story flows smoothly and evenly, and the well-drawn characters and subtle hints of magic early on allow readers to enter willingly into the world of fantasy. As in The Rules of Survival (Dial, 2006), Werlin addresses tough topics. Rape, teen pregnancy, and family madness set the story in motion, but the strength of Lucy's character and the love of her family and friends allow her to deal with such difficult matters and take on the impossible. Teens, especially young women, will enjoy this romantic fairy tale with modern trappings.—Jennifer D. Montgomery, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green 


Have you already read it? What did you think?


Check out the writer's website.