This Month's Selection: The Last Child by John Hart

The Afternoon Readers Book Club will discuss The Last Child by John Hart on Tuesday, November 12, at 1:00 p.m.

 

Read along with the group and add your thoughts to the discussion in the comments!

From the publisher:

John Hart’s New York Times bestselling debut, The King of Lies, announced the arrival of a major talent. With Down River, he surpassed his earlier success, transcending the barrier between thriller and literature and winning the 2008 Edgar Award for best novel. Now, with The Last Child, he achieves his most significant work to date, an intricate, powerful story of loss, hope, and courage in the face of evil.

Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is---confident in a way that he can never fully explain.

Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene.

Then a second child goes missing . . .

What We Thought: The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

The book club discussion of The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian this month centered on how the Lipton family -- newly moved to a small New Hampshire town from suburban Philadelphia -- were able to tolerate living in that old Victorian house with its bizarre wallpaper, hidden staircases, creepy dirt-floor cellar, and barricaded door that leads to who knows where. Members wondered why Chip and Emily were so friendly and open with a group of elderly women herbalists and not put off by their intense interest in the twin daughters, Hallie and Garnet.

Some members were bothered by the repetitiveness of Chip Lipton, a pilot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after a crash, going over and over the events of the crash in his mind.

This story was very spooky and uncomfortable to read in the way the women were able to insinuate themselves in the lives of the Lintons and make them disregard eerie actions and motives of the women (and men) in the group. The Liptons didn't seem to wonder why the women were not fully accepted by or integrated into the social life of the town residents. Readers, however, were let into the secrets of the herbalists much more than the Liptons were, and some readers felt that the drugging and power of suggestion of the herbalists would explain how an already fragile family could be so easily deceived.

The Night Strangers is a classic ghost story and psychological thriller with witchcraft. The epilogue was unwelcome and unexpected. Members said that they were concerned about the feelings of the family and why they stayed in New Hampshire with the herbalists. This book prompted a lot of discussion but did not generate a feeling of satisfaction about the actions of any of the characters.

 

Have you read this book? Please add your comments to the discussion!

This Month's Selection: The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

The Night Strangers

by Chris Bohjalian

From the Publisher

From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Skeletons at the Feast, and Secrets of Eden, comes a riveting and dramatic ghost story. 

In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts.
           
The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure. Unlike the Miracle on the Hudson, however, most of the passengers aboard Flight 1611 die on impact or drown. The body count? Thirty-nine – a coincidence not lost on Chip when he discovers the number of bolts in that basement door. Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the women in this sparsely populated White Mountain village – self-proclaimed herbalists – and their interest in her fifth-grade daughters. Are the women mad? Or is it her husband, in the wake of the tragedy, whose grip on sanity has become desperately tenuous?  

The result is a poignant and powerful ghost story with all the hallmarks readers have come to expect from bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian: a palpable sense of place, an unerring sense of the demons that drive us, and characters we care about deeply.

The difference this time? Some of those characters are dead.

Have you read The Night Strangers? It's a spooky choice just in time for Halloween. Read it along with the Afternoon Book Club and comment on the discussion post on October 16th!