Just realized our book club's 'no spoilers' rule backfired big time

We read 'Project Hail Mary' last month and agreed not to discuss the ending until our meeting. But when we finally met, three people had totally missed the big twist about the alien's identity because they read it too fast. We spent the whole night in Chicago just explaining the plot instead of debating it. Has anyone else had a club rule that just created more confusion?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaronclark11d ago

What did you guys do for discussion questions before the meeting? Our group started sending out a few non-spoiler questions halfway through the book, like "what's your first impression of Rocky?" It helps everyone catch the same details without giving anything away.

-1

the_holly10d ago

My old book club in Tacoma had a member who'd always bring a list of twenty questions... it felt like a pop quiz. We finally told her to pick just three, and it made the whole night way more chill.

casey_harris11d ago

We used to just show up and wing it, but that got messy. Your idea, @aaronclark, is way better for keeping the chat on track. Now we pick one big theme from the first half, like trust or setting, and email a single question. It gives people a heads up to look for those details without spoiling the back half of the book. Makes our talks way more focused.