The teen book group discussed The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean today, and are sitting in as guest bloggers to give you their opinions on the book:
Attendee #1: I thiught that The White Darkness had a good plot and some amazing descriptions of Antartica. There were some parts of the book that I just had to keep reading. The narrator was a very interesting character who displayed a very different point of view than those of many narrators that I’ve read before. The one complaint that I had was that the main characters were all very complex and hard to predict. Though that made the story very interesting, It also caused me some confusion, and there were some times that I had to go back and reread. All in all, The White Darkness was an interesting and informative book that created a very good discussion.
Attendee #2:
The White Darkness was in all a very good book. Although the characters were strange, they also contributed to the overall story because it wouldn’t have been the same if they were all completely sane. Sym was a character I could relate to very well, especially during the first part during which Sym is at school. I was always a shy, weird girl with few friends, so that part brought back memories. Another part of the book I really liked was the idea of travelling. I seem to like books set in different or unusual places right now. Your book really did make me think about what it would be like to travel in Antartica, as I have often wondered what it would be like–it was very thought inspiring. I’d reccomend it to my friends who are more creative and open-minded.
Attendee #3: I didn’t actually finish the book, but I did find the half I did read very…strange. I don’t know, I guess it was beacause all of the major characters seemed to have internal or mental issues that caused them to act in random ways. I never really understood Sym, or Victor, or anyone else. I also found it weird that Sym would have a friend/lover that is probably imaginary, but no one really knows. And he died 90 years ago! Imaginary friends are fine when you’re little, even if you’re shy and alone they’re understandable at an older age, but the relationship Sym had with Titus seemed very odd to me. Maybe I didn’t appreciate it because I am unable to relate to any of these characters, but I wasn’t really sure what to make of the story.
This is great — I love hearing the different opinions about the same book. Please do more posts like this!
Dan,
Glad you liked this post! We’ll see how easy it is to do posts like this – even with only three girls in attendance at the book group, it took about 25 minutes to write the post, out of a one hour meeting…but I totally agree, it is great to have a capsule version of our discussion!
It’s pretty brilliant from my point of view too, to read reactions to my books. So thank you very much. I have to confess to The White Darkness being my absolutely favourite baby. That’s because it was the most experimental and odd and took me deepst inside myself. ‘Odd’ is a good thing if the reader is up for it, but I do appreciate that it leads to other readers being left with mixed feelings about the book.
I do think that “odd” is good, and mixed feelings are good. A reader doesn’t just fall in love with a great book; a great book should also inspire/push the reader to think in different ways. The books that have had the greatest impact on my life are the ones that initially caused me some mental discomfort.
I’ll share your comment with the girls in the book group. They’ll be thrilled to know that you’ve read their opinions!