Suggested reading group questions !SPOILERS!
A few questions on the themes explored in Some Slack and related personal / moral issues:
1. The novel is written in the first person, present tense. The reader sees everything from inside Holly’s head. How did you find that?
2. Holly’s vivid imagination allows the reader to see possibilities beyond her own viewpoint. The author based Holly’s runaway imagination on that of his mother (she always imagined he’d been run over by a bus if he was ten minutes late home when a teenager.) Can you relate to this kind of worrying?
3. The novel’s action takes place largely in the Namibian desert. Did you feel the writing evoked the setting well?
4. Will is very blunt but mostly gets away with it. Do you think we should all be more honest with our opinions?
5. Some Slack has 3 intertwined plots:
-
What has happened to Ben and Anna?
-
Will Holly manage to create a successful second album?
-
Can anything happen between Holly and Will?
Which of these did you find most engaging?
6. Holly outwitted the poachers by using their sexist expectations against them and returned to save Will. Did you enjoy having the clichéd gender roles flipped?
7. Circumstances conspired so that Holly never owned up to the authorities about killing ‘Nasty Stare’. Do you think she still should?
8. Holly and Will had no survival or military training but ‘muddled through’ in the desert using a mixture of common sense and transferring skills from their day jobs. Did you find it believable?
9. If you are willing to share, have you ever had to work or travel with someone you found attractive even though such feelings weren’t appropriate? Did you relate to how Holly / Will dealt with it?
10. Do you think we all suppress feelings to fit in with society’s expectations of what is ‘proper behaviour’?
11. The mystery disappearance turned out to be an unfortunate accident rather than a crime. What theories did you have? Were any of these similar to Holly’s daymares?
12. Did you listen to the songs? Did you find the music enhanced the story?
13. If you have read Enough Rope, did you enjoy the cameo appearance of Steven and Katri?
14. If Holly’s ‘good dream’ (Ch 29) had come true and Anna and Ben had been found alive, do you think Holly and Will would still have got together?
15. Do you think Holly and Will have a long term future?