The Crooked Bookies discussion

Wendy's selection for February is The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler. Please post your discussions here.

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I don't know why these threads sometimes don't appear on the first page of the group. Maybe bumping will help.

I gave The Book of Speculation 4 stars, but I felt it was missing something. I didn’t think the curse was explains sufficiently and the author could have really expanded the story. It was entertaining, but incomplete.

I agree Wendi. I didn’t fully understand the curse and is it broken now?

I enjoyed that the book was based around a carnival family. First time reading about a carnival so it was a nice change. The back and forth between present and past (book) time was also good. I honestly preferred the present story line because it was clear and straightforward. There was more dialogue and the time of events made sense. Although, some of the dialogue was a bit too extreme when Simon tells his Frank? (I forgot his name) that he was “fucking his daughter”. I thought he was being an asshole to a guy who was literally trying to keep you from being homeless. Sure he may have been having an affair with your mom but what does that have to do with you? You weren’t even born yet when it happened and too young to understand when it continued to happen. It wasn’t his fault that your mother did what she did. Maybe it was because these characters didn’t have the proper parental guidance to speak to people correctly but for some reason the dialogue of Simon and his sister was a bit too extreme for me. I didn’t find it to be realistic which affected my overall view of this book.

The character building was better with the past story line. I actually like Amos and the guy who took him in. I forgot his name already smh. The carnival scene was described very well and the manager’s imagination to find Amos a proper job was impressive. Now that I am thinking about it I might have enjoyed this part more than the present story line. This story provided more depth and actual back story with the curse.

Like all of you I don’t know how the curse was broken or if it was broken at all. Was Simon sacrificing himself and being saved by Alice the way the curse was broken? But how and why? Why did the people die on the same date? What correlation did that have with the curse in the story? I believe it was when Amos’s daughter was born maybe? Overall, it was a decent book but it lacked character development and a proper plot reveal in regards to the curse. It was a good idea and had potential but the anticipation it built just led to be a disappointment.