2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss There There by Tommy Orange.

Pages: 294 pages

Length: 1 month (May)

Participants: Alina, LinaVer, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Hey all!
I am excited for this Buddy read!
I read the Prequel/Sequel book Wandering Stars Last year as a Twin Read and it was so great to Chat about it as me and my Reading Twin learned so much about native American History. Also it was really interesting to share what we already knew as my Twin was from america and I am from germany - so our knowledge going into this was a little different based on what we got teached in school and other things.
Where are you all from?

I think I get to this book in the middle of May or maybe at the end - Not Sure yet!

I read this book last year and to me it was one of the best written books I've ever read. Just finished Wandering Stars and though it was good, There There was so much better IMO. Enjoy!

Denise wrote: "I read this book last year and to me it was one of the best written books I've ever read. Just finished Wandering Stars and though it was good, There There was so much better IMO. Enjoy!"

This makes me even more excited as I think Wandering Stars was great on it´s own. Can´t wait to get to the OG story.

I'll start this weekend. It is my first book by this author. A friend of mine strongly recommended it.

Alina wrote: "Hey all!
I am excited for this Buddy read!
I read the Prequel/Sequel book Wandering Stars Last year as a Twin Read and it was so great to Chat about it as me and my Reading Twin learned so much abo..."

I am from Montreal, Canada.

Hey everyone. :) I will start it also a bit later in the month. But I am quite excited about it, especially reading that some of you have found it well written.
Oh, and I am from Lithuania originally, now in the Netherlands. I do not know that much about American history, as the focus in our school was more on Baltic/Lithuanian and world history in general.

It took me a while to get into the story—perhaps because of the large cast of characters and the way the author shifts into their pasts without much warning. This was actually my second attempt at reading it. In the end, I liked the book more than I initially expected, even though not all the characters resonated with me. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

I have a week off work, so I’m finally starting it! It’s a blood-chilling read so far (I’m 22 pages in).

Don't know if I will manage to finish it in these two last days of May but so far I find it an interesting read. It is not a fast book to read and it's taking me some time to get into it as well, like it was for you, Lorraine. But I guess that's ok. I like how well the characters are written, they are vivid. And the way the author plays with words, for example (view spoiler)[when the character chose to "tag" around the city with the word "Lens", and then there was this whole idea that when people see his graffiti tag, it's like a lens of a camera through which they see him, and they see him seeing them (hide spoiler)]. The writing is good.

I will ask SarahKat to extend the thread to June. Take the time you need.

Lorraine wrote: "I will ask SarahKat to extend the thread to June. Take the time you need."

Thank you, Lorraine!

Hey All!
I saw that this buddy read has been moved to June. I am interested to join as I have this book on my TBR. I haven’t read this author before and looking forward to enjoy this and discuss with y’all.

So great that this book has been moved! I just didn´t find much time in may to read but june looks better as I have a full week without responsibilities ahead of me!

Amitha wrote: "Hey All!
I saw that this buddy read has been moved to June. I am interested to join as I have this book on my TBR. I haven’t read this author before and looking forward to enjoy this and discuss wi..."

It's great to have you join, Amitha!
And I hope you get some time for it, Alina.

I’m now somewhat halfway through the book. (view spoiler)[The many characters are getting a bit confusing. Also, whenever I think about picking up this book, I get this tense feeling in my belly, probably because of all the violence. It’s weird to be looking forward to reading it (because it’s so well written) but also to be dreading reading it. (hide spoiler)]

Edit to add more thoughts that are coming up as I read.⬇️
(view spoiler)[

• So, this is going to be my (kind of sad) moment of “I was this many years old when”, because when I read about the 3D printed white gun for the first time in this book, my mind just didn’t take it that seriously because it seemed to me to be a thing of fiction… but I am reading about it again now, and I have just googled “can people really 3D print guns” and I found out that yes, in fact, people can print guns out at home. According to some obscure article I found online, every year there are about 27000 3D printed guns confiscated by police from people who made them out of plastic. And they are all unmarked, untraceable. I was really naive to think this was a thing of fiction. And it’s chilling.
Also, if there are any FBI agents spying on my google searches, well, they’re having a great time, I think. 😅

• This touched me so much:

“Part of what kills me about you being gone is that I never really said anything to you. Even when you emailed me. I didn’t even really know how much I wanted to say to you until the day you left. Until I felt that feeling of losing you on the lawn out there, right on that same spot where that boy’s blood stained the grass”

• The part of Blue running away from her husband and that other older woman helping her in the bus station made me cry. What a mad world we live in.
(hide spoiler)]

I started this book now and am about 25% in - I think the author is really good describing things - I already really enjoyed that in Wandering Stars. Speaking of it I am happy to have read it before as I feel that I understand a little bit more of the things that are happening and why they are happening

I finished it. Wow, what an emotionally affecting book.

My review is not much, but it is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thank you to everyone for reading this together, and once again to Lorraine for extending it another month. :)