Before You Know Kindness
Book Review

Before You Know Kindness BOOK SYNOPSIS

A troubled teenage girl shoots her dad by mistake thinking he's a deer. The catch? She was high when she did it, he didn't die, and their relationship is VERY rocky to say the least. The story spans the lives of an extended family, their heartaches and insecurities but most especially their eccentricities of which they have quite a few.

QUEENIE D SAYS

Okay, I read Midwives right? It was great, I loved it, I would read it again.

So I am excited when my book club chooses another book by the same author. Even more excited when I hear the premise - girl shoots her dad - has to be interesting I think.

And then I try to read it.

I try…

…and I try…

…and I try…

If it weren't for the fact that I HAVE to read this book, it may go on the list as one of the few books I haven't finished in my lifetime.

It's not that the writing was bad - it wasn't. He's a great stylist. It's that it was quite possibly one of the most boring books I've read. Ever. It took pages and pages to get to the actual shooting. We were seriously at least 100 pages in before it even happened. And if I had to hear about not eating meat one more time written with the amount of gruesome detail he included, I think I'd go crazy!

For me, Before You Know Kindness had no redeeming qualities. I didn’t care about any of the characters in particular. Generally even when a book is boring or I can't get into the plot I can at least find a character I like. Not this time. I half liked the Uncle/Brother John but not enough to really care what happened to him. It was like the characters were too tragic and it was pulling teeth to get to any sort of resolution or ending. And then, when I finally got to the end, I was totally disappointed! I won't spoil but I can honestly say it wouldn't matter if I told you because you probably wouldn't care when and if you finally made it there.

On the discussion - we struggled with a capital S! The only thing that made the discussion worth anything was that we couldn't stop talking about how disappointed we felt and how horrible it was! I do NOT recommend!

Before You Know Kindness DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why does Nan always have to be doing something?
2. Should Spencer have pursued the lawsuit? Why or why not?
3. We could find fault with almost any character for Spencer's accident. Where do you place the blame and why?

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