Book Club December 2023- I Have Some Questions For You
By: Rebecca Makkai
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 438
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.
But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
What I thought
If this hadn’t been a book club book I would’ve given up before 50% and not regretted it.
Bodie is a true crime podcaster and film professor. When she is asked to return to her old boarding school for 2 weeks to teach two classes, the murder of her old roommate resurfaces and becomes all she can think about. Her senior year, he previous roommate Thalia was murdered. Omar Evans, the black athletic assistant was convicted. Now, 20ish years later, there are a lot of people, including Bodie and a couple of her students, who believe he was wrongfully convicted and want to look into the case.
This book drove me nuts. It was so slow. It also was written like a 400+ page letter to Bodie’s old music teacher who she thinks was involved. Like, the writing style is “Do you remember that? Would you have remembered her?” and it irritated me so much. Makkai would also have Bodie randomly vaguely reference other cases which was confusing. She would be saying something like “Like the one where her boyfriend did it. Like the one where they found a tooth but no hair. Like the one where she said no.” For an entire paragraph. And this happened over and over again.
This book could’ve been significantly shorter and not missed out on anything. I was halfway through the book and they weren’t even halfway through the mini-mester that Bodie was teaching. The second part was slightly better because it was at least getting to some answers, but still left me feeling very unsatisfied.
I think Makkai was trying to write a book that was a commentary on the true crime podcast obsession in America, but instead wrote a self-centered, clueless, over-involved character and made the murder of a high schooler and conviction of a young man who spent 25 years in prison seem cheap.
I disliked the characters, I disliked the story, and I disliked the writing. The only thing I semi-liked was the setting.
What Book Club Thought
Seems like we were all on similar pages. Two of our members hadn’t finished it in time, so we were careful about our discussion to avoid spoilers. But the three of us who did finish all felt similarly about the way it was written. The one positive was that one of our members has read Great Believers by Makkai and said it was written very differently and she much preferred that one. After reading this one I was ready to completely write off Makkai as an author, but I think I’d be willing to give her a second chance if the subject matter sounds interesting. I guess if the summary sounds interesting to you, give it a chance. I do know one person who read it and loved it. But personally, I’d say skip this one and don’t worry about it.