*Book Club* Questions Pt.2

Madisonpenny

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction?

dramaqueen91087

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else? I think the house is in a way a character, but not in the traditional sense. It serves as a safehaven for everyone. Even before Jacob realizes it he is drawn to the house, despite everything telling him not to go.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.
I liked it a lot. It was definitly an interesting concept of time travel. I especially liked that they would age if they spent to much time in the present.
3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction? Oh yeah. Especially when he went back in time. I was really expecting that to be a sort of dream reality where he found out about his grandfather but it wasn't really real. Sort of like a ghost thing.

Madisonpenny

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?     I think that the house does serve as a sort of character.  Like a character would be, it portrays numerous “feelings” for the story.  When you first read about it, it’s described as worn down, old and haggard as well as abandoned and haunted.   A place where no one should dare enter or seek because it will cause nightmare.  Once Jacob enters the time loop, it’s a beautiful place full of love and laughter, excitement and life.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.    I think the idea of time travel in and of itself, whether it’s going back into time or into the future is very interesting.  I like that the author used this concept as part of the story.  I think it gives the main character, Jacob a better understanding of his grandfather and the events and people he describes in his stories. 

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction?    I was surprised by the direction that the story took.  I did not expect Jacob to choose the peculiar children over “present day” with his friends and family.  Nor did I expect that there would be a “love connection” so to speak with Emma, the same girl who had loved his grandfather when he lived with the peculiar children.   I also agree with you Drama that i thought it might be a "dream reality' that he was going through

NikkiF731

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?
I may differ from what will likely be the common opinion but I thought the house surved solely as a setting....though a crucial and fascinating one.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain. I thought it was interesting since so often people idealize the idea of time travel. I liked that in this book time travel was possible but it came with a pretty steep price.

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction? I was hoping that it would go in a direction that was similar to what it did since it presented the most interesting possibilities.

avsfan33

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?
I'd say it's just a setting. Parts of the story take place here, the house doesn't necessarily do anything other than draw Jacob in. Any good setting does this.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.
I thought it was interesting. I enjoyed the concept of aging afterward as well. It goes back to my comment about dystopian literature though. They found a way to alter time and never age but they have to give up everything to do so.

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction?
Sort of, but not really. My shock value is pretty much gone when it comes to fiction. Even the idea of him choosing the peculiars over his family was not overly shocking. Especially since the book wasn't exactly ending and was building to what seems like another story. Had the book just ended and not taken that direction, it might have surprised me but I figured it was leading him to other places.

butterflyjumper1

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?
I think the house is, in a way, a character in that it houses and protects the peculiars.  There would be no Home for Peculiar Children if there were not the house. 

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.
I loved the idea of the "loops".  I am not usually in to sci-fi books or magical stories (other than harry Potter!!) so this was a really unique way to play with time traveling.  I wasn't sure about the idea of the peculiars being able to leave the loop, or to just jump into the future, though.  Obviously, the whole story is magical, but them being able to leave the loop and the past to jump into the future, even for small periods of time, might have been a little much for me. 

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction?
No, I wasn't surprised.  It was obvious to me the connection that Jacob had with the peculiars from the very start.  I had a feeling that he was going to choose them over his family - especially considering the fact that the one person he was the closest to had died.  I WAS surprised by the identity of Golan, though! That shocked me. 

k8888

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?
I feel like the house was more of a setting than playing a specific role.  I liked picturing him going through the old ruin when he was exploring.  It was quite adventurous.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.
I thought it was a bit convenient how the time traveling worked, but I thought it was interesting and it was easy enough to follow.

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction?
I felt like the story overall was a bit too obvious.  Certain points were unexpected, but for the most part it was really obvious.   I guessed Dr. Golan was the bad guy so early into the story and was so mad when I saw I was right hahaha.

bells24412

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself". Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else? I think it serves as a setting because it sets up the story of all the peculiar  children.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.
I think it was pretty cool how he could travel through time and got to experience past life from present life.

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction? The book pretty much follow my thoughts on how the book was going, until the end. I didn't like the ending very much.

Elinetrouwt

1- The house in Wales. When Jacob first sees it, he says it "was no refuge from monsters, but a monster itself".  Would you say the house serves as a setting to the story or is its role something else?

It is the emanation of the time loop. Its decay and the contrast with the beauty before serves to clarify something weird is going on with time.

2- Did you enjoy the way the author plays with the concept of time? Explain.

Yes, but I thought the timeloop was a bit farfetched. It was interesting though, the way he felt for the kids who where stuck there. It wasn't very clear to me how the loop worked, and how time spent there would compare to time spent outside of it.

3- Were you surprised by the direction that the story took? Were you expecting it to go a different direction?

At the end I was, yes. I liked how the different takes on the fairy tales (true, not true, true after all) where presented. I hadn't seen it coming that Golan was a bad guy at all, and usually I'm quite good at predicting those things. I sooo knew that the blind neighbour was a monster though.