My book club almost fell apart over a single character's motivation in chapter 3

I suggested we try the 'skip the last 50 pages and guess the ending' trick to settle a debate about whether the protagonist's betrayal made sense, and it actually got everyone talking for 2 hours instead of fighting, has anyone else used a weird approach to break a deadlock in their group?

3 comments

3 Comments

iris_schmidt8d ago

Oh wow, that's actually brilliant. I used to think messing with the reading order was cheating or something. Real snob about it. But this changed my mind completely. My group had a huge fight over whether a love interest was too cruel, and we just read the final chapter first to see the author's own take. Cleared everything up fast.

mileslane8d ago

Whoa wait, you read the final chapter first to settle a debate?! That's wild, I would've never thought to do that but it actually makes total sense.

mason_reed478d ago

Yeah exactly, it cuts through all the guessing. Skimming the end is just a shortcut to the author's own judgment on the whole thing.