The Woman in the Library

Author: Sulari Gentill

Who Picked the Book: Joint Pick

One-sentence summary: A novel within a novel, an author is in Chicago to write her next book when she and her table-mates hear a woman scream in the library, which leads her to love and searching for the truth.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7

Our favorite thing about it: The unique story structure was interesting.

Our least favorite thing about it: The ending was very abrupt.

Main Topics of Discussion: Writing, Pandemic inclusion in novels, Spontaneous Friendships

Our favorite quote: “Still, there might be something fitting about a friendship based on a common love of words being founded on an exchange of the same.”

Notes: We all enjoyed this book and felt that it was a more lighthearted murder-mystery - not too intense. We liked that given we were reading it for our Christmas time book. We liked the structure of having two stories going simultaneously although we thought it would have been fine to just have the main one. Some of the book was a little predictable. For instance, we knew the murderer would not be Cain, just because everyone thought it was the whole time. We thought it was an interesting choice to reveal that the killer would have been one of the main 4 characters - and really, just the three besides Freddie, since we were privy to her inner mind. Some of what happened was not super realistic, but we allow that in thriller-type books to a certain degree. But one thing we pretty much universally criticized is the VERY abrupt ending. It seemed as if the author just didn't know how or where to stop. It didn't ruin the read for us, but it was quite a way to end a book. 

Memorable Meeting Moments: This was our Christmas party meeting! We exchanged gifts and painted Christmas signs together. 

What We Ate: Pomegranate martinis, Cream cheese with strawberry jalapeno jam; Goat Cheese with fig jam, honey, balsamic, and thyme. Curry pizzas- Chicken Masala, Chicken Tandoori, and Butter Chicken. And Chocolate cobbler with ice cream for dessert.