Book Hype Hosts Karen, Brittany and Kristen come together and chat about spontaneous combustion, narrators, and Aaron Starmer’s new novel ‘Spontaneous.’

You can find Book Hype on Twitter at @BookHype.

What we’re reading:
–The Goal by Elle Kennedy
–The One Real Thing by Samantha Young
–Taming Lily by Monica Murphy
–Rome by Jay Crownover
–Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld

Book Bites:
-Spontaneous combustion in popular media
–Buffy, Sherlock, and more all disprove it
-Except for children’s shows because spontaneous combustion is funny

Buy or Borrow?
-Three borrows!

What’s going on?
–Spontaneous is best read with squinted eyes
-Did we see the deaths coming?
-From panic to isolation the kids just want to get on with life
-Some of them wanted that sense of community and structure
-Would you want to take the hybrid classes in high school?

The writing
-There was a combination of first person and second person
-Was it difficult to follow or was it a clever tactic?
-A non-liner timeline fits the very random style of the book
-Flashbacks: pro or con?
-The modern language lends itself to a true high school student’s perspective

Character study:
-Mara, how did we feel about our narrator?
-How about Tess, our researcher?
-Or what about Dylan?
-Are the characters victims of trusting that the narrator knows them and therefore we do not need anymore information?
-We definitely know more about the dead than the living
-How did we feel a Jane Rolling?
-Special Agent Carla Fucking Rossetti AKA Lady Nightshade– crazy or sane?

Wrapping up:
-Ok, what is really going on? Give us your best theory!
-Is Tess dead?
-IS MARA DEAD?
-Does this remind anyone else of True Blue?
-Is there a moral?

Listener feedback!

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