WW Book Club Discussion - The Husband's Secret

@staci Me too! I started out hating Lauren and then realized I didn't really have a reason to be by the end. It was all in the way it was told and the POV I think. I agree too, that Rachel never saw her son's grief, but when she did I think she started to realize she wasn't the only one hurting and softened a bit.

I liked Lauren. I thought she AND her husband (whatshisname) totally got the shaft because Rachel was too busy obsessing over Janie's death to give the family she still had the proper attention. And I fucking love Macarons.

I kind of get Rachel. I mean on a conscious level I disagree with the way she treats Rob and Lauren but I get it. There's a lot of different emotions churning inside her. Guilt, jealousy, anger etc.

I disliked Rachel and her judgey interfering grandparent ways right from the beginning. Icky. She wanted her grandson to be a replacement child. What about her son and DIL?

I didn't like the cousin. Their relationship was just odd. (Tess)

I also didn't like how Rachel dealt with everything, her poor son was so neglected because of it. I can't pass judgement, who knows what I would do if my daughter was "murdered". It almost seemed like she just stopped living.

@VC I don't think the characters themselves are stereotyped so much as our perspective is limited through the narrator. I actually really love this author in general for how many different types of women she includes in her stories.

That said, Big Little Lies does a better job of making the characters likeable and dynamic.

Why isn't this IRL book club so we can eat macaroons and pavlova?

Cat - angry emotions or no, should she be an asshole? I think she was a jerk to the family that was still alive. She was obsessing and holding on to angry feelings for a really long time after Janie's death.

I also found it hard to like Felicity.

I think for Rachel the way she treated Rob and Lauren was like a twisted sense of loyalty to Janie, so I couldn't really dislike her for that.

I thought most of the characters were difficult to like, but that's probably the point. People aren't 100% good or bad and I think the author wants to address that. That said, it makes it difficult to invest myself in any of them. I think Conner was the character I liked the most, or maybe it was just me imagining him in little gym teacher shorts.

DISCUSSION QUESTION TIME!!

When Cecilia finds the letter addressed to her from her husband, “To be opened only in the event of my death,” she is tormented by the ethics of opening it. Do you agree with her ultimate decision? What would you have done?

4- I really liked the epilogue, I feel it made the book. It really got me thinking about everyday circumstances and how we might judge people or events without evening knowing all the information. And do we really want to know all that information?

Did you ever see Sliding Doors, with Gwenyth Paltrow? It shows what happens if she misses the train or if she makes it before the doors close and how her life ends up differently, by what route she takes.

I would have ripped that shit open right then and there! I wouldn't have even waited around or told him first.

I have no self-control, totally would have opened it.

I would have opened. BUT, if I asked him and he said not to, I wouldn't have.

But I wouldn't have asked him lol.

I totally agree with her decision. If it means that much to him that the letter stays secret, something is wrong and I would want to know.

If he said NOT to open it, it would give me even more reason to want to. It would eat at me until I did like she did and ran into the room and ripped it open!

@Katy I 100% would've opened it. I'm by nature pretty paranoid and after the way her husband acted on the phone, I wouldn't have waited as long as she had to open it!

I would've opened it immediately. However, even if I didn't and I asked him about it, if he behaved like John Paul did, I definitely would've opened it then. Trying to be all shady and shit, no thanks.

I would have done things in the same order, lol. At first I would have put it back and let DH know I found that letter in a hard-to-find place. But then he said he was going somewhere (to check on the kids??) and suddenly he was in the attic. That would have been a red flag for me, so I would have opened it.

Once he was rummaging around like he was it was clearly more than just being embarrassed over some mushy feelings that he wrote down. Was it RIGHT to open it? I haven't decided how I feel about that. I mean, I definitely would have, but just don't know if it's right.