Our book club spent 2 hours arguing about whether the main character was actually dead the whole time

Last month we read a thriller where the narrator describes their own funeral in detail. Half the group was dead sure (pun intended) it meant the narrator was a ghost or in purgatory. The other half pointed to a throwaway line on page 247 about a medical condition that could explain visions. I ended up staying up until 2 AM rereading chapters to find evidence for my side. In the end we voted and it was 6 to 5 in favor of the ghost theory. Has anyone else had a book club debate get this heated over an ambiguous ending?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethpalmer17d ago

Totally get this. Our club had a similar blowup over a novel where the ending was just a single sentence that could mean two completely different things. We spent a whole meeting going back and forth, people getting genuinely annoyed, and someone actually brought a printout of the author's old interviews to try and settle it. Ended up with a 5-5 tie and the whole thing just kind of fizzled out because nobody would give ground. You have my deepest sympathy for the late night reread, that's a special kind of book club dedication.

finleyfox17d ago

Having people jot down their guess on a slip of paper before discussion started actually saved us from going in circles. Then we tallied the guesses and focused on what the author might have meant rather than who was 'right.'