Recommended for you
At one point or another, when things go wrong, most of us have felt like the whole world is against us. This can be as simple as having a day when absolutely nothing goes your way, or as complex as dealing with enraging hierarchical social systems and rules that clearly stack the deck against any hope of success. If we’re lucky, though, at least we’ll have someone else to rail with us against the Powers That Be. The protagonists of each of the new novels in this week’s book club are facing some stiff competition from an uncaring universe, but each one has someone valuable to protect and a reason to fight for another day. Keep these books in your back pocket for when you need a pep talk against seemingly insurmountable odds.
<em>The Sisters Chase</em>
It’s 1981. Beautiful, fierce Mary Chase is 18 and her little sister Hannah (“Bunny”) is only four years old when they lose their mother Diane in a car accident and are forced to fend for themselves. The family-owned seaside motel turns out to be more trouble in taxes than it’s worth, so Mary makes the executive decision to head out on the road, taking her inventive, storytelling sister with her. Neither girl’s father is in the picture, so all the Sisters Chase have is each other, and the strong bond of loyalty they share.
<em>Spoonbenders</em>
Sometimes an unusual ability or talent will set you apart from the crowd. This can be a wonderful or dangerous thing, as it leaves you open to fame, but also jealousy and danger. Most of the characters in Daryl Gregory’s Spoonbenders have powerful psychic abilities, which they use to their advantage, their downfall, and their potential comeback.
<em>Little Wrecks</em>
In a fundamentally misogynist society, young women have to stick together, because nobody else will protect them. That’s the message of Miller’s Little Wrecks, set in the late 1970s and starring three strong young women who are a little different from the rest, and who have had enough of a life that’s “factory-made and totally meaningless, pretending to be paradise and full of road kill.”
