Question about a book club debate that got way too personal

My book club just finished 'Where the Crawdads Sing' and our discussion totally blew up. We were supposed to talk about nature versus nurture, but it turned into a huge fight about whether Kya was a believable character. One member, Sarah, got really upset and said anyone who thought Kya's isolation was unrealistic had 'zero empathy for trauma.' Another person shot back that it was just bad writing. The weird milestone for me was when I counted and realized we spent 45 minutes of a 90-minute meeting just arguing over this one point. It mattered because it completely killed the vibe and we never even touched on the murder plot or the prose. Now half the group is texting me privately taking sides. Has anyone else had a book club debate spiral into something this personal? How do you steer it back to the book itself?

3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

3 Comments