Hi folks,
It’s me Abby, here with our last post for our February book club pick. And it’s discussion time!
This month I am trying out a break down format where I discuss all the things that stuck out to me about the book and then we can gather in the comments.
« Warning: Spoilers Ahead.» If you haven’t read The Search Party yet, go ahead and finish it then come back here. We will be here in the comment section waiting for you.
Prologue:
To borrow a phrase from
, the prologue really ‘grabs us by the jugular’ from the start and sets the tone for the whole book.“The girl stands in the gray morning light, her feet perched at the crumbling cliff edge. Below her, waves smash against jagged rocks, granite shards rising like decaying teeth from the foaming sea. At her back are fear and despair, and his words, urging her on.”
Right away we know the stakes of the book are life and death. And not only that, but it’s clear that the one in peril is a child. Knowing the end of the story and the fact that she was drugged made the jump more understandable. But the author really leads us to believe from the beginning that one of the children has died.
How did the prologue make you feel? Did it grab your attention immediately?
Structure:
The very first chapter features Dominic being interviewed by the detectives after the terrible weekend. We are given a puzzle to solve as if we were the detectives trying to follow the threads back to the source. This chapter sets off the unique structure of two different timelines slowly converging into one. By telling the story from the aftermath intersecting with the linear timeline, the author keeps us on our toes continually.
In addition, she has a huge cast of characters that each have their own perspective on the weekend and their own secrets to keep. The end result is that she always keeps us off balance. In fact, in our podcast she talks about how the fun of writing this book was in creating a puzzle for the reader.
Were you just along for the ride or were you trying to solve the puzzle the whole time?
Setting:
Cornwall plays such an important role in the story. As a matter of fact, Hannah Richell wrote a fantastic essay for us on The Landscape Of The Search Party and how it functions as the first and most important step in her writing. I encourage everyone to go read it.
In addition to the rugged coast of Cornwall, we also have the glamping campground on Moroven Farm with its posh tents, hot tub, and pavilion that creates a world within a world. But even with these luxury camping accoutrements there is still an atmosphere of wildness barely kept at bay.
As the weekend progresses and a storm that cuts off power to the peninsula and communications with the outside world, the wildness of the place starts impacting the characters. In our podcast, Hannah talked about how she used the wildness of the setting to strip away the artifice of her characters and put everyone on the same playing field.
How did the setting impact your reading?
Themes:
Old friends: In our podcast, Hannah Richell discussed how the question of old friendships really formed the basis of this novel. She kept returning to the question of how do these friends relate to each other after 20 years of friendship? Are they the same people they were at university? Are they even friends anymore?
It’s such a fascinating question that I think all of us wrestle with as we age. What connects us to our old friends and is it a strong enough thread to keep you tied to them as life moves on?
Different Families: This one almost needs no explanation. How often in our parenting do we find whole family friendships, where the parents and the kids get along? It’s so incredibly rare. Most often your kids have friends and you can’t stomach their parents or the parents are friends but your kids don’t get along. What a fantastic tool to increase the tension in a book. If you haven’t already, go check out Hannah’s guest post Ramping Up The Tension on what types of families she used to play off each other.
Tragedy: One of the themes that runs through Hannah Richell’s writing, not just in The Search Party but in all of her other novels, is the theme of tragedy. Hannah was so generous to share with us her journey through grief to new love in her post As Much As It’s Worth: Ten Years On and when we recorded our podcast she talked about how she has always been fascinated with how characters not only survive but learn how to thrive after a traumatic event. We see this is in The Search Party not only in the traumatic events of the weekend but in the dark past of some of the characters.
Revenge: This is the big twist three quarters of the way through the book when we begin to see that everything is not what it seems and there is more at play here than one bad weekend and a terrible accident. I do think Hannah’s use of revenge here is so interesting because we often don’t think of the fallout from those reality tv shows - what human carnage do those judges leave behind in the name of entertainment?
Cast of Characters:
Max & Annie Kingsley: Successful architects and adoptive parents who desire a simpler more natural life; buy a property in Cornwall to create a glamping site. Are they prepared to parent Kip with his unique challenges? Are they just running away from their problems?
Kip Kingsley: The adopted son of Max and Annie with a traumatic past and some dark secrets of his own. My heart went out to this kid the whole book, I didn’t want to believe that Hannah Richell would make him the bad guy, but she made us wait till the very end for that resolution. I do wonder how the additional trauma of how he saved Scarlet would effect his healing and recovery.
Dominic Davies: The successful reality tv show host with an outsized ego and self importance, he’s also the most volatile of the group. He is clearly a Simon Cowell type of character. I found it so interesting that most of the characters in the book excused his bad behavior because he “played” a jerk on TV. It led me to really look back at the advent of those shows and wonder why we allowed such a thing. Why didn’t we ever question how that affected those contestants after they walked off stage?
Tanya Davies: Dominic’s second wife and clearly the odd woman out, she doesn’t fit in with this group and doesn’t pretend to. Do you hate her for being the other woman and taking what she wants without apology or do you have compassion for her because of Dominic’s treatment of her (and all women)?
Scarlet Davies: The teenage daughter of Dominic who does not want to be glamping this weekend. The quintessential teen who causes trouble with a surly attitude. I do think it is interesting how Hannah Richell uses Scarlet to misdirect our attention toward Fred.
Felix and Phoebe Davies: Felix, Dominic’s teenage son, is a background character and to some degree so is Phoebe - except for how she interacts with Kip at the fire pit and on the trip to the beach.
Jim Miller: I thought Jim’s character was so interesting where he is this sort of hippy dad with a long list of failed businesses behind him. That insecurity leads him to make this risky personal loan from Dominic. By trying to escape the consequences he increases the tension with Dominic throughout the book. I thought it was sweet that Hannah Richell made him the hero in finding Phoebe in the crevice at the end. I was sort of sad to not see much of a resolution to his storyline with Dominic.
Suze Miller: She acts as background character, an easygoing maternal figure but with a really critical attitude toward Tanya that adds to the tension.
Willow, River & Juniper Miller: The three Miller kids act as background characters and aside from the trip to the beach they don’t show up much in the story.
Kira deSilva: The new mother who has been harboring a grudge against the others for moving on in life - getting married and having children, that led her to a one night stand with Dominic and Asha’s conception. She’s keeping this a secret from everybody including her boyfriend Fred.
Fred O’Connor: Hannah Richell uses him as misdirection for most of the book. Note the use of his missing backpack and his blue sweatshirt as red herrings at various points in the story. Is he the bad guy? Is he the dead body? I do like that Fred got his happily ever after in the end.
Josh Penrose: The handyman for Wildernest, he seems to be the guy to fix all the problems for the group, but he’s got a hidden motive. His backstory that explodes over the last quarter of the book is an interesting look into how hatred and revenge can eat away at a soul.
John Kellow: The grumpy neighbor who is mostly a background character but does distract our attention from the real bad guy.
Extras:
I was struck by the seals and why the characters would think that they were people - don’t seals just bark? But no, they SING and it is so creepy. I had no idea.
Thanks for joining us for our February 2024 book club pick of The Search Party. Not only is it a great book but Hannah Richell is such a lovely person to work with that we are a little sad to be wrapping up our time with her.
Now we want to hear from you. What did you enjoy about The Search Party? What made you think? Which characters did you love and which ones did you love to hate? How did it make you feel?
As we figure out this book club thing, we are interested to know how you want these chats to go. Do you like this format where we break down the whole book in one post and we all gather in the comments? Do you want a reading guide where we all try to read and discuss at the same time? Do you want weekly discussion in the chats tab? Enquiring minds want to know.
So I’ve created a little poll. Take a moment to let us know what you want from our chats.
~ The Book Tide
Thank you for this excellent breakdown.
I’m a speech language pathologist and I was struck with Kip’s trauma and behavior. I would call his situation selective mutism. A trauma can cause a child to shut down with speaking.
I loved the tenseness between the parents and how they’re “parented”. I won’t go into how I think the dads were careless!