Hi everyone!
There’s been lots of activity in the all-the-spoilers discussion post as more of you finish the novel, with interesting threads about the big twist, the nature of justice in the novel, and the ambiguous epilogue.
I’m continuing my slow reread, filling in my craft notes and story spreadsheet as I go. Links to both are now up on the main Intruder Book Club page for easy reference.
After a comment from Amy S. about Tana French’s The Searcher, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ways in which The Intruder works differently, drawing us in with ‘what’ questions rather than ‘why’ questions. If you want to do your own comparison, chapter 5 of The Intruder makes a particularly good parallel with the first chapter of The Searcher because it has a lot of the same beats. You can read the first chapter via Amazon’s Look Inside feature and/or read my analysis of it here. Opinions? Comment on this post!
This week I’ll pick a scene to analyze in detail, tagging every word with a specific scene component so we can see the breakdown and then walking us through exactly how the scene works. I’d love to get your opinions about which chapter to pick. Here’s my thinking about the choices:
I haven’t spent much time on character description in the scene studies, and Ella's first chapter (4) offers a chance to see how McFadden introduces Ella, Anton, and Brittany.
The rhythm of Casey’s chapter 5 is interesting, with up and down tension, plus a cliff-hanger ending.
Casey’s chapter 11 shows an alternate pacing strategy: a slow build with a cliff-hanger ending.
And then, to jump forward quite a bit, I’m considering Casey’s chapter 42, which is loaded with tension and action.
Let me know your picks through the poll and/or by leaving a comment on this post.
Which chapter should I study?
📆 Remember to save the dates for our Zoom calls!
I’ll send around registration links for these next week:
Tuesday, June 9 at 11am PT (2pm ET, 7pm BST)
Saturday, June 13 at 11am PT (2pm ET, 7pm BST)
