Flyleaf YA Book club discusses Conversion
Fri 7/10, 6pm
Flyleaf YA Book club discusses Conversion
Whether you’re an actual “young adult” or an older adult who appreciates a good YA novel, join us for our young adult book club. The past several meetings have been lively and enthusiastic – there may be some contention about the books themselves, but we’ve got snacks and libations on hand to cool off the debate. Dare I say, this is one of the most easy-going and fun groups of readers in town? Well, I just said it.
This month, we’re discussing Conversion by Katherine Howe:
It's senior year at St. Joan's Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can't.
First it's the school's queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan's buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.
Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen who's been reading" The Crucible" for extra credit comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago...
Inspired by true events from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school "Conversion" casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, "New York Times" bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel that raises the question, what's really happening to the girls at St. Joan's?