book club · No. 1176

sss book club: the favorites discussion

BY: anastasia foggy

So, what did you think?! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the scandal and drama! First, let’s delve into Kat’s home on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin.

The minute I read farmhouse and stone–a certain magnificent Airbnb in Traverse City popped into my head. It’s called the Warbler House and is an actual storybook stone house. While it’s a farm stay rather than a lakefront like Kat’s, the image works! Check out the complete listing here.

There are few other moments about the house beyond “a flagstone farmhouse with a few Gothic revival flourishes, ” but, like they say in the book, “it’s the land that’s valuable,” my main visuals are of the lake. An essential part of the story. Kat and Heath are without family (we won’t count the brother; he’s the boogeyman in the story). The lake and house serve as their family, their constant in the story, the place where they come back to time and time again. Something I deeply relate to. That embrace of Lake Michigan is strong in my life. She provides calm and peace, a safe landing, always whispering something sweet. The same as she does to them. I loved her calming presence in the book. It brought a sense of serenity to the story, the only bit of serenity haha

Okay, and then there is the stone stable. A source of refuge at the beginning of the story, it is also, in the end, transformed into the skating rink. Is the stable’s glow-up transformation a symbol of Kat and Heath’s transformation as characters? 

How did you picture Kat’s home? Do you also feel a sense of ‘home’ near a body of water? Share your thoughts in the comments section below and chime into ten other discussion questions!

discussion questions:

here’s an overview of the questions, I will post in the comments section where you can join in.

1. Did you participate in a competitive sport? Is your experience relatable to any part of the story or to a character’s experience in the story?
2. At the beginning of the book Kat describes herself as “a bitch, a diva, a sore loser.” Is this how you perceived her? What about at the end of the book? Did she live up to that description?
3. Which betrayal was most shocking to you?
4. What did you think of the interview transcripts incorporated into the story?
5. Where was there more messiness + obsession: in each other or skating?
6. These characters seemingly sacrificed anything and everything for their sport. What did ice skating give back to them?
7. Ellis Dean, shake my head!! What was his role in the story? How much did you hate him by the end? or didn’t you?
8. Sheila Lin terrified me. Why was Kat so obsessed with her? How did Kat’s view of her evolve by the end of the book?
9. Bella and Kat’s friendship made my skin crawl– mainly because it echoed a high school friendship of mine that crashed and burned. Could you relate to their relationship? 
10. I was as obsessed with Heath and Kat staying together as Kat is with winning. Do you think they got their happy ending?

quotes I highlighted:

“There are lots of different kinds of love. Love like a steady, warming campfire that keeps you alive in the cold. Love like a raging blaze that burns down everything in its path until nothing but ash remains.”

“The thing is, when pushing your limits is all you know, when it seems normal to you…it’s hard to remember you even have limits. Until you run right into them.

“Happiness couldn’t be won. It couldn’t be hung around our necks while a crowd of thousands cheered. It wasn’t a prize, something we had to suffer and toil to earn. If we wanted happiness, we had to create it ourselves. Not in one shining moment on a medal stand, but every single day, over and over again.”

“I became a skater because I wanted to feel like that. Fierce. Confident. A warrior goddess covered in glitter. So sure of myself, I could make my dreams come truth through sheer force of will.”

if you missed it here’s our intro to the favorites book