All in Good Storytime is an interactive, bookish, book club podcast hosted by Alanna, Katya, and Tia. To join the club, make sure you're following us on
Twitter to get updates on what book we're reading and to what chapter we are reading through (or what anime we're watching and what episode we are watching through), and listen to the podcast here or on iTunes (see link below) to join in on the discussion. And don't forget to
read along!
In the 26th episode of All in Good Storytime, we continue by reading chapters 7-15 of "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour. In these chapters, we learn how Marin and Mabel's romantic relationship quietly developed during their senior year of high school, that for unknown reasons Marin's grandfather was apparently lying about having a pen-pal named Birdie, and that Marin and her grandfather were both aware that he was seriously ill but they never truly discussed his illness. We discuss possible explanations behind Marin's grandfather's story about having a pen-pal and the reasons that Marin never explored his half of the house.
Our top theories are that her grandfather was a serial killer who kept his victims under the floorboards, or that he was a sad, lonely man who never learned how to cope with his grief following the loss of his wife and daughter and expressed his sadness in unconventional ways. We also discuss the implications of Mabel's offer that Marin should move in with her family and her suggestion that they could live together as sisters, despite having had a romantic relationship. We end by building on our previous prediction that the novel will end with Marin agreeing to come to live with Mabel and with Marin experiencing some sort of emotional catharsis thanks to Mabel's winter visit.
Next week we will be reading chapters 16 through the end of We Are Okay by Nina LaCour.