Last month my book club spent 2 hours arguing about whether a character's choice was 'realistic'

We were reading this thriller set in Maine, and the main character decides not to call the police after finding a weird note. Half the group said no one would do that in real life. The other half said people freeze up all the time. Our host eventually pulled up a psychology study on her phone and we still didn't agree. Has anyone else had a book club debate spiral that hard over something so small?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_dixon2d ago

Wait, wasn't that study actually about people freezing up in emergencies, not specifically about finding a note? I remember reading that one, it was about bystander effect and it got misquoted a lot. Your host probably pulled up something about "decision paralysis" which is a real thing, but it's different from just not trusting the police. The whole argument sounds like it missed the bigger point that the author probably wanted the character to feel isolated and paranoid on purpose. Those book club debates are the worst when nobody wants to admit the other side has a point.

jamesblack2d ago

What about the host thinking he's the only one who read the book right though?