A review by crafalsk264
The Blackout Book Club by Amy Lynn Green

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is not the average WWII historic fiction novel. To begin with, it is about a small town in Maine. Home front stories predominately focus on Britain or related countries. To find one set in the U.S.is a little unusual. Here, we follow four women and their friends, family and community through their adjustment to the new world.

Avis’ brother, Anthony, has been the librarian in Derby, Maine for almost 20 years. The Library operates with subscriptions but it is primarily funded by donations from one woman. Anthony is very concerned about what might happen while he is away in the War. So he convinces Avis to temporarily take the job and care for his Library. Louise is an aging spinster who has made the well-being of Derby her life’s work but at the same rime she stays one step removed from the real people. She is convinced by the mayor that the biggest need in Derby is a child care center for the Factory workers so they could work more hours. so she decides unilaterally decides to close the Library and renovate the building for use as a child care center.

In order to convince Louise that the Library is necessary for the community Avis needs to show how important the Library. She invents a Book Club. Along with Avis and Louise and Avis, two women from the Factory join as well. Ginny’s family had lived on the beachfront for generations until the U.S. Navy requisitions their land to construct a naval base. Ginny is obsessed with earning money so that when the War is over, she can buy it back. Martina is an Italian mother of two desperately trying to keep away from a violent husband. None of the book club members are great readers when they start but as the. Club grows and they take part in the club discussions, each one finds a real reader was inside them all along. When the women dismantle the Library collection, they find a final letter to Louise from her father. He sums it up well.

“For I have found that books make fine friends 

– but fellow readers even better.” 

From The Blackout Book Club by Amy Lynn Green