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My comments on Chapter 5 (Reef):
> Reef introduces (and shoots down) the possibility he’s suffering from some form of amnesia. If this book becomes a movie, I hope the director will make sure a copy of RESTART is sitting on Reef’s desk during this scene. Or POP or OPERATION DO-OVER if we extend what *might* be wrong with Reef to include possible head injury. Fun school project for some middle-schooler some day: Write an essay on how GRK’s stories explore “cerebral” abnormalities–dementia, traumatic brain injury, amnesia, time travel, memory-swapping–and how the afflicted characters overcome these challenges.
> I am re-reading the book, one chapter per day, to be fresh for this book club discussion. It’s been several months since I read it the first time, so I know the general story but not the whole book, line by line. I am trying to balance “reading the story on its own merit” with “evaluating and interpreting where the story fits in within the Kormanverse.” Well, I know the first time I read chapter 5 a specific line didn’t stick out to me as anything other than exposition, but this time its words made me think of TWO unrelated older GRK novels. “If there’s one thing the kids at this school are good at, it’s not caring about somebody’s lousy luck.” (Any Korman Classics fans care to guess which books came to mind?)
> One of the compelling storytelling techniques GRK uses is cascading conflicts. Reef is already dealing with his mother’s death (and his feeling he’s at fault) plus Declan’s terrible behavior plus having a series of false memories. But up until now Declan has hidden what he’s doing–the elbow jabs and chucked rocks happen when no one else is looking. Surprise–it’s going to get worse for Reef! Declan’s setting him up as a thief just introduces MORE stress in an already turbulent time for Reef, but what’s worse is that Reef actually begins to question whether he may be guilty.
@Jade, maybe it’s time to RESTART your computer–just turn it off and leave it UNPLUGGED for a couple minutes. Or DIVE deep into whatever problem is causing it to erase all your posts.
More seriously, I’m glad you brought up the relationship between Theo’s father and Kristi. That makes him seem more loving, more tolerable, but also serves to magnify how he and Theo don’t get along. And good thought on Theo and gardening, too. When characters in books have less common habits or hobbies, it makes doing those things feel a little less weird for readers with similar interests. I wonder if GRK got nastygrams from the world’s vegetable garden lobby after the–uh–unexpected method of watering the garden in THE FORT.