The Blackout Book Club

Starred review from September 1, 2022

Derby, ME is about as small-town as it gets, but the seemingly mundane residents have some secrets that may be too dangerous to share. As the U.S. enters World War II, the men start leaving to fight overseas, and the threat of German U-boats off the East Coast becomes more than theoretical. Faced with change on every side, newlywed Avis Montgomery is determined to save the town's subscription library--even though she rarely reads more than a magazine. In an effort to impress the library's reclusive owner, she establishes the "Blackout Book Club" to discuss contemporary hits and classic favorites. The club starts off small but soon draws a disparate cast of characters, including some newcomers to the insular town. Green (The Lines Between Us) nails all four voices of her alternating narrators: women knocked down by disappointment who find hope and unlikely camaraderie through the pages of a book. VERDICT This is an uplifting read for dark times, featuring strong and unique characters uniting toward a common goal. It also has crossover appeal for fans of historical fiction from Jennifer Ryan and Kate Quinn.--Christine Barth

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 26, 2022
A group of women find togetherness through a book club in this tender if sluggish WWII historical from Green (The Lines Between Us). After Avis Montgomery’s brother leaves their hometown of Derby, Maine, to join the war in 1942, she takes over his job as a librarian and convenes a book club to keep up morale. Green cycles through the perspectives of the club’s members. There’s Louise Cavendish, who inherited from her father the private library where the club meets and is contemplating shutting it down against Avis’s admonitions. Rambunctious Ginny Atkinson assists her father on his lobster boat and leans on the group after suffering an unbearable loss. Meanwhile, Martina Bianchini struggles to raise her two children while her husband serves in the Navy, and her troubles deepen when she starts to suspect him of a treasonable offense. She feels ashamed that she hasn’t attended church since moving from Boston several months earlier but seeks God’s help when her son stumbles into danger. The characters support each other during their weekly meetings as they discuss books and forge friendships that carry them through the war. Though slow pacing drags this down, the characters’ trajectories from strangers to close friends will warm readers’ hearts. Bookworms will take to this.

Starred review from October 15, 2022
After her librarian brother joins the army during WWII, Avis Montgomery, not much of a book lover, reluctantly agrees to oversee his beloved library in his absence. With increasing blackout-compliance pressure in their small coastal Maine hometown and the looming threat of a library closure, Avis establishes an evening book club in an effort to save the institution. As the devastation of war marches closer to home, the club confronts its own battles against suspicion, prejudice, and dangerous secrets. What starts as a group of strangers passing the dark hours with discussions of Shakespeare and Wordsworth evolves into a cohort of unexpected advocates and friends. Green (Things We Didn't Say, 2020) presents another brilliant work of WWII historical fiction, an empowering story of friendship, community, and humanity. The book-club trope is elevated by the drama of loss during a time of war and a cast of lovably fallible characters attempting to reconcile life through literature. The Blackout Book Club reprises Green's ingenious use of a creative format as she alternates between book-club meeting minutes and sections narrated by members in a way that gives voice to the group's dynamic growth. Readers will revel in this charismatic novel of camaraderie, empathy, and the power of stories to unite us.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.