“There was a strange comfort about being in an unfamiliar town not too far from home, where the familiarity was limited to building materials and social customs. It was the ideal mix of getting away yet not standing out.”

I love how this line captures the sweet spot between escape and belonging. You get the thrill of being “away,” but the rules of the place are still readable. You do not have to re-teach yourself how to exist. That lets curiosity lead without the background hum of survival anxiety.

It also speaks to the relief of anonymity without isolation. In a town not too far from home, you are unremarkable enough to move quietly, but the world still feels legible. There is dignity in not standing out, in observing first, participating second. There is a gentleness to this kind of exploration. It is growth with a safety net. You stretch your sense of self just past the edge of routine, then return with new texture rather than exhaustion.

It made me think about how often we treat change as all-or-nothing. This reminds me that small, local detours can be just as transformative. New coffee shop, different walking route, a night in a nearby neighborhood. Micro-adventures count.

Where have you felt this “nearby unfamiliarity” in your own life?

I am so frustrated with this book. Mild rant ahead.

The writing is clunky, simple, withholding. I feel zero tension or fear, and don't even believe the characters are afraid either. The structure is such that we don't really get to see much of the character's personalities other than from the other person, a spouse who kinda hates the other right now-- so it's super fun to read snark and annoyance and constant bickering. The structure is also written to constantly edge the reader with ~cliff-hanger moments: 'but she didn't know what he had planned' 'only one of us would be leaving here' etc. But without there (yet) being any payoff, I'm not rushing toward a cliff edge, but like I'm arduously climbing a huge hill, getting more tired and convinced the view at the top will actually be total shit. I feel like the characters are dumb af-- if there's snow everywhere so why do they not notice a speck of it being tracked in, nor any footprints outside? There's constant little plotholes, like the power has been cut and the generator turned off but that freezer is still going? I'm not a fan of a thriller that dribbles out the information to the reader so things only make sense once the author finally gives you the information-- esp as we are in first person POV for the two main characters! We are in their heads and yet they aren't thinking about their plans or about the issues between the couple, so the reader doesn't know what any plans are so there's no real reason to care IF there is nefarious plotting because of UNKNOWN reasons... ugh

Your house is on fire! You only have time/space to save one physical book from your collection - What book are you saving? (optional bonus question - why that book?)

I just want to say that I've been listening to the audiobook with my husband and we've been thoroughly enjoying this book! He even said to me "this makes me want to read more books" 👀😂

Is there a way to have monthly / yearly reading plan not automatically go in alphabetical order? i was adding books by the order i want to read them but when i saved it they went to alphabetical instead🤔

Hey y'all! I found this from an ad on social media, which I'm sure most of you can relate to, and hearing "no Amazon, no AI", is what really sold me. When Storygraph was new and hadn't caved to AI slop, what really sold me on them wasn't just the "no amazon" factor, but they also had a built in system for listing what potentially triggering content was in a book. I, for one, hate when I'm reading a really good book, and then BOOM, SA or child abuse. I've DNF'ed many books because I'll be really into the story and loving the characters, but then the whole thing just becomes about SA. I know there are many stories where that is a main part of the plot, but it's something I prefer to avoid, and I'm hoping that a content warning system something like the one SG utilizes will become part of the Page Bound reality sometime soon! It's been wonderful to see it becoming more prevalent in the reading world, and even in the front of some books!

TL;DR- Will we get a content warning system at all in the future?

I'm currently reading a book with lots of Spanish words, and I don't know any significant Spanish. In the forums there's lots of posts saying people are looking up a ton of the words to understand the text. In other book forums I've also seen posts along the same lines unrelated to language, just general "I have looked up so many words; have your dictionary nearby" etc

I basically never look up words. At this point in my reading journey it's quite rare for me to encounter any (English) word I don't know, and even if I don't know it (any language) I can 99% of the time understand the meaning from context clues and therefore feel no need...

Am I just a weirdo for never referencing the dictionary?? How often do you grab the dictionary/Google, and what's a great word you've learned from this process?

Here's a previous club post talking about a similar topic