Thriller: 24 Hours

Everyone seemed to enjoy the thriller, 24 Hours, by Greg Iles! It was a page-turner! Good summer reading. One of the great aspects of our book discussions is our ability to take what seems to be a simple story and to find aspects and meanings and insights that make the book every so much more interesting! Some of the insights I enjoyed from the discussion that I hadn't thought of for myself: The little girl seemed to be using a strategy by discussing Beauty and the Beast with Huey - was she trying to reach him by symbolically comparing him with the beast? Or was it more juvenile - just that since she had a Belle doll, that was the story she was thinking of? The characters each made important choices and changed their behavior based on these choices, so the characters became more developed and real. The other families that suffered kidnappings were somewhat passive, but the one in the story (I already forgot the names) struggled to take control of the situation. Each member of the family in the story had overcome a big loss in life and made the best of it - the mother had given up her career, the father had given up being a surgeon, and the little girl had the asthma to cope with. Maybe that was what made them stronger than the previous families so they could fight the kidnappers. I can't tell how these ideas as written here affect you if you weren't at the discussion, but to me all these ideas when discussed seemed to bring more depth and life to the book. There were more, too. We are good readers!