Everyone came out tonight to discuss The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai at our newest book club, Strange Futures. 

The Strange Futures book club focuses on sci-fi and speculative fiction by QTBIPOC writers. "Strange Futures" speaks to the unknown worlds that are to come--but also to the strangeness that is ascribed to marginalized voices, and how such strangeness can actually be generative, challenging, discomforting, and highly necessary. Hosted by Helen Chau Bradley, the book club meetings take place every two months, and are open to the public.

Larissa Lai was new to everyone at the club, and they were not disappointed! Overheard: ''It was a real whirlwind! But she kept it together even though so much was going on, and with so many reveals.''

We discussed her use of visceral descriptions that made the writing rich and disturbing in an amazing way. And everyone agreed that the dialogue was so strong. It was also said that Larissa Lai does a good job at presenting traditional sci-fi tropes while adding and normalizing female and east Asian characters in those settings. This points out how people of colour are often erased and not included in these narratives. 

Even though there was a lot of questions about the plot, we talked it out and came to our own conclusions. That is what book clubs are for, trying to get to the bottom of the unanswered questions in a book. 

We will be meeting April 2nd to discuss Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. We offer a 20% discount on all current book club picks in store.