25 Jul

YA Cafe: TANGLED Discussion Questions

Posted in Reading, Teen Lit, YA Cafe

Today Ghenet and I wanted to share some discussion points with you for our Book Club discussion this Friday.  We’ll be discussing Tangled by Carolyn Mackler, a fascinating book on so many different levels.  Feel free to answer or not answer any of these questions in the discussion.  Also, if you want more questions to guide your reading or response, check out Carolyn Mackler’s website where she provides a great download of discussion points for Tangled.

Note: These questions may contain spoilers!

Discussion Questions for Tangled

  1. In this book, we have four different points of view (POV), spread over four different time periods and several different settings.  Did you like the four POV structure and the jumping across time and place.  Was it successful?
  2. The author doesn’t show us complete character arcs for all of the characters but we know through hints in the text that the characters do all grow and change.  Was this technique satisfying to you?  Were you frustrated by not seeing the full character development for each character?  Or did you enjoy putting the pieces of the puzzle together yourself?
  3. Who was your favorite of the four main characters?  Why?
  4. When we were brainstorming questions for this discussion, both Ghenet and I expressed surprise that the story didn’t all take place at the Caribbean resort.  This blurb makes it seem as though the Caribbean resort is the central setting, but as we all know from reading, this is actually not the case.  What was your response when you realized the story didn’t all take place in the same setting?  Were you surprised?
  5. How does each of the characters redeem him or herself at the end of the novel?  Did you find yourself changing your opinion of certain characters as the story developed?

Don’t forget, this Friday we do the Book Club post.  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments either here or at Ghenet’s blog.  Or post a link to your own blog if you prefer to do a whole post!  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this intriguing and beautiful novel.

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Comments on this post

  1. sa says:

    1. In this book, we have four different points of view (POV), spread over four different time periods and several different settings. Did you like the four POV structure and the jumping across time and place. Was it successful?
    There is often a fine line between affective and effective. The choices Mackler makes are good ones, empowering the novel rather than seeming like a pretentious attempt at something more. It seems to me there really is no other way she could have written this novel; the shifts in POV so perfectly fit the theme of the novel. If there is a better way, this reader couldn’t think of one.

    2. The author doesn’t show us complete character arcs for all of the characters but we know through hints in the text that the characters do all grow and change. Was this technique satisfying to you? Were you frustrated by not seeing the full character development for each character? Or did you enjoy putting the pieces of the puzzle together yourself?
    I love it when an author trusts the reader and the technique of allowing each character’s story to be front and center for only as long as it needed to be works so well that I wonder why it is not done more often. Of course, the reason it works so well in this context is that the individual characters are connected (tangled, if you will) and when one story is dropped the hints that come through the next tell enough to give the reader a sense of completeness, even closure.

    3. Who was your favorite of the four main characters? Why?
    I think it was inevitable I would most identify with Jena because she is the insecure book worm that I remember myself being. But here’s the irony—I grew up in Manhattan and one of my Long Island cousins once described me as “city sophisticate.” Me? So Jena could have been my favorite far more easily than Skye, although I suppose some would describe me as closer to being the latter-type. But of all the characters, I really liked Owen best. Maybe because he reminded me of my own children and I wanted him to be happy and have a good life.

    4. When we were brainstorming questions for this discussion, both Ghenet and I expressed surprise that the story didn’t all take place at the Caribbean resort. This blurb makes it seem as though the Caribbean resort is the central setting, but as we all know from reading, this is actually not the case. What was your response when you realized the story didn’t all take place in the same setting? Were you surprised?
    Frankly, I was relieved. I didn’t necessarily want a novel that was compressed into a single week’s vacation or anything along those lines. I agree that the blurb is misleading but there’s less potential for drama during a luxury filled vacation.

    5. How does each of the characters redeem him or herself at the end of the novel? Did you find yourself changing your opinion of certain characters as the story developed?
    I never got around to liking Dakota and only felt slightly more sympathetic towards novel’s end of Skye. I guess my initial feelings about each didn’t change as much as they themselves did. Perhaps this has more to do with my feeling the stories were somewhat predictable in that, once you gauged the character’s flaw you knew that something would happen to make redeem them.

    I’ve finished all three of the novels for the summer reading and I liked this novel the best. As I mention in my review, I was hooked pretty quickly and found myself devouring the book. While it is not unusual for me to “knock out” a young adult novel in one sitting, it is not often I do so with as much pleasure.

    My review can be found here:
    http://satiasreviews.blogspot.com/2011/07/tangled-by-carolyn-mackler.html

    I’m off to check out the link to the author’s website now. Thanks for sharing it.

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