Welcome back to the final day of our book club readalong for OwlCrate's February book, Only A Monster!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 21 to the end of Only A Monster, so make sure you read are finished before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box! Don't forget, you can also post about the readalong on Instagram with the hashtag #OCOnlyAMonster for another chance to win! I'll be selecting winners on Wednesday, April 13th.
The story concludes...
Chapter 21:
They take some time to get cleaned up and change and decide to visit Jamie in present day. A Jamie that doesn’t know Tom yet, but maybe will know something about the hero that will help. He’s a 15 year old kid and says he has only just started researching the hero, but it is said there might be one vulnerability he has - it is said in the true timeline he fell in love with a monster, and that perhaps in this one the timeline is trying to replicate that and push the two back together, like soulmates.
Back at the safehouse the others go to sleep, and Joan decides she needs to leave, to find Nick. Aaron confronts her before she leaves the house, telling her that if she is successful it will be like they never met, and if she remembers she is to never come near him. He can’t be trusted. With his Oliver power he can tell there is something different about her, but he doesn’t know what, and the Olivers will kill her for it. He also gives her a broach infused with time from the Mtawali family.
Chapter 22:
Joan travels back to the present day to Holland House which looks well looked after. She sees Astrid, another volunteer she was friends with and as they go to embrace Astrid drugs her with a needle. Waking bound in a cell in the basement of Holland House she finds Nick watching her. Astrid bids her drink a truth serum, and leaves them alone to talk. Joan tells him everything she saw in the recording, Nick not wanting to believe it’s possible. With the serum she feels compelled to talk, and she tells him about the story of the original timeline, the hero falling in love with the monster. And getting an idea, she takes time from the human half of herself to travel.
Chapter 23:
She is in Holland House, but it is different. Empty. She has no idea who far she traveled, but there is no one else here. She wanders the house and in the library she is found by Nick. It is then that Joan understands her power - she can unmake things. Return them to their original form. And using this power she unmakes Nick and unmakes everything he has done, changing everything.
Epilogue:
The unmaking burned the power out of her, and she her family believes her to just be ill.. No one else remembers what had happened. She keeps returning to Holland House, in this timeline now something completely different. It’s her last day in London for the summer, and as she stands looking at a painting in the park by the house, Jamie Liu comes to stand beside her. He tells her he remembers, at least some things, from the timeline she changed. The blonde woman is still out there. If she comes back, they’ll be waiting.
Questions:
- Whoa! What an ending. How do you think book two is going to pick up?
- Do you think Joan's unmaking power is truly gone with how much she altered the timeline, or do you think it will come back?
- What other repercussions do you think will appear because of Joan's actions?
- Where do you think Nick is now? Do you think even though Joan completely changed the timeline it will still try to bring them back together?
- And of course, did you enjoy the book?
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