16
FictionI’ve finished The Running Grave. Oof. Anybody up for a discussion thread with SPOILERS?
I have a morbid fascination with cults and this one was… woof. What did you all think?
Those references to how bodies don't matter so "gay" isn't a real thing ...
... I see what you did there, JKR.
In the cult it was called the Loving Cure when lesbians were coerced to "spirit-bond" with men. Ugh.
Well spotted. Maybe there was a bit about “gender” in there after all.
Strike implied to Robin that he looooooooves her and damn it, I’m a romantic and I love it. I also like how he is finally working on getting in shape so that he can help Robin escape from cults and murderers and whatnot. Awwwwww.
I like romance and cults. I make no apologies.
I would have cried if Strike hadn't finally made some kind of move! I'm so ready for them to finally get together. "She knew I loved you". I loved that. I liked how he was telling himself that it was time to do something differently and how he needed someone good. Charlotte was petty to the very end.
I wonder if Jo is putting off the inevitable.... Authors prefer to write about everything leading up to two characters getting together or their splitting up. I'm so ready for two imperfect people to get together, fight crime, solve mysteries and figure out how to have a healthy relationship. Jo can do it!
I may be the worst but I love the way JKR moved the Strike-Robin situation forward with an epic cliffhanger. As somebody who doesn’t necessarily want to see them together I’m fine with the ongoing ambiguity.
Strike’s scene at the end with Charlotte’s sister moved me, and I teared up on the last line. I’m not sorry.
Since we’re spoiling, I was relieved when JKR killed off Charlotte. Her character arc had run its course and she’d been nothing but an annoyance for the last couple of books.
Yes! Glad to see Charlotte go, and Strike not bleeding from his stump. Onward and upward!
I LOVED this one - best of the series to me. The chapters leading up to Robin's escape from the cult were so stressful. Rowling really nailed the suspense and the fear. I think those chapters were the best writing of the whole book.
I was terrified as her stay with the cult went on and wondered just how horrible it was going to get. But it never went over the top for me, just horrible enough without traumatizing. OK, I admit the first night after I started reading I couldn’t get to sleep for hours. But JKR is so good at plotting, at intercutting scenes on the farm with ones back in London, that I got through it. I knew there’d be at least one scene in the box and some sexual assault, plus the horror of Jacob, but her final escape was just exhilarating and her scene with Will in the Retreat Room was almost funny. And maybe the ultimate horror, the long-ago murder scene in the woods, didn’t happen until the end when Robin was back in London, so it was OK.
Me too! I was reading too fast in some parts just so I'd KNOW that Robin didn't temporarily go full cult.
I loved how Rowling handled describing her mental state after being tortured in the box--you could really feel how someone would become indoctrinated and only care about the Waces' approval.
I also liked how Robin has grown. In the past, she would have been less likely to push back on Strike. Now he accuses her of "prancing" around London, and she's on him instantly!
Great story, Great topic and great character growth for everyone.
And can we all take a moment to appreciate Pat? Pat is both hilarious and endearing.
I LOVE Pat. If anybody doesn’t, I might not want to know them.
Same! I kept wondering how bad it was going to be, and after she let slip her real name and had the chance to leave but didn’t, I was almost yelling at my book GET OUT OF THERE GET OUT NOW - almost threw it across the room when the rock disappeared!
Oh my goodness yes, it was so tense I couldn’t look away. The scenes in the farm made me think of Wild Swans and 1984, it was so frightening but so believable. How all the brainwashed members treated each other, ostracising the ones who didn’t say the right things, cutting them off from the outside world, the meetings where one of them sits in the middle of the circle and is screamed at by all the others…
You're right - it was so reminiscent of Wild Swans. The scenes with the outcast in the middle and everyone screaming insults were beyond chilling.
Late to the thread because I had to wait for my library copy— was it just me that was shocked she was at the farm for 16 weeks??? I counted like 6 at most! I mean I can guess why JKR wrote it like that, with Robin not having a calendar or anything but damn.
I think there were long stretches when she did nothing but drudge work for days and didn’t have the time or energy to think. After a while not even weekly visits to the rock were necessarily written about. I was unhappy with every week Robin was there beyond maybe two or three.
The climax of the book for me was definitely her getting out. I was so worried for her, I didn’t even really care about the mystery that much, once she was safe.
The whole book was so genius! I thought The Ink Black Heart was really good, but it had nothing on this! She really did her cult homework, it was so awful but so believable. I'm glad Strike and Prudence are getting close. Glad Strike finally told Robin! I generally hate will they won't they but it's handled perfectly in the series. There were parts where I gasped or laughed out loud!
Poor Uncle Ted! JK really showed just enough of how awful dementia can be without getting too deep into it. Dementia and alzheimer's are such terrible diseases, I've seen too much of both irl, I don't want to live too closely with it in fiction.