'The Luminaries' Book Club Readalong Day 1!

Welcome to the first day of our book club readalong for OwlCrate's November book, The Luminaries by Susan Dennard!

Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 1-7 of The Luminaries, so make sure you read are finished this section 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 #OCTheLuminaries for another chance to win!

The story begins...

Chapter 1:
Winnie Wednesday has been outcast from the Luminaries, a secret group of people who hunt the nightmares of sleeping spirits. It is dawn, and also her sixteenth birthday, and so it is time for Winnie and a few other young Luminaries to clean up the corpses left from the previous night’s hunt. She is joined by twins Bretta and Emma, and Marcus. The twins give her a surprisingly nice leather jacket as a birthday gift.

Chapter 2:
Winnie’s family was outcast from the Luminaries for ten years when it was discovered that her father was a spy for the Dianas, the Luminaries greatest rival. Members of the Luminaries must complete the hunter trials on their sixteenth birthday, and even though Winnie is an outcast, she is determined to do so.

They arrive at the first corpse to clean up, Winnie sure it was killed by vampira. It’s missing its torso and feet, although no one is sure why they like the feet. Jay, another member of the Luminaries who passed his trials a year before, appears in the clearing, claiming he followed tracks and therefore putting a hole in Winnie’s theory. - vampira don't leave tracks. He wishes her happy birthday.

Chapter 4:
Jay Friday and Winnie used to be friends, along with Erica Thursday, but they ditched her just like everyone else when her family became outcasts.

Chapter 5:
After corpse duty is done Winnie, alone, takes the bodies to drop off at the Monday estate. She slams on the brakes when she sees two feet in the road, meaning that the nightmares that usually stick to the forest have wandered further out than before. She stakes where she found the feet to report.

Dianas are witches, people who want to use the magic of the sleeping spirits, to control them, and to wake them up to unleash on human kind.

At the morgue she tells Mario that she thinks a werewolf is responsible for the feet, and bet’s him a week’s worth of coffee that she is right.

Chapter 6:
Winnie goes to visit her mom who is working at The Revenant’s Daughter. She insisted as it’s Winnie’s birthday and she wanted to see Winnie before school. Her mom gives her a pair of clearly used and several years out of style glasses, and although Winnie does her best to act as if she likes them, it doesn’t come across.

Chapter 7:
Winnie endures the taunts of her classmates at school, waiting out her time until the trial that night. She’s woefully out of practice having been cut off from the training facilities at the Sunday estate four years prior, but she doesn’t dwell on the possibility of failing.

 Questions:

1. What do you think is responsible for the severed feet? Do you believe Winnie's werewolf theory?
2. What do you think the hunter trials will entail?
3. Why do you think Jay seems to be approaching Winnie again now after ditching her four years ago?
4. Did you enjoy the first section of the book?

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