'A Comb of Wishes' Book Club: Day 3 [End]

"When she had made the wish, Kela hadn’t seen how it could be wrong. It was natural. But she thought the cost would be hers to pay. It wasn’t."

Welcome back to our book club read-along of A Comb of Wishes by Lisa Stringfellow, the OwlCrate Jr book from the FINDERS KEEPERS box. Who stole the comb, and will Kela find it in time? And will Ophidia exact her revenge? Gear up, readers, for a thrilling and heartfelt conclusion!

Remember, this is a spoiler discussion for the conclusion of A Comb of Wishes and you'll find the discussion questions posted below. 

If you're not caught up just yet, no worries! You have until Friday, March 25th to join in on our conversation and be eligible to win a free OwlCrate Jr box. 

And now, onto the story. 

The Story Concludes . . .

Crawling out from behind George’s trash can, Kela discovers a clue to George’s destination and heads out to see Lissy and Miss Inniss for help. She reveals to them the truth of the last few days, and to her surprise, they both completely believe her. Though Miss Inniss wants to call the police over George’s possible theft, Kela knows she’ll never recover the comb if the police are involved. Instead, Kela and Lissy sneak out together.

They head out to a coffee shop in Queensland to find George. Lissy enters the coffee shop on her own, but Kela can’t help herself and she sneaks over to George’s car for a peek inside. Though she doesn’t see the comb, she does note the stolen diving equipment from her father’s shop. And that’s when she sees who George met up with.

Joyce, her mother’s friend and colleague.

George walks out of the shop alongside Joyce, a black bag in hand. Just then, Lissy barrels down the sidewalk on a stolen bike, grabs the bag from George’s hands, and they take off. They ditch the bike, grab a bus, and start to head home, but nothing seems to go according to plan because the comb is nowhere to be found.

Kela heads home and reveals the truth to her parents. Her father gets upset with Kela, but her mother believes her saying she’s noticed how something has been wrong that she didn’t understand. They head to the dive shop and find George frantically stuffing gear into a bag. Kela’s father confronts George, and George reveals he stole the comb. He had hoped to sell it to Joyce, but she got cold feet. Now George is going to leave St. Rita and start fresh off the money he’ll get from the comb.

George manages to escape past Kela’s father and onto the dive shop’s boat, but Kela and her mother follow him aboard. George powers up the motor and speeds off, leaving Kela’s father behind.

Meanwhile, Ophidia knows she’s approaching the end, so she releases a terrible beast to find her betrayer.

George locks Kela and her mother in the cabin of the boat, and Kela tries to explain to George that sudden storm around them is most likely caused by Ophidia, but he doesn’t believe her. That is until giant tentacles start wrapping themselves around the boat.

Kela’s almost pulled into the sea by one of the tentacles but is saved by George, who’s pulled in instead. The monster leaves soon after, but then the boat begins to sink. As Kela and her mother are pulled deeper into the sea, Kela finds the broken comb among George’s things. All they can do now is wait and hope they’ll figure out a way to survive.

They hit the bottom of the sea and sure enough, Ophidia arrives soon after. Ophidia is furious with Kela, but Kela offers the sea woman her broken comb and tries to explain what happened. When Ophidia grabs the comb from Kela, the comb suddenly begins to glow. When the glow vanishes, the comb is whole and Ophidia is healed.

Ophidia is surprised, to say the least, and they all soon realize that the soul that powers the comb was indeed Meera’s, one of Kela’s ancestors. The comb was restored through the bond of blood, needing both Ophidia and Kela to heal it. Ophidia also reveals that Kela’s mother is lost because while her body was brought back to life, her soul could not be returned. Ophidia offers Kela another wish in payment, and Kela wishes for her mother to be happy.

Ophidia creates a mirror portal back to Kela’s home, but Kela’s mother knows she can’t return. Instead, Ophidia offers her gift: become one of the seafolk and share in Meera’s soul. She accepts and tells Kela she’ll always remember and love her. Kela tearfully wishes her mother well and steps through the mirror.

Ophidia has rewritten time again and has brought Kela back to the day when she first found the comb. Kela makes up with Lissy, who vaguely remembers the past few days. Kela pulls out her mother’s recorder and tells her story.

Sometime later, Kela and Lissy take a dive. Among the Caribbean reef, Kela leaves three necklaces she made, one for Ophidia, one for her mother, and one for Meera. This time, Kela is confident she made the right wish.

Discussion Questions:

1. It’s never fully described, but what do you think the great beast was that Ophidia set after Kela?
   
   
2. Why do you think it was easier for some people to believe Kela, like her mother, Lissy, and Miss Inniss? Why do you think Kela’s father and George didn’t believe her?
   
   
3. And finally, what did you think about the story overall?

Do you have questions you'd like to ask about A Comb of Wishes? Drop them in the comments for everyone to answer!

Thank you for joining us on this book club read-along. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks for our March book club. See you soon and happy reading!

Have a question for the author? Join us for our OwlBabble live chat with Lisa Stringfellow next week on Thursday, March 24 at 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET on Instagram Live!

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