The Other Side of the Island by Katrina Brown

first meeting thought #1

2024-04-19 14:13:33 UTC

Why was the name “Honor” approved, despite being born in a society where your name has to be after your year (and sound like the letter)

Bryce

first meeting thought #2

2024-04-19 14:17:26 UTC

What is the flood that is referred to causing Honor and her family to move from the Northern Islands? Is it metaphorical?

Rital

first meeting thought #3

362664195 — 2024-04-19 14:21:16 UTC

Why is misinformation being spread about the northern islands and its climate?

Rital, Bryce, Leann (group thought)

first meeting thought #4

362664195 — 2024-04-19 14:23:09 UTC

Why is there a "Watcher?" What is their purpose? Why can't you look at one?

Leann

362689465 — 2024-04-19 17:12:44 UTC

sneep snorp

second meeting thoughts #1

2024-04-23 13:51:13 UTC

Why are they trying to make people forget about the outside world? What is their purpose for that?

Group thought

second meeting thoughts #2

2024-04-23 13:53:30 UTC

why are polar bears so gaunt and unwell.

-Bryce

second meeting thought #3

2024-04-23 13:54:39 UTC

Why are there no curious people? Why didn't their ancestors question their memory loss?

Rama

second meeting thought #4

2024-04-23 14:02:41 UTC

Why can't Honor's mother remember her own mother?

Rital

third meeting thoughts #1

2024-04-25 13:50:19 UTC

Helix came out of nowhere

-Rama

third meeting thoughts #2

2024-04-25 13:53:15 UTC

Who is the forecaster? And is he real.

-Bryce

third meeting thoughts #3

2024-04-25 13:53:54 UTC

why is forecaster a swear word?

-Rama

third meeting thought #4

2024-04-25 13:56:15 UTC

What's the deal with the orderlies?

-Group thought

third meeting thought #5

2024-04-25 13:58:34 UTC

why does only honor remember the north properly?

-Rama

third meeting thought #6

2024-04-25 14:03:00 UTC

Why are storms now so dangerous?

-Group thought

third meeting thought #7

2024-04-25 14:08:15 UTC

Why are the things listed on the leaflets banned like eating fruits from trees?

-Bryce

fourth meeting thought #1

2024-04-29 13:57:14 UTC

What's wrong with Octavio the octopus?

-Bryce

fourth meeting recap

2024-04-29 14:03:56 UTC

Throughout later in the book, Honor starts to believe the lies and act more "normal" by island standards. Before that, she met Helix, a boy from an upper class family who works for the "Corporation".

Rital

fourth meeting thoughts #2

2024-04-29 14:06:09 UTC

What's wrong with the moon they say insane people go there is it a base or prison or something?

-Bryce

fifth meeting thought #1

2024-05-02 13:54:13 UTC

Why does Honor keep calling people fat? Should this be a concern??

Rama

fifth meeting thought #2

2024-05-02 13:55:25 UTC

Is positive reinforcement and persuasion double speak for torture like 1984?

-Bryce

fifth meeting thoughts #3

2024-05-02 13:57:37 UTC

Why does everything in their week involve 10s? Hours, Days, Why is it all ten?

fifth meeting thoght

2024-05-02 13:59:18 UTC

What's with the weird blood Identity card Honor got?

Leann

fifth meeting thought #5

2024-05-02 14:01:21 UTC

Why do children need I.D.

-Bryce

2024-05-02 14:04:29 UTC

The girl scout seems like its a bad idea. It seems like it's gonna end in violence / homicide.

Group thought

fifth meeting thought #7

2024-05-02 14:07:14 UTC

What is a retriever and why is Miss Tuttle one? Why does Miss Tuttle have a dungeon in the library?

Leann

sixth meeting thought #1

2024-05-03 14:41:51 UTC

whats Pamela's job

-Dalya

sixth meeting #2

2024-05-03 14:43:51 UTC

why does quinillian act so different compared to everyone else

-Rital

sixth meeting thought #3

2024-05-03 14:46:05 UTC

how did Pamela get a job?

-Bryce

sixth meeting thought #4

2024-05-03 14:51:03 UTC

Why is there a random time skip?? It feels sort of unnecessary even though it's related to Quintillian.

Group thought

sixth meeting thought #5

2024-05-03 14:54:22 UTC

Is the year 2054? (Based on estimation)

group thought

Seventh meeting thought #1

2024-05-07 13:56:46 UTC

We still don't know a lot about orderlies. We don't know what they look like, they do jobs, but we don't know specific details about them .

— Dalya

seventh meeting thought #2

2024-05-07 13:58:52 UTC

Why were the Greenspoons searched and did Pamela and Will actually get mugged?

-Bryce

Seventh meeting thought #3

2024-05-07 14:03:01 UTC

What was the point in buying a glitter globe if they were going to hide it? What's the whole issue with owning photos anyways?

Group thought

seventh meeting #4

2024-05-07 14:06:39 UTC

Honor is starting to care about other people's thoughts. She's scared of sticking out and she doesn't wanna be different

- Rama

seventh meeting thought #5

2024-05-07 14:10:30 UTC

why are they planning for the apocalypse (because of the stores and the safety manual kits and the weather warnings and stuff)

Leann ;)

eighth meeting thought #1

2024-05-09 13:57:21 UTC

Honor is really trying to conform to the weird societal norms by unfriending Helix, changing her name and her behaviours.

Rital

eighth meeting thought #2

2024-05-09 13:59:07 UTC

Did the corporation change the dictionary because they villainize various words like reverse engineer, making them nouns for people to villainize them?

-Bryce

eighth meeting thought #3

2024-05-09 14:01:42 UTC

Why were Helix's parents taken, they were corporation members, it doesn't make sense.

-Group Thought

eighth meeting thought #4

2024-05-09 14:02:50 UTC

Where is the tranquil sea and colony islands? We know where the northern islands are they're in the ruins of north america.

-Bryce

eighth meeting thought #5

2024-05-09 14:05:34 UTC

how come lunatic and shut up are cuss words?

dictionary change????

Leann

nineth meeting thought #1

2024-05-14 13:47:46 UTC

What is honor going to do now with her little brother now that their parents got taken.

nineth meeting thought #2

2024-05-14 13:49:25 UTC

Will Honor and Helix reconcile?

-Bryce

ninth meeting thought #3

2024-05-14 13:52:15 UTC

Who are putting the leaflets on honours door? If they're illegal which lunatics are leaving them on peoples doors

-Rama

ninth meeting thought #4

2024-05-14 13:56:05 UTC

why are all the orphanages at school? If the world is so perfect why is the orphanage in such dismay?

Leann

ninth meeting thought #5

2024-05-14 14:02:21 UTC

How is Quintillean going to survive without his sister in an orphanage not knowing whats going on with his parents and sister

Tenth meeting thought #1

2024-05-15 13:48:32 UTC

We were right orderlies are the people who disapeared.

-Group thought

tenth meeting thought #2

2024-05-15 13:50:07 UTC

Why would they let children into a sensitive information area?

-Rama

Tenth meeting thought#3

2024-05-15 13:51:41 UTC

Will honer find her parents as orderlies.

Will honor and Quintillian be separated permanetly.

-Bryce

tenth meeting thought #4

2024-05-15 13:54:46 UTC

Honour is starting to doubt the dimension shes in. She's starting to doubt everyone and is believing her parents and helix when before she used to call them lunatics.

-Rama

tenth meeting thought #5

2024-05-15 13:57:40 UTC

what the heck is memory sick?? Why is it caused by laundry detergent????????????

Leann

tenth meeting thought #6

2024-05-15 14:02:08 UTC

Honor says how when she closes her eyes to sleep and tries to imagine her parents but she can't picture them. She tries to concentrate and remember but her parents faces don't come to her

-Dalya

tenth meeting thought #7

2024-05-15 14:08:24 UTC

Honor is slowly losing it chapter by chapter to the point where her own little brother has to snap her out it. She keeps going on and on about her delusions as she's being brainwashed more and more every chapter.

Rital

Eleventh thought #1

2024-05-21 13:50:23 UTC

Why did everyone forget about orderlies, including Honor

-Dalya,Rama

Eleventh thought #2

2024-05-21 13:52:18 UTC

Can you bring an Orderlie back to normal before they became an Orderlie.

-Bryce

Eleventh meeting thought #3

2024-05-21 13:55:02 UTC

If Honor's parents are aware that they're orderlies, why did they get taken away? What is their purpose of pretending?

-Rital

Eleventh meeting thought #4

2024-05-21 13:58:53 UTC

Why did honor's mother blink?

_leann

eleventh meeting thought #5

2024-05-21 14:01:36 UTC

We are focusing on Honors development, she has become way more independent. She isn't fully independent, but she is way more than she was before her parents vanished.

Group thought

Eleventh meeting thought #6

2024-05-21 14:03:52 UTC

Is Helix trustworthy? His parents were cooperation members and hes suddenly getting closer to Honour & Quintillion.

-Rama

Eleventh meeting thought #7

2024-05-21 14:07:43 UTC

Is Helix actually going to go to the other side of the island to find his parents. Is the other side of the island even fully safe?

-Dalya

Eleventh meeting thought #8

2024-05-21 14:09:02 UTC

What happened to Honour's father? Why does Honour's mom still remember her?

Twelvth meeting thought #1

2024-05-23 14:06:49 UTC

Why does Honor still believe in Earth Mother?

Rama

Twelvth meeting thought #2

2024-05-23 14:07:40 UTC

What happened to Helix and Quilltion? Did they escape too?

-Leann

Twelvth meeting thought #3

2024-05-23 14:15:48 UTC

Where is Will? what happened to Honour's father?

-Rama

Twelvth meeting thought #4

2024-05-23 14:17:09 UTC

How are the orderlies work schedule? Do they work in certain places?

-Rama

Thirteenth meeting #!

2024-05-27 14:05:18 UTC

At this point of the book I'm very confused there has been so many plot holes and I feel like they have rushed most of the things in this book I think we can all agree this book is confusing and just too much

-Dalya

thirteenth meeting thought #2

2024-05-27 14:08:29 UTC

Why did they rush the book's ending so badly? They continued to add continuous plot holes for the reader to try to solve, only to throw them out there near the end of the book and just leave them there.

Group Thought

Thirteenth meeting thought #3

2024-05-27 14:09:54 UTC

This book should learn show don't tell. Simple all they needed to do was show us the world and not explain everything when in came up so they had time to fix plotholes.

-Bryce

Thirteenth meeting thought #4

2024-05-27 14:17:09 UTC

What was the point of throwing out all the unnecessary plot holes throughout the entire book if they just intended to rush the ending? They easily could've made the book longer but just decided to make a terrible ending instead.

-Rital

Thirteenth meeting thought #5

2024-05-28 03:19:07 UTC

The ending was so rushed and confusing. The cliff hanger makes absolutely no sense and they kept throwing things at us which made me have too many unanswered questions. The ending genuinely pissed me off because all that effort of reading the book went down the drain. This book hurt my brain.

- Rama

Thirteenth meeting thought #5

2024-05-28 03:22:21 UTC

The books ending made absolutely no sense. There were too many holes in the story and too many unanswered questions. The cliffhanger made no sense and the sudden “betrayal” was guessable from the beginning. This book was so overwhelming and uninteresting it genuinely hurt my brain to read.

- Rama

Bryce's Review of the book

2024-05-29 13:56:51 UTC

I wouldn't read this book again. The ending was rushed, and the story had many plot holes. Sometimes there was good emotion and tension in different things, but that was it and the ending just throws half of it out to be mysterious and uncertain.

3.5/5 *

-Bryce

Ramas book review

2024-05-29 14:02:27 UTC

I despise this book. This book was not worth reading. It was a bad book with a bunch of plot holes such as the mystery of Helix’s parents, The background of Mr. Pratt joining the neighborhood club, and why was the librarian the forecaster!! The beginning seemed interesting but the ending was so rushed. So many questions were unanswered like who really was Ms. Tittle and the interesting characters such as Helix were forgotten at the end. This book is way too complicated and it was left on a cliffhanger without another book / book series.

1.75/5

Rital's review of the book

2024-05-29 14:07:05 UTC

A generic concept that could've been interesting if the author just made the book longer. The book kept throwing around random plot holes and what ifs for “mystery” but all it did was jumble the plot around and made it confusing. The ending was so stupid as well, as the author tried to make the most random non-relevant character have plot relevance to the long-lasting mystery of who the “Forecaster” is in the book.

3.5/5 *

Examples of plot holes and story points that got dropped then rushed

2024-05-29 14:10:53 UTC

Mr.Pratt shows up for five pages then becomes relevant at the end.

Helix's parents barely mentioned and same for helix himself.

Quintillain important but an afterthought in development.

Ms.tuttle is in one chapter and then shows up at the end as the forecaster.

Rital's book review

362664195 — 2024-05-29 14:23:23 UTC

A generic plot that could've been interesting, but all hope of that was thrown out the window. The beginning was engaging, and some parts did fill me with genuine interest but most of the book felt like the author's desperate attempt to fill the reader's head with irrational "what ifs". The books largest problem is that it tossed out so many plot holes, brought them up a bit and then left them to either burn, or bring up again at the most nonsensical times. So many mysteries were left to collect dust such as what a "Retriever" is, the whole mystery with the orderlies, Who Miss Tuttle truly is, the list goes on. The most prominent one is what the author did with Helix. In the synopsis, Helix was painted out to be this super conflict changing character that opened Honor's eyes, however all the opportunities they could've done with his character went to waste as they built him up so hard only to forget about him in the ending when he was one of the most important characters. As well as Helix, it would've been nice to dive deeper into the parent's stories as they probably had more development in one part of the book with their plans to take down the corporation and all the secrets they know about the island compared to Honor throughout the entire novel. I genuinely struggle to talk about Honor's character development, because she has NONE. There are FOUR time skips in the entire book and yet she's no different from her 10 year old self. The ending was also extremely rushed and terrible. I feel like the author remembered there was a bunch of random plotholes in the book and just tried to jumble a solution for them all at once, with the horrible ending of Honor just pretending her memory is gone after all that happened. I get it was an attempt at an open minded ending, but it was done so horribly that it just made me angry. I don't really HATE this book, but I would never read it again. 2.5/5*