I love buddy reading and the idea of book clubs but mostly, as I am sure you avid readers can relate, I find it hard to commit to books on short notice because of my own long TBR. But sometimes, certain books and groups come together that it is hard to say no to an opportunity to discuss books with fellow readers. I have been following Canadian Book Enablers for a few months now and when their February read was a thriller set in Canada and I had been planning a trip to the bookstore anyway, I decided to read Dark August by Katie Tallo! This was a wonderful experience and in this post, I will share my thoughts about the book and the zoom call with the book club and author. Let’s start with the synopsis.
Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living relative—has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl. Her inheritance turns out to be a dilapidated house and an old dog named Levi. While combing through her great grandmother’s possessions, Gus stumbles across an old trunk filled with long-lost childhood belongings. But that’s not all the trunk contains. She also discovers cold case files that belonged to her mother, a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight. Gus remembers her mother obsessing over these very same documents and photographs, especially a Polaroid of a young ballerina.
When Gus spots a front-page news story about the unearthing of a body linked to one of the cold case files from her grandmother’s trunk, she can’t resist following her mother’s clues. As she digs deeper, determined to finish her mother’s investigation, her search leads her to a deserted ghost town, which was left abandoned when the residents fled after a horrific fire. As Gus’ obsession with the case grows, she inadvertently stirs up the evils of the past, putting her life in danger. But Gus refuses to be undeterred and is committed to uncovering long-buried secrets, including the secrets surrounding a missing geology student, the young ballerina in the Polaroid, a prominent family’s devastating legacy, and a toxic blast that blew an entire town off the map.
But is Gus ready to learn the truths that culminated on one terrible August night, more than a decade earlier, when lives were taken, and secrets were presumed buried forever…?
Content Notes: Depiction of abandonment, murder, gore, physical and emotional abuse, poisoning, substance abuse and torture.
Thoughts on Dark August
I love how Dark August begins. In the first few pages, I had no idea who the protagonist was, but what was clear was that she missed her family. Her connection to her dad through his baseball cap, her longing for her mom who passed away when she was young, and the hatred towards a house that was the place of her mom’s troubles had a deep impact on me. After that, the plot focuses on what happened in the ten weeks leading up this.
Gus is in her early twenties. She did not have the happiest of childhoods. Her dad died before she was born, her mom was heartbroken and turned most of her attention to work. Adopted by her great grandmother after her mom passed away, Gus did not receive much love there either and was sent to boarding school. Years later when Gus returns home, she comes across the files of the last case that her mom had been working on. Gus decides to follow in her mom’s footsteps and this ends up revealing a number of things about her past and she must confront her memories and trauma, while connecting with people along the way.
On Growing Up
A good part of Dark August is Gus’ journey in understanding her past and at the same time, getting out of the abusive relationship that she has fallen into. She also has to learn who truly cares about her. By connecting with her memories and finding buried secrets, she grows throughout this book and I loved her zeal to uncover the truth. She knows it will hurt and there is probably a good reason she does not remember much about the night her mom died, but she has to find out. She learns from her mistakes and feels bad for manipulating people. It is just better to be honest and ask. The writing is emotionally charged and tense. There were at least two instances that I distinctly remember where I was moved to tears. Gus’ mom, Shannon’s longing for her lost husband, and when Gus meets Renata who tells her about the town of Elgin.
The old woman’s words are more than just stories. Hey are homage to real lives lived and lost.
Dark August, page 162
Though Gus is the protagonist of the story, there is another girl who did not have the happiest of lives even though she was born to a rich family. Gracie is a shadowy ghost-like character in the story. When Shannon was working on her last case, Gus was obsessed with Gracie’s ballerina photo. Part of the plot reveals what happened to Gracie and the choices that she made.
On the Setting
One of the wonderful things about reading books sets in different places is that they can give a glimpse into the history of the place. The town at the heart of Dark August is Elgin in Ontario. I looked it up and though it is still standing, in the fictional world of Dark August, it was destroyed. The narrative around wealth, greediness of politicians, and the harmfulness of practices like fracking were integrated well into the storyline. Maybe someone who does not know much about Canada might not catch those details but it was really good to see them there. It builds a more real and holistic view of what it means to live here.
In Conversation with Katie Tallo
I love hosting authors on the blog and though I don’t get many opportunities to connect with them via a video call or in person, attending a book club with the author is such an amazing experience. Since this was my first time going into the meeting, I mostly observed. I loved getting to know the author and the group members throughout the Q&A session and also relate their reading experience of the book to mine.
Author photo by Karl Roeder. Posted on Katie’s website.
I learned that Katie is also a screenplay writer and that is one reason why the storytelling in Dark August feels quite visual. She shared about the process of writing this book, how the characters evolved, who she had in mind as the protagonist and the kind of experiences she sought out to represent well in the book. I found this conversation fascinating because around the same time, I had also connected with Anita Frank, author of The Lost Ones (interview from yesterday), and she too had shared that her original protagonist had been someone else. It is interesting how some characters shine as protagonists while others are really important to the authors. Without them the story would not exist. Katie mentioned the influence of Stephen King’s On Writing on helping her write the story and listen to her characters.
I got some inspiration for author interview questions for the future! Since Canadian Book Enablers is focused on promoting Canadian works and settings, the group was curious to know whether Katie got any kickback about setting her book in Canada. As you might have noticed, most books are based in the USA or UK, and this year, I have been working to find stories that do not revolve around the same places and narratives. Thankfully, Katie did not have any such issues! Her book is published by Harper Collins, which is a US publisher, and they did not mind the setting.
I ask my authors all the time about the best part of writing their book, and after this discussion, I am curious to learn about what they struggled with and see as areas of improvement. As a reader, it is not always possible to give feedback on writing-related things. For me, the pacing of this book was perfect. Reading is subjective and I won’t have guessed until Katie mentioned that pacing is something she is still getting better at.
I haven’t thought of this before but debut authors, especially those like Katie who are selling a full manuscript rather than pitching an idea, are truly writing for themselves or someone in their close circle who loves reading. They aren’t connected to an audience yet and that pressure of impressing a large group of people just isn’t there. As a reader, I often forget the motivation behind the story and I really appreciated learning about that.
If you want to connect with Katie, find her on Instagram and learn more about her works on her website.
If you like thrillers, I highly recommend Dark August. It was really easy for me to connect with Gus. Levi the dog was a sweet sidekick. The writing was super engaging and worked very well in this genre – The story never had a dull moment and I was quite emotional at certain points.
** Dark August is available in stores. Be sure to check your local library and recommend this book to the community. **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
I hope you enjoyed reading today’s post. If you are part of book clubs, tell me about them in the comments! Have you found some hidden gems in the genre of thriller? Let me know – I am always looking for recommendations. 🙂
Cover image: Photo by David McCumskay on Unsplash
I absolutely love your review of my debut. Thank you so much for the support and for taking such care with thinking about it and in discussing it. It was lovely meeting you too on the zoom call and the Canadian book enabler‘s are such a wonderful group. All the best to you and thank you again so much.