You're Planning Your Annual Viewing of Groundhog Day, Part 5

Want a book that continues Henrietta Lacks’ legacy or are wondering what happens after the hero gets the girl

Hi friends,

Hope you’re hanging in there. This weekend, I achieved a dream I didn’t even know I had: I pet a non-stinging jellyfish at the Baltimore Aquarium. It was very slimy.

I loved reading all your “Traitors” takes last week. We might need to do some sort of special discussion after the finale.

And, now, what to read if …

You Celebrate Groundhog Day with a Viewing of the Bill Murray Classic

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

On Sunday, it’s Groundhog Day, again. Each year, to mark the occasion — and my love of the movie Groundhog Day — I spotlight a time loop book. This year’s pick, Gillian McAllister’s Wrong Place, Wrong Time, puts a fresh spin on time loop and domestic thriller tropes.

On Halloween, Jen is up late waiting for her 18-year-old son Todd to come home. When he finally does, a broken curfew is the least of their problems after Jen watches in horror as Todd stabs someone in their driveway. After hours at the police department, she manages a few hours of sleep, but when she wakes up, it’s October 30^th, the day before the murder. Jen recognizes it as a chance to stop the crime and spends her day attempting to uncover Todd’s motives and intervene before it’s too late. The next day, she doesn’t learn if her efforts worked because it’s now October 29^th.

Jen continues to relive days in her life, first traveling back a few days at a time, then weeks, months and even years, trying to find the root cause of Todd’s crime. As she does, she’s forced to assess her parenting and consider just how much she missed the first time around.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time is a brilliant thriller, but beyond that it’s a sharply observed story about motherhood and marriage that asks the question, “What would you do to save your child?”

Reminder recs: Previous Groundhog Day picks include Mike Chen’s A Quantum Love Story, This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze and The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.

You’re Still Thinking about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Madness by Antonia Hylton

Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is one of those books that broke through the collective consciousness. Its exploration of bioethics, medicine and race, through the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cells led to dozens of healthcare breakthroughs, made an impression on thousands of readers. And that was before Oprah adapted the book for the screen.

Madness by Antonia Hylton explores similar issues in her 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, a segregated asylum for Black patients. In March 1911, twelve Black men, under the supervision of a doctor, cleared a field in Maryland, poured cement and laid the bricks that became Crownsville Hospital. The men then became its first patients

.

During the Jim Crow era, Crownsville’s population grew. Many patients, according to staff, did not seem to be mentally ill but instead committed petty crimes “and woke up at Crownsville.” Once they were there, it was nearly impossible for them to gain permission to leave. Patients were subject to abuse, forced to eat rotten food, placed in ice baths for hours and “treated” with electric shock therapy.

Hylton spent a decade researching and reporting Crownsville’s history and her care shines through. As Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road, said, “Antonia Hylton's sensitive, searching account of the people forever changed by this place — and its very clear, dreadful connection to today's carceral state — will leave you dumbfounded.”

You’ve Wondered What Happens After the Hero Saves the World

This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher

I’ve spent a, perhaps, distressing amount of time comparing the Harry Potter and Hunger Games epilogues. J.K. Rowling stresses “all was well” for her characters, who are married with children, but Suzanne Collins shows the cost of the trauma Katniss and Peeta survived. Collins’ approach, I think, is more honest and acknowledges that being the hero comes with a lot of baggage.

This Will Be Fun is — in some ways — a book-length epilogue to a novel that doesn’t exist. Our heroes, Beatrice, Elowen and Clare, saved the realm ten years earlier, but they lost the fourth member of their crew, Galwell the Great, in the process. Overwhelmed with grief, the one-time best friends haven’t spoken in more than a decade. But, when they’re invited to the queen’s wedding, they recognize it as a summons and grudgingly accept the invitation.

Beatrice and Elowen, once best friends, dread seeing each other after falling out at Galwell’s funeral. Clare, a rogue-turned-good-guy, is not even close to over his fling with Beatrice. On top of all the feelings, dark magic appears to be growing again throughout the realm.

This Will Be Fun is, well, fun, but it also has more depth than its action-adventure magic plot might suggest. It’s very much a book about overcoming grief and figuring out how to rebuild your life after a “now what?” moment. A sword-fight scene gave me “Princess Bride” vibes and had me laughing out loud, while I was genuinely moved watching Beatrice and Elowen try and repair their friendship.

---

What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Instagram or Threads.

If you’re reading this on Substack or were forwarded this email, and you’d like to subscribe, click the button below.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.