ALN Monthly Book Club: You'd Look Better as a Ghost (Old Town)

For our February Monthly Book Club, we will be reading Joanna Wallace's "You'd Look Better as a Ghost!"

We will be hosting this event IN PERSON, outdoors, at Presidio Park in Old Town! We recommend (but do not require) that attendees wear masks and maintain social distance.

We typically meet at the picnic tables in the shade at the end of the loop made by Cosoy Way. Please see the embedded map below for more details.

Content warning: Murder, Death of parent, Death, Suicide, Child abuse, Dementia. Details not given here to avoid spoilers. Contact an organizer if you have concerns about the book's content.

Called by one reviewer "The unholy baby of Dexter and Fleabag," we step inside the mind of Claire, a serial killer struggling to cope with grief for the first time. It's funnier than it sounds.

We hope to see you there!

Upcoming Events:
March: Blood over Bright Haven, by M. L. Wang
April: The Hexologists, by Josiah Bancroft
May: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, by Axie Oh
June: The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan
July: The Chaotic Orbits Trilogy, by Beth Revis
August: The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jimenez
EPIC: The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon
September: 2026-2027 ALN Book Selection!

Discussion Questions:

1. What is your name, and if you were a serial killer, what type of annoying (but not actually illegal) behaviors would you be most tempted to kill someone for?
2. Did you find Claire to be sympathetic? Did you find yourself rooting for her (a serial killer) against her antagonists (admittedly scummy people who are nevertheless not serial killers)? Why?
3. What did you think of the various other characters in the cast? Were there any you liked or were they all as horrid as Claire made them out to be? How annoying does a character have to be before you feel okay about killing them off?
4. Do you think Claire could have ended up normal if she'd had a better mother? If she'd had a better father? Where do you fall on the nature vs. nurture debate more generally?
5. This book has been advertised as a dark comedy, and “irreverently funny.” Did you find the book funny? If not, what books have you found funny before? How does our sense of humor change when it comes to funny books as opposed to other funny media?
6. Claire likes to employ nicknames for people she hasn't met yet, like “pumpkin-head” or “vampire smoker.” How did this color the way we saw those people in the narrative? How do you label the people around you (for instance, in your phone contacts) and how does that color the way you see your own acquaintances?
7. The book starts shortly after the death of Claire's father and follows her through her own unique grieving process. Do you think Claire has learned anything or grown as a person by the end of the book?
8. Claire knows she needs to kill someone when they start looking translucent to her. Does this system make sense? Do you think people turn translucent because her brain has identified them as bad people, or is it something else?