THE BURNING ISLAND Book Club Kit

BOOK CLUB KIT

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How does Charlie’s relationship to her unique visions change over the course of The Burning Island? Do you think her gift is a blessing or a curse? Why?

2. Compare and contrast the different portrayals of parenthood in the novel, taking a specific look at the different ways in which Victor, Sue, Naomi, and Charlie shape their children.

3. Why do you think Charlie feels responsible for finding Lise? What does she see in her that she feels connected to?

4. The Burning Island shows a dark side to a beautiful island, revealing both the crime at its heart and more subtle racial and class differences. Discuss the role of class, education, and race in Kalo Valley.

5. Have you ever been influenced by a vision, dream, or other supernatural experience?

Did you find it unnerving? Inspiring?

6. How did the way that the sections were divided (by the days of the week) add to

your experience as a reader? Did the condensed timeline of the mystery add to the suspense?

7. Discuss the relationship between Rae and Charlie. Why is their friendship so important? Why do you think it works in spite of their very different personalities?

8. What do you imagine happens to the Nakagawa family after the end of The Burning Island? What secrets will they keep?

9. Discuss the legend of Pele that is interwoven throughout the novel. How does it relate to Jocelyn and Lise? What do you think is its ultimate lesson?

10. At the end of the novel, Charlie decides to embrace her visions and help the

mother of a missing child. Would you have made the same choice? Why or why not?

IN HER OWN WORDS Hester Young If you’ve read The Gates of Evangeline or The Shimmering Road, you know that place is paramount in my books. For me, stories take shape through their setting. I love traveling to the destinations I’m writing about and allowing them to inspire me.

By that token, it wasn’t a hard decision to set The Burning Island in Hawai’i. As someone who lived on O’ahu for two years and constantly regrets her decision to leave, I was happy to use “research” as an excuse to return. A taxdeductible island vacation? Sign me up!

Yet as I came to understand the book I wanted to write, it became clear that the island of O’ahu, with its bustling cities and sprawling resorts, wasn’t actually the setting I needed. I wanted jagged black shores and remote houses in the jungle. I wanted fire bubbling beneath the earth, ready to burst forth. My book belonged to the Big Island.

© Francine Daveta Photography

The Burning Island is set largely in the Puna district, the poorest section of the Big Island. There, many households live off the grid with rain catchment systems, compostable toilets, and solar energy. Locals are in constant war with the flora and fauna, and for the most part, they are losing. Homes are tinged with mildew. Wild boar ravage the land. Volcanic rift zones prevent the construction of any hotels and serve as an ominous reminder of nature’s power.

My research trips were thrilling. I spent nights tenting beneath the stars by a waterfall and on a black sand beach. I visited a childhood friend who lived in a treehouse she’d built in the rainforest.

I celebrated Easter with the homeless population at a public park. I hiked out to a lava flow and watched the birth of new land. And, to my immense good fortune, I was able to meet with members of the U.S. Geological Services at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at the summit of Kīlauea. I was especially grateful to meet volcanologist Don Swanson, who shared not just his work but also the Hawaiian myths that appear in my novel.

That was fall of 2016 and spring of 2017. I had no idea as I explored the island that much of what I was seeing and writing about would cease to exist.

The eruptions of 2018 transformed the land I’d fallen so in love with. Many places I’d visited were shut down or destroyed. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was damaged in an earthquake, scattering its workers. In June, Don Swanson wrote to me from an abandoned hotel at the Volcanoes National Park, his new makeshift headquarters as he monitored the extraordinary levels of volcanic activity. The park, now closed, was experiencing five hundred earthquakes a day. Don was working twelve-hour stretches, alone, with no running water. I sent him an advanced reader’s copy of my book, doubtful he’d ever get a chance to read it.

A couple weeks later I received an email. Don had read The Burning Island. Not just read it, but enjoyed it—so much so, he’d completed it despite the earthquakes and volcanic events happening outside his window. I won’t lie: It is pretty damn satisfying when a reader has the option to read your book or watch a once-in-a-lifetime volcanic eruption and they choose your book.

I hope you, too, will enjoy The Burning Island.

B L U E H A WA I I A N C O C K TA I L Ingredients: 1 fluid ounce light rum 1 fluid ounce blue Curaçao liqueur 2 fluid ounces pineapple juice 1 fluid ounce cream of coconut

“Soon as we hit the Big Island, I’m buying you the fruitiest, girliest drink we can find.”

1 cup crushed ice 1 pineapple slice 1 maraschino cherry

Directions: Combine rum, blue Curaçao, pineapple juice, cream of coconut, and 1 cup crushed ice in blender.

Puree on high speed until smooth.

Pour into chilled highball glass.

Garnish with a slice of pineapple and a maraschino cherry Serves one.