That $40 deluxe book club guide I bought was a total ripoff

My book club decided to read a pretty obscure novel last fall, so I dropped $40 on a fancy 'exclusive' discussion guide from some website that claimed to have expert analysis and thought-provoking questions. Turned out the whole thing was just generic summaries you could find on Wikipedia for free, and the questions were stuff like 'What do you think the author meant by the color blue?' Literally useless. Did anyone else fall for one of those premium guides that was just fluff?

3 comments

3 Comments

christopherwilson18d ago

Did the site have any legit book club testimonials or was it just a bunch of fake 5-star reviews from the owner's mom? I should have learned my lesson after I paid $30 for an 'exclusive' guide that turned out to be the same PDF as the $5 one, just with a fancier font.

the_nathan18d ago

The $35 guide I bought had questions like "Why did the character feel sad?" Total waste. @mary_foster92 hit it - I checked the testimonials after and they were all generic names with no real book club names attached. Now I just use the author's website interviews and SparkNotes for free, or ask a friend who already read it to write down five questions. Way better than paying for that fluff.

mary_foster9218d ago

Did that site have any real reviews or testimonials from actual book clubs before you bought it?