Hit 50 book club picks and finally got why everyone loves the slow burn

My group just wrapped our 50th selection, a dense historical novel set in 1920s Detroit that I voted against. I usually push for fast plots, but during the debate, three members pointed out how the slow pacing built the main character's quiet unraveling. I reread chapter 4 where she waits by the phone for 6 pages, and I suddenly saw the tension I'd been missing. That milestone made me track my past 50 picks, and 12 of my least favorites were ones I now call my top reads after discussion. Has anyone else hit a number like 25 or 100 and found their taste flip as a group?

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kevin_west15d ago

Six pages of waiting by a phone? That would've had me throwing the book across the room back in my younger days, not gonna lie. But now I'm kinda curious what that chapter actually felt like when you reread it.