ALU Summer Book Club: Team Discussion, Nightshade

Lynn Hutchinson Lee’s novel Nightshade draws you into its magical and haunting orbit with the story of Zelda, a young Romany woman who’s restless in her life and deeply drawn to the idea of something more. When Zelda and her family are hired to work on a tobacco farm in Southern Ontario, Zelda is pulled into the world of the wealthy and magnetic Trixie Tormentine. What begins as a kind of escape from her own humble lifestyle slowly takes on a more unsettling edge of power and manipulation. With her grandmother Puri Dai’s cautions about a devil in the fields, Zelda finds herself questioning what she’s really stepped into.

Buy your own copy here on All Lit Up for 15% off (or find a copy from your local indie using our Shop Local finder).

Read on for our team discussion.

1. How would you describe Nightshade to someone who hasn’t read it?

TAN: A moody, magical coming of age novel set in Ontario’s Tobacco country.

LAUREN: I’m not trying to sound twee here, but Nightshade really is one of those books that makes you feel like there’s something beyond the ordinary all around us, if you stop to notice. It’s magical.

MANDY: Evocative, propulsive, and makes you feel like you stepped into a world where the uncanny and ordinary co-exist. It’s richly textured—definitely the kind of book where, even if the finer details fade, the feelings remain.

COLLEEN: Set over the course of a sweltering Southern Ontario summer, Nightshade is a winding fever dream that is every bit as tense as it is beautifully mysterious. It uses elements of the supernatural (wait until you meet the puppets) to explore identity, relationships, and grief. If you like the intrigue of magical realism or were a fan of the mother-daughter dynamic in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, this read is for you.

GEORGIA: Nightshade explores themes of power, identity, and the importance of culture and family in the face of oppression. It allows readers to learn about Romany culture and storytelling as the protagonist, Zelda, goes through times of hardship and resilience in the 1980s Southern Ontario tobacco belt.

2. Which character did you find the most compelling, and why?

TAN: Trixie was a living stereotype, like a movie star. She is glamorous and wealthy, seemingly with her own power, and she’s paying close attention to Zelda. I can see the appeal for Zelda, who feels invisible most of the time, and powerless. Could Trixie give her power and beauty in the wider world? But of course, Trixie isn’t in it to help Zelda, but to serve her own needs. I suspected she was no good.

LAUREN: I was drawn to Zelda’s quiet, sensitive aunt, Liza May. Her steadfast care for animals, her family, and the puppets in the story was an opportunity for me as a reader to imagine what made her that way (and in such contrast to the outspoken, fiery aunt Lilly).

MANDY: Like Zelda, I was drawn to Trixie and found myself relishing every scene with her in it. She’s a fascinating character; beneath her confidence there’s a deep sadness that makes her hard to forget.

3. Why do you think Zelda is so drawn to Trixie Tormentine? Did your opinion of Trixie change as the story unfolded?

TAN: I really loved Hank and Irene’s arc; that they put their differences of opinion aside to acknowledge that they were both afraid, and afraid for their son Ole missing, too. Their relationship started out so rocky and ended quite tender.

LAUREN: I think Zelda is “burdened” by the idea of being of mixed descent, and in having her white father absent from her life, is curious about how white people (her family calls them “gorjos”) live. Trixie—processed, glitzy, and rich—is such a contrast to her family’s humble way of life that I see how Zelda could be drawn to her. My opinion of Trixie didn’t really change throughout the story; I pitied her in that it was clear she was kind of a lost person, but she also seemed dangerous in the way that she cared so little about other people around her.

MANDY: I think Trixie opens the door to a world that feels exciting and mysterious to Zelda but is ultimately a lesson in “the grass ain’t greener.”

COLLEEN: I think Zelda is drawn to Trixie because she exposes her to new environments and an identity that has previously been inaccessible. Trixie invites Zelda into a world of whiteness, wealth, and status, gifting her expensive clothes, taking her out to be seen in the town, and giving her a taste of popularity and desirability. It initially reads as kindness, but my opinion of Trixie shifted as the story unfolded. I first took her for a lonely housewife trying to buy friendship, but as more was revealed, Trixie’s intentions grew more insidious, and that same “kindness” turned out to be another form of control. Like her husband, Trixie doesn’t see Zelda or the other migrant workers as people. She sees them as a means to her own ends.

GEORGIA: I think Zelda is drawn to Trixie because she represents the life that Zelda believes she could have had. Zelda loves her mother and aunts, but there is also a curiosity that lingers within her about what her life would be like if her mother had left her with the doctor and his wife. Because Zelda has no connection to that side of herself, she is intrigued by the whiteness and privilege that Trixie represents in the story, which also opposes her actual lived experiences as a Romany woman. Trixie also indulges the materialistic side of Zelda that her family and the puppets discourage. Zelda often thinks that her mother’s goals are too small and simple, while Trixie lives a more extravagant life and gifts Zelda fancy things. Although Trixie started as someone who appeared to be a kind presence, especially in comparison to the men at the tobacco farm, it quickly becomes clear that her relationship with Zelda is transactional and controlling due to the power imbalance.

4. The setting evokes a sense of danger, but also beauty. How does Lynn Hutchinson Lee create the tension between the two?

TAN: The beauty is delivered in lush, descriptive prose and careful detail. The danger lies in the magic, but also in our own human faults.

LAUREN: The title itself, and the picture of the nightshade flower on the cover, point to this idea so well. That a beautiful thing can also be dangerous (or, simply misunderstood!). The flowering tobacco at night across the road from Zelda’s family, and Trixie Tormentine’s swans in the scum-filled pond, also show the contrasts between beautiful things and destructive things, and how they can often exist side by side.

MANDY: One of the things I loved about Nightshade is how it makes the ordinary feel slightly unfamiliar. The setting is beautiful and full of life, but there’s always a sense that there are secrets hiding just out of view. That mix of comfort and unease is what makes the atmosphere so compelling to me.

5. Before reading this novel, how familiar were you with Romany representation in Canadian literature? How does the novel challenge assumptions or stereotypes about Romany people?

TAN: I’ve only read one or two books that speak to this experience, so Nightshade did illuminate new social history for me. It was startling for me to realize that the social tensions and racism that seem from a ‘by-gone’ era, were actually taking place during my childhood. Not so by-gone, after all.

LAUREN: I wasn’t very familiar at all, and especially appreciated how the novel didn’t overexplain Romany culture or language, allowing me as a reader to immerse myself and learn throughout the course of the book. I think it had the added function of turning me from an “other” as Zelda was feeling at the beginning of the novel, to one of the family at the end.ound out the world was ending in a month, I’d revise my magical thinking about getting through my TBR pile. 

MANDY: I appreciated that Nightshade introduced me to a perspective that is underrepresented in Canadian fiction. The novel’s focus is not on explaining or defining Romany culture for the reader, but on showing a family and community with their own histories and traditions.

6. Zelda and her family treat their puppets as living members of the family. What does this suggest about the importance of family traditions and cultural heritage in the novel? 

TAN: Some combination of quiet acceptance and impulsive action. The novel really makes you wonder: how would you live differently if you truly felt the clock ticking?

LAUREN: I wasn’t very familiar at all, and especially appreciated how the novel didn’t overexplain Romany culture or language, allowing me as a reader to immerse myself and learn throughout the course of the book. I think it had the added function of turning me from an “other” as Zelda was feeling at the beginning of the novel, to one of the family at the end.ound out the world was ending in a month, I’d revise my magical thinking about getting through my TBR pile. 

MANDY: The puppets, for me, reflect the idea that family traditions are living things that carry memories and connect generations.

COLLEEN: Although I was unsure of the puppets at first, Puri Dai and her companions won me over by the end of the novel. The puppets have their own voices and personalities and act with a will of their own, and Zelda’s family’s role is to listen rather than control. Treating the puppets as autonomous beings is a way for Zelda’s family to ground themselves in an ever-changing environment. Their home and work are constantly shifting, and the puppets are the one constant. They’re the stable centre the family returns to during instability, which makes their role as “living” family members a necessity. There are real consequences to listening — or not listening — to Puri Dai’s warnings, which speaks to the novel’s view of heritage as ongoing and alive, rather than something from the past that is no longer applicable.

GEORGIA: I think the puppets represent the family and community that Zelda, her mother, and her aunts are lacking in their lives. Throughout the book, it’s clear that community and family traditions are very important in Romany culture, and although Zelda’s family unit is strong, it is small in size. The puppets allow them to have a larger and stronger community as they allow them to have more “people” to share their customs and ways with. Since the family moves regularly and is often marginalized in the communities they live in, the puppets allow them to always have a community no matter where they are. The respect given to the puppets also signifies the importance of storytelling in the Romany culture. The puppets allow the women to communicate with the people who often misunderstand or oppress them, and they also act as ties to their Romany culture since they have been in the family for a long time.

7. What do you think Nightshade is saying about belonging and being seen? 

TAN: Some combination of quiet acceptance and impulsive action. The novel really makes you wonder: how would you live differently if you truly felt the clock ticking?

LAUREN: I think the book shows the importance of family, and belonging to family, but also community. As much as Zelda’s family are the heroines of this novel, they too learn to reach out and make connections with others around them, including the South American family that moves into the motel and their neighbours in the town.

COLLEEN: I think Nightshade presents a warning that being seen, although tempting, is often not the solution to a misplaced sense of belonging. In trying to find herself through a new environment, new people, and new experiences, Zelda loses herself almost completely. What brings her back to herself is her family and her cultural ties through Puri Dai. Chasing visibility and being seen comes at a high cost, but it’s what Zelda needed to go through in order to find belonging.

* * *

Download our book club discussion questions for your own book club

(And click here for more book club questions from publisher Assembly Press)

* * *

Get Nightshade for your own book club here on All Lit Up for 15% off with the code SUMMEROFSTRANGE, all summer long.

Keep on top of all summer book club happenings here.