Strange Catharsis cover

Strange Catharsis

by Daniel Mallery

Main characters: Richard, teacher and writer; Danny, a tough boy exploding through puberty inclined to challenge all authority; Hansa, a gentler reserved boy desperately seeking parental and other kinds of love. These three and others get to know each other in a small private boarding school in the Scottish Highlands, where the teacher & writer confronts his attraction to boys, and the boys discover in him a protector, champion, and, sometimes, a lover. The book's author, Daniel Mallery, knows the Highlands--knows its speech patterns, and especially he knows its disadvantaged boys: their pretenses and defences, and their contradictory yearnings for acceptance, stability, and freedom. In STRANGE CATHARSIS, he has narrated a tale of one man and a handful of wonderfully individualized boys growing up.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?