Clone Club Book Club: The Bookish Picks of Orphan Black
Note: the following post contains spoilers for season two of Orphan Black.
The Orphan Black clone club dance party of last season inspired one of the most ear-piercing squees of my television-watching year, and so I like to imagine what else the girls (and Felix) get up to on their off-days – you know, all those times when Dyad institute is being super chill, there are no horrific cults with which to contend, and Mrs. S is behaving in a completely normal and forthcoming manner. So I have created in my headcanon Clone Club Book Club, a place where various iterations of Tatiana Maslany can come, kick back, drink a glass of Chardonnay and dissect their latest read. The following are the picks of the members of clone club book club, as I imagine them.
Sarah – The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
My guess is that, with all the craziness in her life, Sarah isn’t a big reader (where would she find the time?). She is, however, a caring and concerned parent. Last season we saw Duncan give Sarah’s daughter Kiera a copy of The Island of Dr. Moreau and while Keira might not be the intended recipient of the genetic code written on the inside of the novel, she seemed pretty intent on reading the novel itself. My guess is that if the rest of clone club did manage to rope Sarah into a book club, she would want to be practical and take advantage of the situation to familiarize herself with what her daughter was reading.
Alison – Big Little Lies, Lianne Moriarty
Big Little Lies is both juicy and smart; it’s a thoughtful take on playground politics and larger domestic issues that transcends the “moms behaving badly” genre. All this makes it a perfect choice for Orphan Black’s occasionally unhinged but always sympathetic suburban soccer mom. There’s an HBO adaptation of the book on the horizon, and I definitely see Alison as a “book first, and by the way, I have Notes on the casting” type.
Cosima – Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
When we last left her, things were looking pretty grim for Cosima: her fatal, rapidly-progressing illness may have seen a breakthrough, but it came at the high price of Keira’s bone marrow, and her relationship with Delphine was on the rocks before the latter was banished by Rachel. I see her picking something tragic right now. This poetic, heartbreaking novel that hits very close to home might offer Cosima a cathartic cry, and Ishiguro’s postmodernist prose would definitely be right up her intellectual alley.
Rachel – Art of War, Sun Tzu
What did you expect – Lean In? Rachel is already in; she is all the way in. She could not lean further in and still abide by the laws of gravity (and if she could bend those, she would). #Girlboss? You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. Rachel is all woman and she’s more than a boss, she’s a goddamn evil empress. There is only once choice for Dyad’s icy, damaged executive.
Helena – Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne
Helena has long had a fascination with children and with a little one of her own on the way, I imagine she would want to catch up on some of the classic kids’ reading she sadly missed in her own (horrific) childhood. Helena has a knack for landing perfectly within the range of “delightfully deranged” and what could be more delightful than our favorite murdering “Meathead” giggling over a stuffed bear with an appetite as insatiable as her own?
Felix – When Everything Feels Like the Movies, Raziel Reid
This Canadian YA bestseller that holds absolutely nothing back (a lot like Felix) in detailing the fast times of of a brash, gay middle-school misfit Jude and his self-declared “slut” best friend, Angela. The book is buzzy, controversial, and it would absolutely scandalize Alison, all of which makes it a perfect pick for Felix.
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