Good discussion questions share one property: they cannot be answered with yes or no, and they do not have a correct answer. "Did you like it?" ends conversations. "Which character were you most unfair to?" starts them. Here is a set that works for almost anything, grouped by what they are for.
Openers — get everyone talking once
1. What did you expect this book to be, and what was it actually? 2. Where were you when it hooked you — or did it never? 3. Which scene do you keep thinking about? 4. If you could hear one chapter from another character's point of view, which one? 5. What would you tell someone about this book in one sentence — without spoiling it? (Harder than it sounds; we wrote a whole guide to spoiler-free book talk.)
Characters — where the real arguments live
6. Who did you misjudge at the start? 7. Which decision did you most disagree with — and would you really have done differently? 8. Who is the most honest person in the book? The least? 9. Which character would survive worst in our group chat? 10. Did anyone change, or did we just learn more about them?
The writing itself
11. Where did the author trust you as a reader — and where did they over-explain? 12. What did the book leave out that you wanted? 13. Was the narrator playing fair? (If not, you have an unreliable narrator — the best discussion fuel there is.) 14. Which sentence or passage did you underline? 15. Did the ending earn itself?
The book and the world
16. What does this book assume about its reader? 17. Would this story work set today / here? 18. What do you know now that you did not before? 19. Who in your life needs this book — and who should never read it? 20. Does the title mean something different after finishing?
Closers
21. One word for the book; go around the circle. 22. Keep, lend, or give away? 23. What should we read next because of this one? 24. What will you remember in a year? 25. Who won the book — which character got what they wanted?
Questions to avoid
"Did everyone finish?" — it turns the room into a classroom; let people talk from wherever they stopped. "What was your favourite part?" as an opener — too big, produces summaries instead of opinions. Anything with a right answer. A quiz is not a conversation.
If you are running the club itself — cadence, format, keeping it alive past month three — we covered the mechanics in how to join or start an online book club. And if there is no club within reach: Arwy puts a chat room next to the book, so the people who just read the same chapter are already in the room.
No book club nearby? Talk to people reading the same book inside the app — Arwy is on Google Play.