Book Club Questions
- Devon often asks Cai's victims if they are good people. Do you think that Devon is a good person, by the end of her arc? What about at the beginning of her story?
- What is the difference between a bad person who does good things often, and a good person who does bad things often? At one point does a good person become a bad one?
- One of Devon's main goals is to break the book eaters' pattern of abuse, and generational trauma, when raising her son. Do you think she achieved that? In a similar vein, do you think the cost she paid was worth the end result?
- Sometimes readers express (very understandable!) frustration that Devon only stands up for herself after she has children, which is arguably anti-feminist. Why do you think she waits so long, and what does that say about the social values she has inherited?
- If you were in Devon's place, what would you have done differently, if anything?
- Who do you think is the most monstrous person in the Book Eaters, and why? Who is the best, if anyone?
- Devon comes to believe that change is not possible without violence, though she perhaps never says so explicitly. How do you feel about that? Can society change without violence?
- Is Cai still Cai, at the end of this story? What makes a person themselves, as opposed to other people? What makes a book eater themselves, as opposed to just books they've eaten?