Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for The Club by Ellery Lloyd

Book Club Discussion Questions

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Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. What drives Ned Groom? What are his strongest qualities? What does he value most? How do you think that's at odds with the values of the guests at Home?
2. Adam Groom sees himself as being his brother's equal. Do you think that's true? How do you think the two brothers differ? Why does Adam want to leave the company? Do you think Ned loves Adam?
3. Consider the name of the resort company, Home. What is home? In what ways do the Home resorts provide these qualities or not? In what ways, intentionally or not, might the name be ironic?
4. To know the "measure" of any Home member, Nikki watches how they speak to staff. What's revealed in such interactions?
5. What was Nikki's situation when she first began working for Home Group in coat check? What made her vulnerable to the manipulations and desires of a man like Ron Cox?
6. Annie realizes that she became boastful in an interview because it was the first time she could remember that someone "listened to her." What does she mean by this? How does her "pathological need to be noticed" help or hurt her in her role as Home Group head of membership?
7. Ned suggests that "we all have versions of ourselves we can bear to look at, versions we prepare for the world's consumption." What might this mean? How is each of the five main characters presenting a version of themselves to the outside world?
8. Nikki admits that in some ways the Home Group is like a family. What qualities might she have been thinking of? Positive or negative, in what other ways might the Home Group and its members behave like a family?
9. Why is it that, thinking Jackson Crane to be dead, Jess "did not feel triumph" or "any kind of happiness, or...resolution"? Why do you think her response is so complicated? What did she hope to gain with Jackson's death? Do you think she has gained or lost with his death?
10. What allows the rich and powerful to get away with potentially criminal behavior? Think about Nikki and Jess's stories. How were the people who harmed them shielded from consequences? How were others complicit?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Harper. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.