Nine Perfect Strangers book club questions

1. 1.

   Masha's methods are clearly unethical, but some of the guests report genuine benefit. How does the novel want you to hold that tension?

2. 2.

   The Marconi family's storyline is the most emotionally serious element of the book. Did you find it integrated well with the comedic elements, or did the tonal shifts feel jarring?

3. 3.

   Which of the nine guests did you find most fully developed? Which felt thin?

4. 4.

   Moriarty is satirizing the wellness industry while acknowledging the real needs it serves. Where do you think she lands — is this a net critique or a net endorsement of the impulse to transform?

5. 5.

   The consent question is central to what Masha does. At what point, if any, is it acceptable to manipulate people toward outcomes they say they want?

6. 6.

   Frances's professional humiliation (a romance novelist confronting the internet's power over her career) is very specific to 2018. Does it still resonate?

7. 7.

   How does this compare to Big Little Lies? What does it do better, and what did you miss from the earlier novel?

8. 8.

   The retreat setting creates an artificially intensified social environment. Have you ever been in an environment like this — a workplace, a camp, a retreat — where proximity manufactured intimacy? How did that compare?

9. 9.

   The television adaptation (with Nicole Kidman as Masha) went in a quite different direction from the novel. For those who've seen it: which version of Masha did you prefer, and why?

10. 10.

    The novel's climax asks whether a traumatic experience can produce real change. What do you think the novel's answer is?

11. 11.

    Grief is at the center of several characters' stories. Does Moriarty handle grief more honestly here than in Big Little Lies, or less so?

12. 12.

    Nine perfect strangers — the title promises a certain kind of story about how people reveal themselves under pressure. Did the novel deliver on that promise?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.