The Thoroughbreds

Before we talk about the book at all: where did you do most of your reading of it, and did that spot make it feel cozier or more suspenseful?

Think back to the version of yourself at the age of these students. What would have comforted that person most on a hard night away from home?

Boarding school means your friends are also your roommates, your classmates, and your witnesses. Which part of that closeness sounded lovely to you, and which part made your shoulders creep up?

When the stability of the school starts to feel uncertain, the characters each reach for something steady. What is the thing you reach for when your own footing goes wobbly?

This is a second book, so we come in already fond of some people. Whose return did you feel genuinely glad about, and what was it about them that felt like seeing an old friend?

The Academy is a place people are shaped by, for better and worse. Was there a place in your life (a school, a camp, a job, a summer house) that did that to you, and how do you feel about it now?

Somewhere in this book a relationship you were rooting for gets tested. Without giving away how it lands, tell us about the moment you felt most protective of someone, and why that one got you.

By the last stretch of the book, did you feel more tender toward these characters or more worried for them? Try to name the feeling you were left holding as you closed it.