The Losers Club

Analyze the significance of the Losers Club in the book. What role does it play in the plot and in the wider context of the novel?

How is friendship presented in the novel? How do Alec’s ideas about friendship develop and change through the novel?

Labels and Misconceptions form an important theme in the novel. What are the advantages and disadvantages of labels? What makes a label good or bad?

Despite their adversarial relationship throughout most of the novel, Alec and Kent help one another grow as people. What are some examples of this? What is the significance of their dynamic?

In Chapter 11 and throughout the rest of the book, Alec chooses to be honorable when dealing with Kent. What does it mean to be honorable, and why does Alec take this route? What other behavioral and moral lessons does Alex learn from his reading, and why?

Throughout the novel, Alec takes on greater responsibilities in various areas of his life—academically, socially, personally. What are some of these responsibilities? How do they illuminate some of the novel’s key themes and ideas?

Alec reflects at various points in the novel on the differences between reading and real life, while at other times he finds parallels between his real life and what he reads. In your opinion, what are some of the ways reading connects to real life? What are some of the limitations of reading?

How is Nina depicted in the novel? How does her characterization affect the narrative and/or major themes?