This month’s FYA Book Club selection is The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma. Check out the discussion questions below! (Slight spoilers ahead.)
P.S. If you’ve already read the book, feel free to add any other discussion questions of your own in the comments!
Icebreaker
Growing up, did you ever have a rivalry or feel a sense of competition with a friend? Did one of you feel inferior to the other? How did it get resolved?
Questions
1. Amber has been on the “inside” of juvie so long that she doesn’t remember what it’s like to be free, and Violet is trapped by expectations, bullies, and guilt. How did Suma’s portrayal of physical and psychological prisons work for you? Could you relate to either sense of being trapped?
2. We only see Orianna from others’ observations of her. Did she feel like a real person or a mythical amalgamation of memories and qualities?
3. Why do you think Violet was bullied, but Orianna wasn’t?
4. Did you find Amber and the crime that got her into juvie sympathetic? Violet? Who was the most trustworthy narrator?
5. What do you think really happened between Violet, Orianna, and the other girls?
6. What do you think happened at the end of the book?
7. This book is genre-defying. How would you describe it to someone who had never heard of it?
