Warning! Spoilers ahead!
This page is for book club questions and discussion points for Spider, Spider by LC Winter. The questions assume that you’ve read the book and so include massive spoilers! Scroll down past the picture if you still want to read them.
- Nancy is upset when Pigeon implies that she would rather have stayed in the cult than gone back into hunger and poverty, where Nancy prefers freedom, even if in extreme hardship. Do you agree with Nancy?
- What do you think will happen to the girls after the ending of the book? In the short and/or long term.
- What methods does Darner use to control people?
- In what ways do the widespread paternalism of Victorian society and Dr Whitehead’s attitudes in particular, allow abuse to become systematic in his asylum?
- What do you think about Spider’s relationship with Patience?
- How do you feel about Nancy and Pigeon’s father, Nigel Ratcliffe? Is Nancy justified in her assessment of him as weak?
- How are oracles and visions used to direct the reader’s attention in the book?
- Is it morally wrong for Nancy and Spider to kill Mr Darner?
- Is their revenge worth it?
- Given we generally agree that murder is wrong, why are we still drawn to revenge stories where death is the punishment?
- What does Sara leave behind in the water when she becomes Spider?
- Why does Sara set fire to the Darner-scarecrow when she knows it will anger him?
- Is Eliza simply a terrible mother?
- Would you prefer that Nancy had the final blow on Darner? Why, or why not?
- This is a book with a lot of female relationships – which did you find most engaging (for better or worse!) and why?
Libby Scribbles 