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Evening Book Club: Book Club

Schedule, discussion questions, book lists, author information, reviews, and more.

Contact Information

For more information regarding the Evening Book Club, please contact: Jaclyn Gomez at jgomez@rcls.org

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

1. What plot development was most surprising to you?

2. Whom did you suspect of killing Adam at various points throughout the novel, and why?

3. Which characters did you like the most? Which characters did you like the least?

4. What do you think the characters learned about each other over the course of the novel? And what do you think the characters learned about themselves?

5. If you met Chloe and Nicky, who do you think you’d have the most in common with?

6. Imagine the characters five years after the novel’s conclusion. Where do you think they all are?

7. If THE BETTER SISTER were adapted for television or film, whom would you cast in the leading roles?

8. This novel is the third in what the author has called a thematic trilogy of standalone novels, along with THE EX and THE WIFE.If you have read those other novels, what common themes do you see among the three books?

WARNING: THE REMAINDER OF THESE QUESTIONS CONTAIN SPOILERS. DO NOT READ UNTIL AFTER YOU’VE FINISHED THE NOVEL.

9. Do you think Chloe is being honest with herself about the reasons she remained with Adam?

10. Do you think the characters are being honest with themselves and each other in the final scene of the novel?

11. How do you feel about the choices Nicky and Chloe made toward the end of the novel with respect to the evidence in the murder investigation?

12. Do you believe Adam would have found redemption had he lived?

13. Why do you think Detective Guidry takes steps that undermine the prosecutor’s case against Ethan?

Source: http://alafairburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/book-club-questions-TBS.pdf

Book Summary

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke

 

Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky was always restless... and more than a little reckless—the opposite of her ambitious little sister. She floated from job to job and man to man, and stayed close to home in Cleveland.

For a while, it seemed like both sisters had found happiness. Chloe earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school and moved to New York City, where she landed a coveted publishing job. Nicky married promising young attorney Adam Macintosh, and gave birth to a baby boy they named Ethan. The Taylor sisters became virtual strangers.

Now, more than fifteen years later, their lives are drastically different—and Chloe is married to Adam. When he’s murdered by an intruder at the couple’s East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenaged stepson’s biological mother—her estranged sister, Nicky—back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to unite... and to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past

An interview with the author

Book Reviews

Reviews of our current book.

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The Author's Website

The author's website.

Do you have a suggestion for a book?

Is there a book you love that you would like to share?  How about a title that you've had on your "to read" list for a while?  Send an email to bkdiscuss@hkdpl.org and you can join in the reading fun.