The opening question sets the temperature of the whole meeting. “What did everyone think?” invites a shrug. Specific questions invite disagreement, and disagreement is the point.
Start with a decision, not an opinion
Ask which character made the worst decision and why. It gets people arguing about motive within a minute, and motive is where the book actually lives.
Questions that reliably work
- Which character would you refuse to lend money to?
- What is the book pretending not to be about?
- Where did you first stop trusting the narrator?
- Which chapter would you cut?
- What would this book be like from the antagonist’s side?
- Did the ending earn itself, or did it just arrive?
Questions to avoid
Anything answerable with “yes”. Anything that sounds like homework. And anything about themes, at least until forty minutes in — people arrive with feelings, not theses.
The one to end on
Ask what everyone will remember in a year. It is the only review that matters and it produces surprisingly honest answers.