Book Club Discussion Questions for The Adults by Caroline Hulse

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Imaginary Friends and our BookBrowse Review of The Adults.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. How would you classify this novel: as a comedy of manners, a bedroom farce, a suspense novel, or a domestic drama? All of the above, none of the above, or something else entirely?
2. Author Caroline Hulse has said that she draws inspiration for her characters by watching how professional poker players (she is one) react under pressure. (See the Author Bio above). Where in do you find evidence of people behaving when they're not at their best?
3. Why has Matt not been forthright with Alex regarding the breakup of his and Claire's marriage? What do you think of his lack of honesty? How do you see Alex's reaction?
4. Is there one character out of the bunch (let's exclude Scarlett for now) that you approve of—one more sympathetic than others? Who, in your opinion, behaves worse than the others—someone whom you have little or no sympathy for?
5. What do Claire and Patrick see in one another? Same question for Alex and Matt.
6. (Follow-up to Question 5) What are the fault lines exposed in the novel's relationships? When do you begin to detect them?
7. (Follow-up to Question 4) Consider Scarlett. What is her role in all of this? And what about Posey?
8. Discuss, of course, the delicious irony of the book's title. Same goes for the name of the park, Happy Forest.
9. What are your predictions for the characters? What do you think will happen to them, say, in the fairly near future?
10. The book's narrative is interspersed with police interviews and excerpts from the Happy Forest brochure. How did that interruptive technique affect your reading? Did it enhance or detract from your experience?
11. Does anything good result from the holiday?

Questions provided with permission from Litlovers.com: https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/adults-hulse?start=3

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Random House. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.