Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What is the relationship between Gabriel and Finnigan? Does this change over the course of the novel? How so? When did you first suspect they were not just friends, but something completely different?
- The novel is based on the premise that someone can be all good or all bad. Is this true? Do Gabriel and Finnigan stick to their respective sides? For example, does Gabriel ever do anything bad?
- Why does Gabriel hate his family so much? What do his parents do that causes him to react in such a way?
- What's the effect of Gabriel dying? Why do you think the novel starts out by telling us this? Does this fact make us more sympathetic to him (as Finnigan imagines it will)?
- Can you imagine another way for Gabriel to stop Finnigan's evil works? Why does he will himself to die? Why is twenty the "martyr's age"?
- How much can we trust the narrator? How would the novel be different if it were narrated by someone other than Finnigan and Gabriel? Would we learn the truth about their relationship sooner?
- After finishing the novel, what is the point? Do you think the author is saying something about the nature of good and evil? Or is it supposed to make us think about our own complexity as humans? What larger message or theme do you come away with?