For book clubs

Before you choose it

What kind of book is it? A novel in diary form. It is funny for a long stretch, and then it asks more of you. If you liked This Is Going to Hurt or Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, you may get on with it.

How long is it? 352 pages. The entries are short, so it reads faster than it looks.

Will it upset anybody? It might. It is about child protection, so it includes neglect, domestic abuse, the sexual abuse of a teenager, and grief. None of it is graphic. If somebody in your group has had children’s services in their life, or grew up in care, it is kind to mention the subject before you vote.

Does anybody need to know about social work? No. There is a glossary at the front, and a longer one here.

What goes well with it? Tea. Biscuits, at least two kinds. For a group that drinks, wine.

The questions

These give away the whole story. Finish the book first.

1. The title answers a question before anybody has asked it. By the end of the book, is the answer still as simple as “We don’t”? What would Jade say?
2. Maisie tells her year three ways: a private diary, a public blog and the official case file. Where did you notice the widest gap between what the file recorded and what happened in the room?
3. “I never met your threshold. Riley met it in one night.” What is Jade accusing the system of? Is she right?
4. Did Mrs Khan know? Does it change anything if she didn’t?
5. Hana draws a door for months before she says a word about what happened behind it. Why do you think the door closes again in March, after so much progress?
6. Billy hands over his toy car “so it doesn’t leave”, and months later asks for it back. What has changed for him between those two moments?
7. Leon has a history of violence, and he turns up to every contact session. Did your view of him shift as the year went on? What would he have to do before you trusted him?
8. Maisie’s father tells her she behaves as though love has to be earned. How does that belief shape her choices with Jamie, with Ben and at work?
9. Maisie writes about real children on an anonymous blog, and talks about a live case to the man she is sleeping with. How do you judge her? Does the book let her off too lightly?
10. Nobody comes for Jamie. Why do you think the story leaves him unpunished?
11. The last line is “Here we go again.” Is that a hopeful ending or a bleak one?
12. Has the book changed what you think social workers do all day?

If you want more

• The 2015 archive is Maisie’s blog as it appears in the novel. A post read aloud would open the evening.
• The discussion guide for teams goes further into the cases. It is written for social workers but anybody can use it.
• Who are you on the duty desk? takes two minutes and starts arguments.
• The book club kit is all of this on two pages, to print.

Tell me how it went

I would love to know what your group made of it, and especially what you disagreed about. Write to me.