Book Club Discussion Questions for The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Artificial Intelligence and Brain Science and our BookBrowse Review of The Last Murder at the End of the World.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. This isolated island has many distinct parts, including the cauldron, the village, the lighthouse, and Blackheath. Which unique element of the future do you find most interesting?
2. AI plays a large role in this novel. How close to reality do you think something like Abi is?
3. The villagers fall asleep every night at curfew and are woken at seven a.m., unaware of anything that happens in between. Imagine what that might look like in your life. Would you welcome it? Fear it?
4. Funerals in the village, with their mourning lanterns, are radically different from the funerals most of us know. How would you rather observe the life of those who have passed?
5. Who has the power in the book? How does that change?
6. Niema says in the prologue that she's "spent ninety years trying to rid humanity of its selfishness, greed, and impulse toward violence." What would that look like in our world today?
7. If you were in Niema's position, what would you have done?
8. "There are so few humans left; they must be protected, and the village is the key to that." How did your perspective on this statement shift as the story unfolded?

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