Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. How did the novel’s structure, shifting between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, shape your reading experience? Did it deepen your connection to the characters and their choices?

2. Sweeney’s debut novel, The Nest, also explores the powerful and often destructive nature of family secrets. How does The Nest compare to Lake Effect?

3. The title refers to “lake effect” snow, a weather event that is used as a central metaphor in the book. What did you think of this choice? Would another title have been better?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Nina makes a choice to pursue her own happiness, knowing it will cause pain to her family. Have you ever faced a situation where your personal needs or desires conflicted with the expectations of those you love? How do you balance the responsibility to yourself with your responsibility to others?

2. A near-death experience transforms Finn’s perspective, giving him the urgency to live more authentically. Has a significant life event ever caused you to re-evaluate your priorities or change the direction of your life?

3. After Nina leaves, Clara uses cooking and organization to achieve a measure of control over a tumultuous situation. Is there a time when a particular space or activity has helped you cope with change or assert your own sense of self?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Bess’s copies of The Joy of Sex challenge her community’s conservative values. What does the book’s presence reveal about the cultural tensions of the 1970s, especially regarding women’s sexuality and personal fulfillment? Where do you see similar cultural flashpoints today?

2. Sam Larkin’s life as a closeted gay man is deeply shaped by the conformist corporate culture of Xerox in the 1970s. How does his story illuminate the intense social and professional pressures faced by LGBTQ+ individuals during that era? In what ways have attitudes changed, and in what ways do similar pressures still exist?

3. The story is firmly rooted in Rochester, a prosperous “company town” whose identity was tied to corporations like Xerox and Kodak. How does this setting, with its undercurrent of stability and social pressure, influence the characters’ choices and limitations?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Sweeney uses food as a motif throughout the novel to communicate love, assert control, and ultimately offer forgiveness. How does the meaning of cooking evolve for Nina and Clara as the story progresses? What does this transformation reveal about their individual journeys and their complex mother-daughter relationship?

2. What is the significance of Monet’s painting Waterloo Bridge: Veiled Sun to Nina’s character arc? Are there other moments when Sweeney uses art to reveal character in Lake Effect?

3. The narrative presents sisters Bridie and Clara as foils. In what ways do their starkly different reactions to their family’s collapse—Bridie’s quiet sorrow versus Clara’s sustained rage—illustrate the varied ways people navigate trauma?

4. Why do you think the author chose to tell this story across two distinct timelines? How does seeing the characters as both teenagers and as adults in their thirties and forties impact your judgment and sympathy for them?

5. How does Nina’s arc compare to other classic literary heroines who defy social convention, such as Anna in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or Edna in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Create a soundtrack for a film adaptation of Lake Effect. What songs would you choose for key moments, such as Nina and Finn’s departure, Clara’s confrontation with Dune in the school parking lot, or the final scenes at Nina’s bedside?

2. Write an alternate scene in which Nina decides not to get in the car with Finn that snowy morning. How might the lives of both families, and the relationships between the four children, have unfolded differently over the next 20 years?