Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What were your initial impressions of Lisey as a character? Did this change throughout the course of the text? Why or why not?

2. How did the tone of the novel, specifically its blend of horror, romance, and psychological tension, affect your overall reading experience?

3. Which parts of the novel were most unsettling to you? What about King’s writing or the novel’s content made you feel this way?

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

1. How do Lisey’s experiences with grief reflect your own experiences or those you’ve seen in others? How did her story impact your understanding of grief?

2. Compare your experiences with reading Lisey’s Story to another Stephen King work you’ve read or another psychological thriller text, like Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid or A.J. Finn’s The Woman In The Window. How did these novels make you reflect on your own experiences with fear and/or danger?

3. How did you relate to the novel’s exploration of love as difficult and complex, rather than romantic and idealized? How did it resonate, or fail to resonate, with your own experiences of love and connection?

4. Discuss the ways in which the novel portrays the clash between holding onto memories, repressing them, and letting go. How does this portrayal impact how you view your own struggles with difficult memories?

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

1. How does the novel explore gender roles, particularly through Lisey’s positions as a wife, caretaker, and survivor? How does it reflect or contribute to current discourses around gendered labor and caregiving? 

2. In what ways does the story comment on the pressures and invasions faced by public figures, like authors or celebrities, in today’s society?

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

1. The novel includes multiple forms of storytelling, such as letters, flashbacks, and Scott’s writing. How do these give a more complete understanding and development of Lisey’s character in ways that traditional storytelling would not? Point to specific examples from the text in your discussion.

2. What role does music play in the novel? Discuss scenes where music is present and how it develops either Lisey as a character or an important theme in the text.

3. How does King build suspense throughout the novel? Discuss specific literary techniques like pacing, sentence structure, and point of view shifts.

4. Analyze Scott’s role in the story. How is he characterized? How does he shape Lisey’s growth and development throughout the story?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Use another medium to create a representation of Boo’ya Moon, such as a drawing, collage of images, sculpture, or poem you wrote. Then, discuss the different components of your creation and why you feel they are representative of Boo’ya Moon.

2. Choose five scenes from the novel, then pick five songs that could accompany these scenes if it were made into a film—other than the songs already mentioned in the novel. Explain why you chose these songs and how they represent each scene.