49 pages • 1-hour read
Scythe & Sparrow
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Book Club Questions
General Impressions
Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.
1. Discuss your overall impressions of Scythe & Sparrow. What were your most and least favorite aspects of the romance between Rose Evans and Fionn Kane? Why?
2. How did your experience of reading Scythe & Sparrow compare to your experience with reading the first two novels in the Ruinous Love Trilogy? Discuss the similarities and differences between this final installment and the preceding titles, Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark.
3. Scythe & Sparrow thematically aligns with the rest of the Ruinous Love series, which often normalizes murder as either a necessity, a moral action, or a form of recreation. What was your response to this aspect of the narrative world? How did the characters’ redefinition of morality affect your reading experience?
4. Consider parallels between Scythe & Sparrow and other examples of dark romance, such as Chloe Gong’s These Violent Delights and Ana Huang’s Twisted Love.
Personal Reflection and Connection
Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.
1. How did you respond to the scene in which Leander Mayes makes Fionn accept a job as a contract killer in Croatia? How did this plot twist change your impression of the narrative trajectory and Fionn and Rose’s future?
2. The novel extensively explores The Redemptive Power of Love. How does the evolution of Fionn and Rose’s relationship compare and contrast with your own romantic experiences? Has love similarly changed your outlook on life?
Societal and Cultural Context
Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.
1. Discuss the novel’s incorporation of physical and domestic violence. How does Weaver use violence to comment upon the interplay of good and evil, justice and injustice? Be sure to discuss Rose’s work to protect innocent women and Fionn’s guilt over killing his father.
2. How does Rose and Fionn’s time in Hartford, Nebraska, impact them as individuals and as a couple? What mood does the setting of Hartford evoke? How does it facilitate (or impede) the characters’ intimacy?
3. Both Rose and Fionn are struggling to heal from past trauma. How do their inner wounds affect their present identities? How does the author use their unique journeys to comment on the impact of challenges related to mental health?
Literary Analysis
Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.
1. The novel is primarily told from Rose and Fionn’s alternating first-person perspectives. What are the narrative and thematic effects of this formal choice? How would the novel change if it were written from a third-person omniscient perspective?
2. Compare and contrast Rose’s and Fionn’s definitions of home. How do their respective childhoods influence their current lifestyles and their respective approaches to establishing stability and security?
3. Analyze the symbolic significance of Rose’s tarot cards. Why does she rely on the tarot deck? How do the cards help her to communicate with others and process information about her own life?
4. Discuss the role of the novel’s secondary characters in the protagonists’ evolution. How do the other Kane brothers and their partners relate to Rose and Fionn? How would Rose and Fionn’s journeys differ without these relationships?
Creative Engagement
Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.
1. Imagine that you are Rose and that Fionn left you for seven months without explanation. How would you respond? Would you accept his letters and give him a second chance? Why or why not?
2. Imagine another installment in the Ruinous Love trilogy. What might happen to the Kane brothers and their partners in the future? What new conflicts would they face as siblings, friends, and lovers?
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