The text often includes details about some of the minor characters, such as Mrs. Parrish’s reliance on gin and Jin Lo’s family history during wartime. What is the effect of these inclusions? How do they add to the text’s mood and meaning? Include textual evidence.

Pip shares a name with the protagonist of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, while Jane shares a name with several female characters, including the title character of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Compose a brief essay that explores these characters’ similarities to and differences from their namesakes. You might also explore the possible associations with Benjamin’s name, perhaps even to the donkey in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which many read as a satire of the Russian Revolution and its primary figures.

Read the other two novels in Meloy’s trilogy and, using textual evidence, analyze how they highlight and/or extend The Apothecary’s themes.

The Apothecary is considered a work of magical realism, but Meloy goes to some lengths to make the apparently “magical” elements scientifically explainable. Given her focus on science, should this work still be considered magical realism? Explain your reasoning.

Why might Meloy have chosen to set the novel in 1952 rather than closer to modern readers’ era? How might the story differ if it were set in the 21st century?

Assuming that you haven’t read the other two novels in this trilogy, what do you think will happen between Benjamin and Janie in the next books? How about Pip and Sarah? Grounding your discussion in evidence from this text, hypothesize about the children’s future.

Which minor character’s life would you most like to learn more about? Who would make a good protagonist for a spinoff series? Consider Vili, Shiskin, Jin Lo, or even Mrs. Parrish. Why does your chosen character seem best suited for their own novel?

Interview a science teacher or scientist about the possibility of the group’s bomb technology. Ask them about Jin Lo’s use of polymers that react with radioactivity and Burrows’s work with the “Quintessence.” Does anything in current scientific understanding support the possibility of this reaction? If so, construct an essay to analyze the potential reality of such technologies and elements. If not, make the case that this book is appropriately considered a work of magical realism.