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Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Teen & Fantasy Book Club

Ink and Bone Discussion Questions

1. What do you think of the 3^rd person narration?
2. Is the Ephemera at the beginning of each chapter helpful for the story?
3. The Prologue is 6 years before the beginning of the actual book and we meet Jess and his father, what do you think of the situation?
4. What do you think of the idea of book smuggling?
5. Is the chase of Jess and the other kids an exciting start?
6. The lions outside a library represent knowledge, is it effective that they are mechanized hunters in this world?
7. What do you think of the buyer eating the only copy of Archimedes book?
8. Were you surprised that it was 2025?
9. What do you think of the Ephemera describing the destruction of the printing press and elimination of Gutenberg?
10. Jess loves books but his brother says that they shouldn’t use it because they deal it, does this make sense?
11. What do you think about the fact that most books in this world fade or go blank?
12. Does a book smuggler working for the Library make sense?
13. The Burner preaches about the Library controlling all the knowledge and only allowing people to have the copies on a device, does this part sound plausible?
14. What do you think of Thomas from Berlin?
15. Do you find it believable that Thomas Paine would resist the Library?
16. Do you like Scholar Christopher Wolfe?
17. Classes begin in the first daughter library where people were encouraged to come to read including women, is that part of the mission uplifting?
18. Was that first class a good way to learn about the Library and its history?
19. Who is your favorite student other than Jess?
20. Are you offended that the library destroys books if they aren’t originals?
21. Were you surprised when you found out that Wolfe had been a rebel?
22. Do you like Morgan?
23. Does it make sense that she wants to hide that she’s an Obscurist?
24. Is there any way that Postulants, children, should be sent into a city under siege in a warzone?
25. They call the room a Translation Chamber but doesn’t it sound like a more awful version the Transporters from Star Trek?
26. How does the trip to Oxford change the book?
27. Do the people under siege trying to get in the library make sense?
28. What did you think of Jess getting the baby and being told that he had to put her down?
29. Were you happy to read that Frederick saved the girl?
30. Was Morgan’s idea of making it look like she jumped a good one?
31. Should Jess have gone back to save her?
32. Does it seem unfair that after everyone got off the train that the Burners grabbed Jess?
33. Should the students have listened to Wolfe when he drank enough to be honest?
34. Were you surprised that the supposedly personal, sacred journals were being read?
35. Did Jess betray Morgan by asking her to stay?
36. Were you afraid for Thomas when you realized what he invented?
37. Was it a surprise?
38. Is Morgan a slave to the Obscurists?
39. Wolfe’s mother tells him to Give In, Give Up and Survive, is she right?
40. Do you think Thomas is really dead?
41. Should Jess have agreed to spy on Wolfe for the Artifex?
42. What do you think of Jess’s assignment as a solider for one year?
43. What do you think of the ending?
44. Did you like the book?
45. Would you read more in the series?

A book is worth more than a life.  Discuss.

Created by Michelle Haring