43 pages • 1 hour read
Liz MooreLong Bright River
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book Club Questions
General Impressions
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of addiction and murder.
Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.
1. How does this novel compare with Moore’s other novels, such as The Unseen World or The God of the Woods? How does her style evolve from title to title? If Long Bright River is your first experience of Moore’s work, would you be interested in reading additional novels?
2. Were you satisfied with the “happy” ending of the novel? Why or why not?
Personal Reflection and Connection
Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.
1. Did the narrative’s glimpses into Mickey’s past help you to understand her better? Did these passages make her a more sympathetic character? Why or why not?
2. The novel addresses the theme of Nature Versus Nurture and the Cycle of Drug Addiction. What is your stance in the nature-nurture debate? How does a phenomenon like addiction complicate this binary construction?
3. Lafferty gets away with his behavior because no one cares about the women he kills. How do larger social systems navigate the idea of whose lives have “value” to those social systems? Did this book help you to think differently about such groups of people?
