DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Last Ones Left Alive

by Sarah Davis-Goff

PLEASE NOTE: In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this novel—as well as the ending. If you have not finished reading Last Ones Left Alive, we respectfully suggest that you may want to wait before reviewing this guide.

  1.  Orpen decides to leave the relative safety of Slanbeg, where she grew up. Did you agree with this decision?

  2.  Does the novel have a typical structure (beginning, middle, end)? Did the structure work for you?

  3.  The story is told from Orpen’s perspective, so the reader can only know the things that she knows, and see the things that she sees. Did you find this narrow viewpoint constrictive, or was it helpful to have such a focused experience of her world?

  4.  Who was your favorite character and why?

  5.  What is Orpen’s reaction to meeting new people for the first time? Did you think this reaction was understandable?

  6.  Orpen has been taught by Maeve and Muireann that men are dangerous, but when she meets Cillian, this seems not to be true. How did you feel about Cillian, and were you worried at first when Orpen met these other characters?

  7.  Does Orpen’s character change throughout the novel?

  8.  Do you think the story was more plot based or character based?

  9.  Can you identify any themes in Last Ones Left Alive?

10.  Who is the villain in Last Ones Left Alive?

11.  What are the skrake like compared to other pop-culture zombies?

12.  Did this novel make you want to read more zombie novels and dystopian fiction?

13.  Orpen has a lot of questions about the world she’s living in, and not all of them are answered by the end of this novel. What would you like to know about this world that Last Ones Left Alive didn’t show you?

14.  If you were to write a story set in Orpen’s world, what kind of story would you tell?

15.  Does the novel have a happy ending?

16.  Do you think Last Ones Left Alive is a feminist novel? Why or why not?