Book Club Kit

Thank you for choosing The Ghost of Gracie Flynn for your latest Book Club read!

About the book

The Ghost of Gracie Flynn is an Australian ghost-narrator novel. Author Joanna Morrison uses a non-linear structure to unravel two compelling mysteries, eighteen years apart.

In 2001, three university students—Sam, Robyn and Cohen—drift apart after their friend Gracie Flynn dies in mysterious circumstances. In 2019, they reconnect. But before long, Sam is found dead, all alone on his boat on the river, leaving a wife and baby daughter behind.

Gracie’s ghost wants baby Isla to know the truth about how and why her father died, so she tells her the story. While she’s at it, she reveals what happened that night eighteen years ago—the night that changed all their lives forever.

Discussion Questions

Fremantle Press has put together these thought-provoking discussion questions to fuel your book club chat ~ I hope they inspire some lively conversations!

  1. Why do you think the author chose Gracie Flynn as her narrator, and
    why do you think Gracie chooses to tell her story to Isla?
  2. What difference do these two choices make to the unfolding narrative?
  3. Do you see Gracie as a passive narrator, or does she have a role in
    the way the story develops?
  4. What kind of a man is Sam? What kind of a man is Cohen? Which
    flashback scene do you think best characterises their relationship?
  5. How would you describe the friendship between Sam and Gracie?
  6. Why does seeing Sam with this baby daughter feel ‘uplifting’ and
    ‘enchanting’ to Robyn when she sees them by the river? Has Tori
    really ‘tamed’ Sam? (p. 76)
  7. How would you characterise what happens between Sam and Skye?
    What do these interactions tell us about him?
  8. All else being equal, do you think that things between Tori and Sam
    may have eventually returned to the way they are when the book
    opens?
  9. What is Robyn’s role in the novel’s present-day narrative? Why do you
    think it was important for the story that she came home?
  10. In what ways do you think that Robyn is a different person to the
    young woman who left Australia?
  11. Why is Jon an important secondary character?
  12. Do you think the absence of Gracie explains the emptiness at the
    heart of Cohen’s life?
  13. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Do you think this aphorism can be applied to the characters in this novel?
  14. Is this a novel about free will? Do you think that the actions of these characters are determined by actions that have come before, or are they freely made?

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