Most Dangerous Place on Earth (Johnson) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for The Most Dangerous Place on Earth...then take off on your own:

1. What does the quote from Milton's Paradise Lost have to do with the novel at hand? Why might the author have opened her book with the epigraph?

2. What kind of place is Mill Valley, California, the novel's setting? What kind of life does it provide for the teens involved? Describe the inner lives of these youngsters. What about their parents? What pressures, both familial and peer, face the teens in this novel? Are both teens and problems realistically portrayed?

3. Which of the characters—if any do—you find sympathetic? What about Molly Nicoll, who desperately wants to connect with her students? In what way would you say she is overly invested in their struggles?

4. Talk about teenagers' capacity for cruelty. Does this novel exaggerate the ugly behavior, or is it a realistic description? Is the issue that the novel presents—"rich kids have problems too"—overblown? Or is it serious?

5. Follow-up to Question 4: Consider your own school days? Were your compeers as mean-spirited, petty, or even as vicious as the way Lindsey Lee Johnson portrays her characters? If not...do you think today's teenagers are crueler? Or is it that they have social media to do more damage?

6. What would you like to say to any one, or all, of these young people? What advice would you offer? Or what admonishment?

7. What do you think of the choice of titles? Is it appropriate, or is there one you think might be better?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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