Printable Book Club Questions for The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

The book starts off in the year 2079 when Fiona is 102. Why do you think the author decided to start the book this way? Why do you think Fiona turned to poetry?
What do you think was wrong with Noni? Was she depressed or was it something else?
What did you think about the childhood sections and the Pause? Why do you think Joe and Fiona become so close? Let’s talk about some of the ways that Joe was very protective of his sisters.
When Renee turned 13, a man tried to attack her but Joe was able to rescue her. While it was an isolated incident, Fiona says it “injected us in a way I didn’t understand until much later….The incident made us all vulnerable, although in different ways.” Let’s talk about the impact of the incident on each of the four siblings.
After emerging from the pause, Noni lectured her girls about feminism and paving their own success. While Renee and Fiona listened avidly, Caroline said she wanted to be married and have kids. Do you think Caroline was in some ways rebelling when she went away with Nathan and marred him young?
Noni in some ways seems to favor Joe over the other girls. Let’s talk about how that had lasting effects on the three siblings.
We go back and forth between the past and the future (year 2079). It’s clear that the world is suffering from catastrophic climate change. What did you think about those sections? What do you believe the author was trying to say there?
Fiona tells the crowd that the story is about the failures of love. What did she mean by that?
Fiona tries to remember when Joe’s unraveling begin. When do you think it was? Why did he turn to drugs and alcohol? What do you think about his claims that he could talk to their deceased dad?
Why did the sisters hid the truth of what happened to Joe and baseball from Fiona and their mother?
Let’s talk about Fiona’s The Last Romantic blog. Why did she start it? What did the title represent? Why do you think she was so intent on writing about her sex life? Why do you think the author chose The Last Romantics as the title of this book?
Let’s talk about Joe and Sandrine’s engagement party. How did it all fall apart for Joe then?
None of the family ever liked Sandrine. On page 182 when Fiona is considering this, she acknowledges to herself that they never cared for and that she wished Joe had chosen someone more like us, his sisters. She says
“And what did that say about his regard for us, that he had selected the exact kind of person whom each of us would despise equally, but for different reasons. Did he want to push us away?”
Do you think Joe did want to push his family away? Or was he trying to find a different identity away from his family?
With time and reflection, Fiona believes that the accident to Joe would have happened no matter what. That the “accident was searching for Joe, and eventually it would find him.” Do you believe that certain events are inevitable?
What did you think about Luna? Why was Joe drawn to her?
On page 222, Joe falls and Luna thinks that he’s just passing out from drinking. Why do you think she didn’t try to wake him or call someone? Was she simply just being naive?
Let’s talk about how Joe’s death impacted the three sisters. How did it cause them to develop a rift? What brought them back together?
Why did Fiona go see Luna? Why do you think she felt compelled to give Luna the engagement ring from Joe? We also find out that Luna had Joe’s child, do you think it was wrong of her to never let the family know about him? Why do you think Fiona never told her sisters about any of that? What would you have done if you were Fiona?
What do you think was the overall theme of the novel?