For those of you that haven't or couldn't attend book club lately, we'll be publishing the previous months' discussion questions here. I hope eventually to post discussion questions for all of the books we've covered since I took over a couple of years ago and beyond, all the way to the beginning over a decade and a half ago. It will take a while. Until then, we will be posting discussion questions on a weekly basis. Here are the questions from a 2014 title, The Repeat Year. We hope these questions spark discussions of your own.
The Repeat Year
by Andrea Lochen
Summary:
After a year of hardships, including a messy breakup with her longtime boyfriend Phil, the prospect of her mother’s remarriage, and heartbreaking patient losses at the hospital, Olive is ready to start fresh. But when she wakes up in her ex-boyfriend’s bed on New Year’s Day 2011—a day she has already lived—Olive’s world is turned upside down.
Shouldering a year of memories that no one else can recall, even Olive begins to question herself—until she discovers that she is not alone. Upon crossing paths with Sherry Witan, an experienced “repeater,” Olive learns that she has the chance to rewrite her future. Given the opportunity of a lifetime, Olive has to decide what she really wants. Should she make different choices, or accept her life as she knows it, flaws and all? “An intriguing premise and some surprising twists make this an engaging, satisfying read that explores friendship, love and who we really are when it truly matters….A debut novel that offers a fascinating glimpse into one woman’s opportunity to rewrite her past and change her future.”—Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Official Questions
Compare and contrast Olive and Kerrigan’s personalities. What traits cause tension in their friendship? What qualities allow them to support and encourage each other?
Why is Sherry initially so reluctant to share with Olive her previous repeat years and the mistakes she made?
How does the repeat year influence and inform Olive’s job as an intensive care nurse? Is she right to use her foreknowledge to try to help change patient outcomes, or is she violating ethical standards?
Consider the very different ways in which Olive handles her mother’s remarriage. What allows her to change her approach? What new insight does she gain about her mom? About Harry?
Is Kerrigan being a good friend when she tells Phil about the repeat year? Or does she betray Olive’s trust? How might she have done things differently?
Considering the state of their relationship in the first part of the year, is Olive wrong for turning down Phil’s proposal? Would things have gone differently if she hadn’t? What if she had confessed the truth to Phil early on in the novel? How do you think he would have reacted? Would they have still ended up together?
Olive grapples with the question of if her previous year and bad decisions really happened if no one else remembers it. Do you agree with her interpretation or do you think her infidelity and other mistakes are more comparable to a dream?
Our past experiences shape who we are in the present. How do Phil’s past experiences help to explain why he was reluctant to forgive Olive? How do they help to explain why he ultimately is able to reunite with her?
What are the ways Olive matures and grows over the course of her repeat year? What major lessons does Sherry learn? Do you think this will be their last repeat year?
Why do you think Olive and Sherry were given repeat years? Who else in the book do you think could use a repeat year?
Are you satisfied with Olive’s ending, or would you have rather seen a different ending for her? What will happen next for her? What will happen next for Sherry?
If you could relive a year of your life, what would you do differently? Do you think the events in your life have been shaped more by chance, fate, or freewill?
Unofficial questions
Would you have given the book a different title? If yes, what would your title be?
What were the main themes of The Repeat Year? How were those themes brought to life?
Were there any quotes (or passages) that stood out to you? Why?
Have you read any other books by Andrea Lochen? How would you compare them to The Repeat Year?
Did your opinion of this book change as you read it? How? What changed your mind?
Which character did you most relate to and why? Who was your favorite character?
If The Repeat Year were made into a movie, who would play each of the lead characters?
How does the way the characters see themselves differ from the way others see them? Did you see them differently?
Were there times you disagreed with a character’s actions? What would you have done differently?
Were there any plot twists that you loved? Hated?
Did the author do a good job of organizing the plot and moving it along?