A Court of Thorns and Roses Book Club Questions: 20 Discussion Questions for Sarah J. Maas's Novel

The Short Version

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas’s 2015 novel, gives a book club plenty to argue about: a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a sharp heroine, a slow first half, a romance some readers find flat and a final act that is hard to put down. Nineteen-year-old Feyre kills a wolf to feed her family, and a beast arrives to claim a life for a life.

Below are twenty questions: ten you can use before everyone has finished the book, and ten that spoil the ending. A short section on the series gives the group a place to go next. The book scores three and a half out of five in our review.

Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group

Tell your group first. This is adult romantasy, even though it was first shelved as young adult. It includes explicit sex scenes, graphic violence and torture, a drugging and unwanted touching.

Spoiler-Free Questions

1. Feyre hunts in the woods near the wall that separates the human lands from Prythian to keep a family that lost its fortune alive. How does her poverty shape her choices?
2. The beast gives her a choice: die tonight or cross the wall and live in Prythian for the rest of her life. Would you have gone?
3. The Spring Court is an estate full of roses where it never stops being spring, and everyone wears a mask they cannot take off. What did you make of it, and what is creeping across the land?
4. Tamlin is quiet and guarded, and seems kinder than his beast form. Did you feel the romance, or does our review’s score of three out of five for the romance sound fair?
5. Lucien, with his metal eye and sharp tongue, gets most of the best lines. What does he add that Tamlin does not?
6. Feyre can barely read, she hunts, she is starving, and she plans to escape the whole time. How is she different from the usual Beauty?
7. Feyre’s love of painting is the heart of the book. When did it matter most to you?
8. Her cold eldest sister, Nesta, is worth watching. What did you notice about her scenes at home?
9. The book bends Beauty and the Beast with a dash of the old Scottish ballad of Tam Lin. Which parts felt familiar, and which felt new?
10. The first half is slow while Feyre wanders the estate, paints and wonders what everyone is hiding. Did the slow build pay off for you or lose you?

Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)

11. Amarantha drugged the seven High Lords at a party forty-nine years earlier and stole most of their power, and cursed Tamlin’s court because he refused to be her lover. Did the reveal change how you read the first half?
12. The wolf Feyre shot was Andras, a sentry sent across the wall on purpose, and the life-for-a-life clause in the Treaty does not exist. How do you feel about Tamlin’s court deceiving her?
13. Feyre goes Under the Mountain alone, after Alis tells her the truth. Was it brave, reckless or both?
14. Rhysand heals her after the first task in exchange for one week every month, for the rest of her life. Was his game of drugging and dancing at the parties a convincing act?
15. In the second task Feyre cannot read the riddle on the wall, and the tattoo stings when she reaches for the wrong lever. Why did Maas make her illiteracy matter here?
16. In the third task she kills two innocent strangers, and the third hood hides Tamlin. How did that scene land for you?
17. Feyre tells Tamlin she loves him and stabs him, and the dagger bends on his stone heart. Is it a clever twist or a convenient one?
18. The answer to the riddle is love, and she works it out as she dies. Did you solve it before Feyre did?
19. The seven High Lords each give Feyre a spark of power and she wakes up as High Fae, but she cannot stop seeing the two faeries she killed. Is this a happy ending?
20. On the balcony Rhysand says goodbye, stares at her, shocked, and vanishes, and the book never says what he saw. What did you think it was?

About The Series

Your group may want to keep going. Read the books in publication order: A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015), A Court of Mist and Fury (2016), A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017), the short novella A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018) and A Court of Silver Flames (2021). Books one to three are mostly told by Feyre, and book five switches to Nesta and to Cassian. Book six, A Court of Splintered Harmony, was set for October 27, 2026, and book seven, A Court of Forgotten Melody, for January 12, 2027. A Hulu series was announced in 2021 and officially dropped in early 2025.

What To Read Next

If your group wants to decide before committing, start with our spoiler-free review. After the discussion, our ending explained walks through the riddle and the curse, and our books-like-it list covers six romantasy picks including From Blood and Ash, Fourth Wing and The Cruel Prince. Our series guide has the full reading order.