Fierce Kingdom (Phillips) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Fierce Kingdom … and then take off on your own:

1. Consider the fact that Fierce Kingdom is set in a zoo — an environment we normally think of as safe and where animals, not humans, are in captivity. How has the author turned that conception on its head? Why might Gin Phillips have used a zoo? What darker currents might she be exploring?

2. Follow-up to Question 1: Consider, too, that motherhood is a form of instinctive animal behavior.

3. Describe Joan as a mother. Is she normally overly protective of Lincoln (to wit: watching her sister-in-law strap him into the car)? Or are her concerns typical of most mothers?

4. Once under fire at the zoo, how does Joan go about protecting Lincoln? What kind of traits emerge that enable her to keep him safe? How does her knowledge of her son help her make the choices she does? How might you fare under such circumstances?

5. Talk about Lincoln. How does he respond to the danger he and his mother are both exposed to? Did you find some of his chatter and cleverness grating … or endearing?

6. What do you make of Joan's observation about Lincoln — that "He is a whole separate being, as real as she is"? If you are a parent of a young child (or if you once were), does this statement resonate with you? Have you ever had that epiphany?

7. What do you make of the fact that we are privy to the inner thoughts of one of the shooters — an unusual perspective, to say the least? Why might Phillips have decided to give us access to Robbie's point of view? What do we learn about him?

8. The action takes place in real time: we read as events transpire from moment to moment. What effect does the tick-tock time-keeping have on your reading?

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

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