Book Club Guide

The Haven system provides safety, food, and shelter in exchange for compliance and monitoring. At what point does security become control? Where would you draw the line?

Citizens in the Havens are not overtly oppressed. They are comfortable, fed, and housed. How does the novel challenge the idea that comfort equals freedom?

The Civil Rating determines almost everything about a citizen's life. How does this compare to systems of measurement and ranking in our own world?

Victor spends twenty-three years amending records without questioning what he is doing. What does the novel suggest about the relationship between routine and complicity?

The Remainder is not hidden by an elaborate conspiracy. Citizens simply don't ask. What does the novel say about the role of indifference in sustaining injustice?

When Victor discovers the truth about the system, he struggles with what to do. Is knowing enough, or does knowledge demand action?

Kaya has survived the Remainder her entire life. How does her perspective on the world differ from Victor's? What does each character take for granted that the other cannot?

The Threshers are machines that patrol without hatred or malice. Is impersonal violence more or less disturbing than deliberate cruelty? Why?

Solomon carries the memory of the world before Year Zero. What does the novel suggest about the burden of being the only one who remembers?

The novel suggests the old world was not destroyed by catastrophe but deliberately shut down by twenty families. How does this reframe the idea of apocalypse?

Expected Behaviour uses a dystopian future to examine present-day questions about economic inequality, surveillance, and institutional indifference. Which parallels felt most striking to you?

The title "Expected Behaviour" applies to both the system's programming and human compliance. How do these two meanings interact throughout the novel?