Book Club Questions for The Measure by Nikki Erlick

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Book club questions for The Measure by Nikki Erlick explores how all moments in life, no matter how big or small, can measure our life.

The Measure is a novel packed with many philosophical questions that will ponder your mind. What is the true meaning behind friendship, or hope, and destiny? Do we control our fate? Why do we view those who are less fortunate than us with fear and hostility?

Below, I have written my discussion guide for The Measure, the synopsis of the book, and 11 book club questions which will keep the book club discussion flowing naturally. Also, don’t forget to read my book recommendations below the questions!

Summary | Ending Explained | Book Club Questions

The Synopsis

It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious, and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.

Book Club Questions for The Measure

I hope you will enjoy discussing my book club discussion questions for The Measure! Have fun analyzing the themes of the story with your book clubs, and let me know what are your thoughts! The following book club questions have been tailored to this book’s specific reading experience.✨

1. If the box from The Measure arrived on your doorstep, would you open it? Is there perhaps a particular age or moment in your life when you would be most inclined to view your string?

2. Knowing the length of their string causes many characters to rethink their careers, their dreams, even their views on marriage and children. Some people quit their jobs and shutter their businesses; others travel to distant lands. How would knowing about your string—or not knowing about it — affect the way you lived your life?

3. Ben initially feels conflicted over telling his parents about his string, while Javier chooses to hide the truth from his. Do you think family members have a right to know about each other’s strings?

4. In today’s world, do you think the arrival of the strings would bring out the worst in people, or the best? Would you view the boxes as a gift or a curse?

5. The world of The Measure feels familiar to our own, except for one powerful twist. What is the benefit of setting a novel in a slightly altered version of our world? In what ways did this fictional society’s reaction to the strings mirror the behavior of our own society? In what ways did it differ?

6. Do you think any members in the public arena — such as doctors, employers, or government officials — should be able to know the length of someone’s string? Should short-stringers be able to publicly identify themselves in order to receive legal protections or government aid? Do you think political candidates should be able to use their strings during a campaign, like Anthony did?

8. In the support group, Maura argues that, “We never should have allowed them to start labeling people as ‘long-stringers’ and ‘short-stringers.’” Do you agree with her? Do you think it would create more division or strengthen community in society?

Bonus Book Club Questions for The Measure

These are my bonus book club questions that take a different approach on analyzing certain themes of the book.

9. Nina worries that if Maura were to enter the hospital, she might face multiple biases as a Black woman and a short-stringer. How does the experience of short-stringers in the novel reflect any of the past or present injustices facing historically marginalized groups? How do they differ?

10. Religion takes on varying degrees of importance in the characters’ lives. Javier is Catholic, Nihal is Hindu, and other characters aren’t observant. How do you think the arrival of the strings might impact a person’s religious devotion, or lack thereof?

11. In the world of The Measure, people receive their boxes upon turning 22. Do you think that’s too young to be facing such a choice? Or should the choice be offered to people even younger?

Additional Recommendations

Hope you enjoyed my book club and discussion questions for The Measure by Nikki Erlick!

Here are some more of my book club recommendations:

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left the family when he was nine years old without a trace. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, his family’s life has been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.

Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.

Thank you for reading my book club questions and happy reading! ❤️