Book Club - Reflective Book Club Questions

Desperate Girls — Book Club Facilitation Guide

A reflective reader-led guide for hosting your own discussion of Desperate Girls (Chronicles of Iniquity, Book 1) by Bobbie Lou.

Note:  While this story explores real-world issues such as foster care, trauma, and systemic injustice, Desperate Girls is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, organizations, or events is coincidental. The intent is to foster empathy and awareness, not to depict real individuals.

How to Use This Guide

You don’t need to be an expert to lead a book club.  This guide helps you spark honest, caring conversations about resilience, justice, and hope. Choose some or all discussion questions. 

Tips for hosting:

• Begin with a reminder that this story involves sensitive topics — it’s okay to pause, reflect, or skip questions.
• Listen more than you speak.
• Create space for multiple perspectives; there’s no “right” answer.
• End every discussion on a note of hope, compassion, or action.

Quick Overview of the Book

Desperate Girls follows women and girls navigating the foster-care system and its aftermath. It explores how broken systems exploit vulnerability — and how found family, courage, and love can rebuild what was lost.

• Start Here 

1. What drew you to this book or this discussion?
2. How did you feel when you finished reading?
3. Which scene or character stayed with you the longest — and why?

• Core Discussion Questions (Pick 5–7)

1. What does this book reveal about how systems meant to protect people sometimes fail them?
2. Which character’s resilience inspired or challenged you most?
3. What examples of found family stood out, and what made those relationships healing or safe?
4. Did any part of the story make you rethink your understanding of foster care, trauma, or social services?
5. How did the author balance pain with hope — and what moments of light did you notice?
6. What forms of redemption (personal or systemic) appear in the book?
7. If you could ask the author one question, what would it be?

• Social Justice & Awareness

1. Where did you notice companies, systems, or individuals taking advantage of vulnerable people?
2. What power dynamics shaped who had choices — and who didn’t?
3. Does the story suggest change through reform, rebellion, or community rebuilding?
4. How can empathy in fiction inspire awareness or advocacy in real life?

Reflection & Takeaway

1. What message or moment will you carry with you?
2. How did this story deepen your compassion or challenge your assumptions?
3. What small, hopeful action could readers take after this discussion?

Closing the Discussion

• End with gratitude. Encourage everyone to share something positive they’re taking from the story — a feeling, a truth, a moment of connection.
• Remind the group that while Desperate Girls is fiction, the themes it touches are real, and awareness itself is a form of advocacy.

Optional Resources

You may wish to share links or local organizations related to:

• Foster-care reform and mentoring
• Trauma-informed support
• Anti-trafficking and survivor-led initiatives

Find out what happens to Kenya in Baby Pawn, Book 2 of the Chronicles of Iniquity Series.