Book Club Discussion Questions for Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
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Need discussion questions for Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth? You’ve landed in the right spot. Whether you’re bringing this one to book club, texting your sister paragraph-by-paragraph reactions, or you just closed the book and need somewhere to put all your feelings about that ending, this list has you covered. Pour something warm, settle in, and let’s talk through the twists, the judgment, and the moments that made us both go “wait, WHAT?”
Haven’t read it yet? Grab a copy of Mad Mabel here.
Want to see what we thought of it first? Read our full review → Review: Mad Mabel
About This Guide
Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth is a character-driven mystery that explores judgment, aging, found family, and how easily a person can be defined by one story other people decided to believe. At the center is Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, an 81-year-old woman forced to confront her own past when a neighbor’s death drags a decades-old label — “Mad Mabel” — back into the light.
These questions are organized by theme, moving from easy conversation starters into deeper territory. Feel free to work through them in order, or jump to whichever section sparks the best conversation for your group.
Warm Up
1. Before you started this book, what did you expect based on the title and cover? Did the actual story match that?
2. What was your first impression of Elsie? Did it change by the end?
3. What did you think of the dual timeline structure — present-day Elsie and young Mabel?
4. What’s your favorite Elsie one-liner or moment of sarcasm?
5. Did the “Mad Mabel” nickname match the woman you got to know throughout the book?
6. Which timeline pulled you in faster — the present or the 1950s flashbacks?
Character & Relationships
7. Persephone shows up uninvited and refuses to leave Elsie alone. Did she remind you of anyone in your own life?
8. What does Elsie’s friendship with Daphne reveal about her that other relationships in the book don’t?
9. Why do you think a seven-year-old is the one who finally breaks through Elsie’s walls?
10. Did any adult in young Mabel’s life fail her the most? Who, and how?
11. Persephone sees Elsie clearly before any adult does. What does that say about how children perceive people versus how adults do?
12. What role does community play in this story — for better and for worse?
Deeper & Thoughtful
13. How much of Elsie’s reputation was built on truth, and how much was built on fear and gossip?
14. The book asks who gets to decide someone is “mad” or dangerous. Who does that labeling in real life, and why do people accept it so easily?
15. Elsie survives by staying guarded for sixty years. What did that armor cost her, even as it protected her?
16. Forgiveness shows up in different forms throughout this book. Who deserved it, and who didn’t earn it, in your opinion?
17. If Elsie had told her story decades earlier, do you think it would have changed anything? Or would people have believed the myth regardless?
18. How does the book challenge the way society treats older women specifically?
19. What does this story suggest about the difference between being guilty and being blamed?
20. By the end, do you think the town truly understood Elsie, or did they just replace one story with another?
- Purchase your copy of Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth here
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- Read our discussion of Mad Mabel
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