Book Club Questions for Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel

WellRead's December 2025 selection was Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel. Themes of loss, marriage and partnership, the persistence of grief, the shaping power of memory, and the intersection of science and art pulse through this novel, making it a deeply human story wrapped in speculative wonder.

Use these discussion questions to engage with the book further, whether in a book club with friends or just on your own as you digest the story. 

• In a recent interview, Aja Gabel said Lightbreakers was shaped by her experience writing for TV, giving the story “a propulsive backbone". Did you feel that energy or forward drive in the novel? How did it affect the way you read or connected with the characters?
• If every person’s perception shapes the truth of an event, can there ever be a shared reality? How does Lightbreakers navigate this question through Noah and Eileen’s memories and connections?
• Part of parenting is relinquishing control – over your body, time and even your sense of self. How do you think this shapes Noah, Eileen and Maya’s lives
• What do you think the Pronghorn represents in the story? Do you think it offers comfort, distance, or perspective? Or something else?
• If you could revisit the past knowing the consequences would disrupt the present, would you?
• Lightbreakers blurs the line between science and art, suggesting that both are ways of seeking truth and connection. How does Gabel show these two worlds belonging together rather than apart? Do you agree that science and art are connected?
• “Loss and pain, you never get over it, she thinks. It’s the wrong way to think of loss. There is no over it. There is only the day you turn the corner, when something new is born.” Do you view grief as something to move past, or as something that continually reshapes us?