Book Club Questions for Loved One by Aisha Muharrar

WellRead's September 2025 selection was Loved One by Aisha Muharrar. In this story, we meet Julia who is left reeling when her first-love-turned-best-friend dies suddenly. As she heads to the UK to retrieve some of his personal belongings, she has one big question hanging over their relationship but her journey peels back the layers until everything is laid bare and she has to try to reconcile what she thought she knew with the reality. 

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

Reading questions for Loved One by Aisha Muharrar: 

• Julia takes on a ‘leading role’ when it comes to salvaging Gabe’s possessions – do you think she was the right person to do this?
  

• How did you think Elizabeth and Julia’s ‘friendship’ was going to play out? Did their interactions surprise you in any way?
  

• Do you think Elizabeth and Julia’s versions of Gabe contradicted each other?
  

• How do you feel about Gabe’s mother and the way she approached the aftermath of Gabe’s death?
  

• There are some parts of this story that seem a little far fetched, but in the lens of grief seem to make perfect sense. How do you think grief warps people’s sense of reality? How do you think this is true in this story?
  

• Were there any quotes or moments that resonated with your own experiences of grief?
  

• “Then another bar, with more people outside, a group of four in their mid-twenties, beers in hand. They were young and wasting time, and I immediately hated them. I couldn’t have been more than five years older than them. I’d never felt more ancient.” Loved One is quite a nostalgic novel, looking back on Julia and Gabe’s younger selves and grappling with the reality of passing the ‘30’ milestone. How do you think the story navigates the intersection of aging, grief, and loneliness?