READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Why do you think Justice Wynn entrusted Avery as his legal guardian?

2. How would you describe Avery’s relationship with Justice Wynn before his coma?

3. How did Avery’s character change and evolve over the course of the novel as she solved the riddle Justice Wynn left behind?

4. As she begins to grapple with her role as legal guardian, Avery meets Justice Wynn’s son, Jared, and also contends with her own relationship with her mother. How do family dynamics play a role in the novel?

5. How do you think Avery’s abilities and personality type were affected by her experiences with her mother?

6. How does the “red tape” of politics and the Washington, DC, setting add to the puzzle Avery is trying to solve?

7. If you were in Avery’s shoes, would you have accepted the role of legal guardian? Why or why not?

8. As Avery meets new characters as a result of her role as Justice Wynn’s legal guardian, do you think she was too trusting?

9. How do you think author Stacey Abrams’s experience in politics shaped While Justice Sleeps?

10. Avery discovers that Justice Wynn was looking into the merger of a biotech company and a genetics firm. How do politics and ethics play a role in this case? How does Avery reconcile this intersection of politics and bioethics?