1. Why do you think this book is titled Cage of Stars? It’s a wonderful visual image, but what might it mean?

2. What real-life case does the situation in this book evoke for you? Do you believe that mental illness is a legitimate defense when a person commits a terrible crime? Is justice served if the person is released from an institution?

3. Who is to blame for this crime? Could it have been prevented? Can a random act of violence ever be prevented? Do any of the survivors feel guilty? Do they bear any responsibility in the deaths?

4. At one point, after reading a letter from Miko, Ronnie says “I was the only one still . . . stuck.” Do you think this being “stuck” is related to Ronnie’s choice of vengeance over forgiveness? How else does her quest for “justice” affect her life?

5. Ronnie does not carry out her plan for revenge, but if she had, how would you rewrite the end of this story?

6. Talk about Ronnie’s relationship with her parents. Do you think she is closer to her father than her mother? Why?

7. Ronnie says, at the beginning of chapter fourteen, that “I think every religion must have been started by a person who loved someone who died.” What is your response to that? True or false?

8. Looking at Ronnie’s life and that of her parents…do you believe that someone can love and hate at the s