1.) Abbey Chandler has a secret crush on Nate Holden, a handsome boy she thinks is perfect and the complete opposite of her. Can you see her ever making a play for him or would she keep her feelings secret? How does the way she sees herself affect her feelings for Nate? Have you ever experienced a crush like Abbey’s? Can something real come from her feelings for Nate or is she better off keeping her crush a fantasy?
2.) Tanner Lange watches Abbey’s obsession over Nate grow, but he’s got genuine feelings for his best friend. What would be the pros and cons of falling in love with a friend? Is the risk in love worth losing your friend if the relationship doesn’t work out?
3.) Abbey has guilt over the part she played in her mother’s death. Even though the accident wasn’t her fault, how has it changed Abbey’s life? If you were her friend, what would you say to her that would make her feel better? What could you do to help her, even if she acted like she didn’t need anyone and pushed you away?
4.) Abbey’s father had his own grief to deal with. He lost his wife and best friend too. How does Abbey see her father through the book and how do her views of him change as they both deal with grief? Does her father see Abbey differently by the end of the book too?
5.) Nate Holden takes risks with his life early in the book because he loves mountain climbing. Once he faces Death and realizes he can die, do you think Nate would do things differently, if he gets a second chance? Do you know people like this, who risk their lives doing things they love? How might their personalities change if they couldn’t do what they love? What’s worth risking your life over?
6.) What are your favorite quotes from the book and why did they have special meaning for you?
Quotes from ON A DARK WING (Jordan Dane, Harlequin Teen)
“I lived in a house with a mortuary in my basement where the big-screen TV should have been. With the ground frozen for a big chunk of the year in Alaska, Dad stored bodies in our house, waiting to plant them with the spring thaw. So being an outsider came with the territory. I made the weird kids in my school feel good about themselves.” ~Abbey Chandler – ON A DARK WING
“Below my bedroom window, a tree moved in the night breeze. It was filled with ravens and crows, hundreds of them. They caught the moonlight in their feathers and made the whole tree look as if it would lift from the ground. The birds gathered for a purpose. They had come because of me.” ~Abbey Chandler
“On my suck-odometer, chores ranked in the red zone as something seriously wrong and unnatural, like anchovies on pizza.”
~Abbey Chandler
“Dad had taught me how to play poker. I’d gotten pretty good at bluffing. He had no idea how much I used him to practice lying with a straight face, even without cards in my hand.”
~Abbey Chandler
“Not once did Jason ask about his life, like a guy in a wheelchair was an open book that everyone had read and knew the ending.”
~Tanner Lange
“Did you know that time was invented so everything didn’t happen at once?” ~Tanner Lange
“You should aspire to something a little higher on the food chain than a fly, Abbey. A fly thinks a warm cow patty is a choice meal.”
~Tanner Lange “If this is gonna work, I need you to take off my pants.”
~Tanner Lange (to Abbey)
“You asked who I am,” he said. “Look into my eyes, Abbey. You tell me.”
~Abbey Chandler (staring into the eyes of Death)
“Death had taken center stage and my dark angel was impossible to forget.” ~Abbey Chandler
“I remembered his perfect face. His pale skin radiated the flickering light from the fire. His mesmerizing blue eyes glistened as he stared at me with a preternatural stillness that now I thought I should have recognized as unnatural all along.”
~Abbey Chandler (talking about Death)
“Old ghosts and new were with me now, bleak memories that I had a hand in creating. Death—with his unforgettable kiss—would be one more.” ~Abbey Chandler
