 Reading Group Questions for
Up Pops the Devil
1. Preacher emerges from two years in jail claiming that he is a changed man. By the end of the book do you think he has changed? Do you believe it is really possible for a person to change? Why or why not?
2. Which woman do you think Preacher most belongs with: Tanya, the mother of his children; or Natalie, the woman that he has the strongest connection with? Why?
3. How does Natalie’s experience with her ex-boyfriend Benjamin influence the way she acts with Dante? Is there anything she could have done in either relationship to protect herself?
4. Tanya wants Preacher to provide for her lavish lifestyle. As the mother of his children, do you think she has any right to ask him that? How do you think Preacher should have reacted to her increasingly impossible demands?
5. How would you describe Loretta and Preacher’s sibling relationship? Loretta believes that she has Preacher’s best interests in mind when she asks him to return to their former business. Do you think she is a good sister?
6. Do you think Serena should have told Barnard the truth about her past from the very beginning? Do you think there are secrets that husbands and wives should keep from each other? If so, what kind?
7. Is Barnard right to react in the way he does after he finds out Serena’s secret? Or do you think he should have been more forgiving? Who is to blame for the strain in Barnard and Serena’s marriage?
8. Barnard’s program gives ex-cons a second chance by helping them get jobs in the community. What do you think can be done to help people just out of prison return to regular society? What kinds of obstacles do they face?
9. What do you think is the purpose of the Sean and Devil story in relation to the Preacher story? What do you think the author intended for the reader to get out of it?
10. What do you think will happen to these characters after the end of the book? Which character reminded you most of yourself or someone you know? How so?
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