1. General Impressions

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

• Discuss the evolution of your reading experience. How did Phillips’s style and language contribute to or detract from your reaction to the novel? Did your response to it change over the course of the novel?
• Which specific parts of the novel resonated with you? Were there sections you found more or less effective or engaging? Why do you think you connected with these sections?
• Jayne Anne Phillips’s career spans nearly 50 years. How does this novel compare to other works in Phillips’s oeuvre? How has her work changed? If this is your first time reading Phillips, what other writers would you compare her to?

2. Personal Reflection and Connection 

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

• Discuss the novel’s exploration of the concept of family. How does Phillips’s examination of family reflect your own understanding of it? 
• Although it unfolds largely off the page, the Civil War is an omnipresent reality that structures the characters’ experiences. Have you lived through a similarly transformative historical event? How did it alter the way you engaged with the world?
• Which character did you connect most with, and why?
• The novel touches on several sensitive issues, including sexual assault.