Skip to main content

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

Beach Town

1. Who did you find yourself siding with over the issue of blowing up the casino --- Vanessa and Greer or Eb? Did your feelings change as the story progressed? Why or why not?

2. Greer suggests that Eb has a “messiah complex”. Did you agree or disagree with her? What do you think it is that drives Eb to do what he does for Cypress Key?

3. When Greer and Vanessa first meet Vanessa says, “You’ve probably been in a similar situation, where there’s this one guy --- the only one you think you want, and the only one who doesn’t even know you’re alive. So it’s like a challenge --- to make him want you.” Can you relate at all to that? Have you ever been in a similar situation?

4. Even after Greer learns that things were more complicated than she had always believed, and that her dad didn’t just abandon her and Lise, she still doesn’t want to see Clint. Why? How would you feel if you were in her shoes?

5. Why is it so hard for Greer to face her love for her father and her feelings for Eb? 

6. Why does Greer feel a connection with Allie? In what ways are their lives and experiences similar?

7. In the novel we see as Greer pulls back from focusing solely on her career to letting other people into her life. What are some of the key moments when we see a shift in her?

8. When Greer first sees Allie and Kregg together on set she is worried but decides against saying anything to Eb. What do you think she should have done? Would you have told Eb? Do you think Eb was too hard on Allie in the way that he responded to the photos of her and Kregg on the jet ski? 

9. What is it about the way they approach their lives and the people around them that cause Greer and Eb to butt heads? In many ways their approaches to life are oppositional at the beginning of the novel, and they force each other to examine their own ways of thinking. How are Greer and Eb different and what do they learn from each other?

10. What do you imagine the future to hold for Greer and Eb? What about for Allie, Clint, Jared?

Beach Town
by Mary Kay Andrews

  • Publication Date: May 3, 2016
  • Genres: Fiction, Women's Fiction
  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
  • ISBN-10: 125006595X
  • ISBN-13: 9781250065957