1.What is this novel about: love, friendship, and what else?

2.Though the book deals with serious subjects, it’s often wildly funny. How does Fox use humor to tell the story?

3.Who is the better friend, Jane or Willa?

4.Much is made of how similar Willa and Jane are. How does this affect their behavior, toward each other and toward the outside world?

5.Who does Willa love more, Jane or Ben? How can you tell?

6.Who does Ben love more, Willa or Jane? How can you tell?

7.Both Seth and Ben have been inconsistent presences in Willa’s life. What else do they have in common?

8.How do Willa’s and Jane’s parents’ marriages shape their outlook?

9.On page 54, Stan says to Willa, “Love can be ruthless.” How does this prove true? Are there any relationships in the novel that are free of ruthlessness?

10.Willa says that the one thing she’s learned from her brother is that “opportunities for forgiveness are unlimited” (page 57). How does this belief influence Willa’s actions later in the novel?

11.What might Jane and Ben have done differently, to respect Willa’s feelings? What role did their behavior have in what ultimately happens?

12.How does Jane’s kissing Dougie affect Willa?

13.Each character in the novel has episodes of extreme selfishness. Whose affects the others most deeply?

14.Reread the prologue. Now that you know what’s happened, how does your interpretation change? What “other options” is Jane referring to?

15.By the end of the novel, how has Willa grown? In what ways has she changed?

16.What purpose does the epilogue serve? At the very end, Willa says, “I understood that the ease of knowing you will love someone forever is always shadowed by the inkling that you might not: that even such a sweetness could end.” What does she mean?

17.Does the novel have a happy ending? How do you envision the end of Willa and Ben’s relationship?