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Discussion Guide

People We Meet on Vacation

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She's a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart--she's in New York City, and he's in their small hometown--but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she's stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together--lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

These book club questions are from the publisher, Penguin Random House.

Book club questions for People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

When they first meet, Alex and Poppy are immediately put off by each other. Have you ever made a friend after a bad first impression?

What’s something you do on vacation that you’re unlikely to do in your daily life? Is there a certain comfort in anonymity?

Have you ever met a goal and found that your reaction wasn’t quite what you expected?

What is your worst vacation memory? Your best?

Poppy is going through professional burnout. Have you ever experienced that kind of fatigue? How did you get through it?

Which vacation of Alex and Poppy’s would you most want to take? Which would you least want to take?

Having grown up in a small town, Poppy struggles to break free of her reputation—or at least struggles to believe she can do so. When have you felt misunderstood, and how did you get past it?

Why do you think it takes Poppy and Alex so long to admit their feelings to each other?

Rachel has a lot to say about contentment versus purpose. In your own life, do you prize one above the other? Are these ideas mutually exclusive, or can you have both?

Do you think Poppy and Alex are going to make it?

People We Meet on Vacation Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the People We Meet on Vacation discussion questions