The New People

Nearly everyone in The New People is hiding something. Were any of these secrets, in your view, acceptable? Are there characters you think should have been honest sooner? 2.If you were in Charlotte's position, would you have sabotaged the house as she does, or taken another path? What could she have done instead?

How do you think Rachel's literary success affected Emma? Do you think Give Me Five Moons would have been the wedge to drive them apart if Emma's pregnancy had not? 4.What does Charlotte's decision to keep Dirk uninformed about the lawyers she contacted reveal about the state of their marriage?

Given everything that has passed between them, why do you think Emma is able to forgive Charlotte? How might Emma's pregnancy, which coincides with Charlotte's loss of Justin, play into that forgiveness?

In many small-town narratives that address LGBTQ+ themes, religion often plays a role in some way, yet here it is noticeably absent as a theme. Why do you think that is? What does this say about the community of Riverbend?

On page 12, Rachel says, "Also, it's 2008. We've got a Black guy running for president. We're two ladies who are married! This is an entirely new world compared to when we were kids." How do you feel reading this decades later? Do you agree or disagree with Rachel's optimistic outlook on the political climate of the time?

Alex and Patty are both portraits of incredibly complex characters. How did your understanding of them change throughout the course of the novel? Were there moments you disagreed with them? Sympathized or agreed with them?

Foreclosure, the instability of adjunct teaching, and debt all appear alongside the financial burden of IVF and the trauma of miscarriages. Talk about the ways in which these various kinds of loss and precarity connect one another. What are some other ways in which these characters encounter forms of security, or the lack thereof?

How do you think the behaviors of the men on the periphery of the book affect the women's narratives around them? For example, what are the ripple effects from Paulie and Victor's behavior on Emma and Charlotte's lives?

On page 249, Rachel says, “Not everyone's meant to be a mother. And that's not a bad thing." In what ways do Emma's reactions to that statement reflect the larger arc of her journey in the novel? How does Emma's journey to motherhood relate to Charlotte's?

Characters in this novel repeatedly lose things they once assumed they owned or had control over - homes, careers, marriages, even their own bodies. Which type of loss would be hardest for you, personally? Which struck you as the most devastating in the story? More so, if we view this novel as a story about loss, what message do you think the author is trying to get across?