READERS GUIDE

1. How much did you know about the culture Julia grew up in before you read the book? What were some things that surprised you?

2. Religions come with many rules. What do you think religious rules provide for followers?

3. Talk about the role of women in the cloistered community. What are their responsibilities? Are the ideal standards to which they are held consistent with their realities? What other faiths out there tout similar views?

4. Julia has a very complicated view of her mother. How do you think that informs her own role as a mother to four children? What example do you think her journey sets for them?

5. What traits from her upbringing, if any, do you think Julia has brought with her to her new life?

6. Have you ever experienced a situation where you had to set boundaries or leave behind a group in order to be true to yourself? What were the feelings you had surrounding that? What was the result?

7. Julia references many of the difficulties that some people who leave her former community face. How do you think her assertion that it was the fault of the “community that forced them to be unprepared for modernity” ultimately serves the community by ensuring its continuity?

8. Ultra-Orthodox Jews cite modesty and simplicity as the foundation of their values, yet Julia describes the high price tag associated with following the community’s strict traditions and customs. How does this materialism conflict with the community’s values? How is it similar to materialism in the secular world?

9. Discuss your reaction to the fact that Julia was not born into Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. How different do you think her life might have been if her mother and father had not converted?

10. Towards the end of her memoir, Julia states, “Every time I win, it makes me stronger and more able to handle the next attack that comes my way. Now I listen to my own voice.” In what other ways has Julia demonstrated that same resolve throughout her life?

11. Seven years after leaving behind her community, Julia says she feels closer to a higher power than she ever did when she was religious. What does her memoir say about religion versus spirituality?

12. The memoir takes place in the period before My Unorthodox Life aired on Netflix in 2021. Did you watch the show before you read Brazen? What surprised you about Julia’s story that wasn’t addressed in the show? Did learning more of her backstory from the book change your understanding of Julia’s life on screen in any way?