READERS GUIDE
Unbreak MeMichelle Hazen
Questions for Discussion
1. Do you think food can be healing? If so, which is more nurturing: the enjoyment of consuming the food or the process of preparing it?
2. Why do you think Andra opened up more to LJ than to any other man, or even to her friends and family who she had known her whole life?
3. Throughout the book, LJ uses different mediums to express his feelings for Andra, including food, music, physical touch, and words. Which of these do you think is the most romantic way to communicate love, and why?
4. How many parallels can you think of between the rebuilding of a city after a hurricane and the experience of a woman healing from the trauma of an assault?
5. How do you think the long-term trauma of a rape is affected by the experience of reporting the crime, and the struggle to try to get the justice system to convict and sentence the perpetrator?
6. At one point, LJ is speaking about Andra’s father and says, “He has a weird feeling about me, like I might be trouble. That’s how it works. Nobody thinks they’re racist, Andra. They just think some people can’t be trusted, especially not with their daughters.” Do you think LJ is right about this? Why or why not? Do you think most racist behavior is conscious or unconscious?
7. What was your impression about the city of New Orleans before you read this book? Did that change after reading it? If so, how?
8. What do you think would have happened if Andra hadn’t followed LJ to New Orleans? Would he have come back? Would they have ended up together in the end?
9. Do you think the challenges of discrimination that LJ faced were different in Montana versus New Orleans? Which do you think would be worse or harder to deal with than the other?
10. How do you think the experience of being in an interracial relationship has changed in the last sixty years? What do you think the experience of interracial couples will be like twenty years from now?
11. If there were a movie version of Unbreak Me, who would you cast as LJ and Andra? What scene would you most hope made it into the film adaptation?
