READERS GUIDE

Reader’s Guide
If Not You by Ellen O’Clover
Discussion Questions:


1. Mattie describes her copywriting work as chameleonlike. What are other ways Mattie camouflages her true feelings and desires? Why do you think she does this?

2.   If you could stay at a Wicksteed resort, would you choose Aspen or Bodega Bay? Why?

3.   Beating Campbell is a career milestone that, in Mattie’s words, “meant so much to me it edged on humiliating.” Are there professional goals
that might not matter to the rest of the world but mean a lot to you? Have you achieved them yet?

4.   Mattie, Ava, and Lev have a lot of rituals in their Lincoln Park apartment. Do you have any treasured rituals with roommates or family members?

5.   Mattie and Ava share a bone-deep bond that Mattie worries will shift once Ava’s married. How have major life milestones changed your closest friendships—or not?

6.   Mattie’s mother led her to believe that women can’t “have it all”: a creative life and a family. Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

7.   Mattie and Campbell have spent years competing and learning from each other. What do they learn from each other over the course of this story—not just professionally but personally?

8.   Campbell’s If Not You campaign grew from the seed of something Mattie said to him years earlier. Are there any words—meaningful phrases, pieces of advice—that have stuck with you from conversations in your own life?

9.   Campbell starts this story believing that love is more painful than it’s worth. Is he right? What does love open us to the risk of, and is it worth it?

10. Are there any scenes in this book you’d want to read from Campbell’s perspective? Which ones, and what do you think is going through his mind in those scenes?

11.  The fears that Mattie confesses to Campbell about the future wind up, verbatim, in his final campaign pitch. Have there been times when your personal life has seeped into your work? When and how?

12. Campbell tells Mattie that he thinks choosing a life with someone is a matter of “figuring it out together forever.” What do you think is next for Mattie and Campbell to figure out?