READERS GUIDE
Questions and Topics for Discussion
- What is your own default definition of a good guy? For example, do you think a good guy is necessarily a guy? Necessarily good?
- The novel suggests multiple interpretations for the concept of a good guy. How are different characters framed as potential good guys? When and how does the story complicate this label?
- GOOD GUYS alternates between two first-person narrators. Are you inclined to trust one of the sisters more than the other? What makes you feel that way?
- Early in the novel, Georgie asks, “Does it count for anything that I was usually trying to do the right thing?” How would you answer this question?
- Do you think there was a single original sin that soured the relationship between the sisters? If so, what was that original sin? If not, what are some of the factors you think are important?
- Jo and Georgie’s father is in denial about his addiction. What else are he and other characters denying, and which denials strike you as more problematic? More understandable?
- Georgie and Jo can’t help remembering scripture and lessons from the Christianity of their childhood, even if they mostly disavow those teachings now. How do faith and church culture influence the sisters and their story?
- Do you think Jo is wrong in the way she researches and pursues publishing the article? Why or why not?
- What do you think further investigations into the events in Iraq will or won’t turn up, and why?
- What do you think Georgie and Jo’s lives will be like 2-3 years after the events in GOOD GUYS?
