1. From the first moment we meet Wavy, her
life is filled with rules. Most are her mother's rules, but some are
hers. What rules are holding Wavy back and which ones does she use to
construct a sense of safety? How do the rules change as she grows up?
2. Wavy's fears and her efforts to resist fear are major themes in the
story. How does the refrain "nothing left to be afraid of" guide Wavy's
life?
3. More than once, it's remarked that the kitchen door of the farmhouse
is unlocked, and Wavy points out that there isn't even a key to that
door. On a practical level, what does it say about Wavy and the people
around her that this door is never locked? As a metaphor, what does it
tell us?
4. Kellen is a murderer and Wavy knows this from an early point in her
relationship with him. How is she able to know this while still
considering him a good person? What things in her life have prepared her
to accept two seemingly contradictory ideas? How do you feel about this
paradox?a
5. The book provides multiple points of view
of Wavy and Kellen, including their own. How are your impressions of
them altered by a narrator's biases? Who seems like the most reliable
narrator? Who seems the least reliable? How do you decide whose opinion
to trust?
6. Aunt Brenda's perspective is the one that most clearly correlates to
our current social attitudes toward relationships like Wavy and Kellen's,
but is she the hero of this story? To what degree do you sympathize with
her?
7. Compared to Wavy, her cousins and her college roommate are ostensibly
the product of "normal" upbringings. In what ways are they more
emotionally healthy than Wavy? In what ways do they have similar
emotional issues?
8. Until 2006, the state of Kansas had no law requiring a minimum age
for marriage, as long as the underage bride or groom had parental or
judicial consent. On occasion this produced child brides far younger
than Wavy would have been. The law now sets the minimum age at 15, a
year younger than the age of consent. How does marriage change our views
of what would otherwise be statutory rape? What if Kellen's wish had
come true, and he and Wavy had married after her 14th birthday? How
would we view that relationship once it was sealed by law?
9. When we talk about "consent" we have a bad habit of restricting it to
the question of sex, but what other types of consent are at play in the
story? Stress is placed on Wavy's capacity to consent to a sexual
relationship with Kellen, but what about her capacity to consent or
refuse consent to other things?
10. Of the female role models in Wavy's life, which has the greatest
effect on her? How do these role models color her views about herself
and her relationships?
11. As much as we may wish for Wavy and Kellen's relationship to remain
platonic, what do you feel contributes to its steady shift toward
becoming first romantic and then sexual? What might have happened if it
had remained platonic?
12. Amy narrates a large portion of Wavy's life, while only revealing
parts of her own. How does she choose what to reveal and what to hide?
And why might she prefer to tell Wavy's story over her own?
13. What is the dynamic between Wavy and Kellen as husband and wife at
the end? Who do you see as the decision maker? The moral compass? What
other roles have they taken on, and how comfortable are they in those
roles? Considering their backgrounds, how likely are they to succeed in
creating a healthy relationship and a "normal" family?