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Armand Meintjes Buy Almost

Armand Meintjes

Book Club

Questions for reading groups, classrooms and friends who finish a book and need to talk about it.

Discussion questions

These questions are meant to start conversations, not finish them. Use the ones that fit your group, skip the ones that do not, and let the talk wander.

Friendship

  1. Jamie is afraid of losing his friendship with Ethan. Why do you think it matters so much to him?
  2. Ethan is warm, funny and comforting, and he genuinely cares about Jamie. Is caring about someone the same as understanding them? Where do the two come apart?
  3. What do you think Ethan sees when he looks at Jamie? What might Jamie be keeping from him?
  4. Have you ever stayed quiet about something to protect a friendship? Looking back, what did the silence cost, and what did it protect?

Identity and being seen

  1. Jamie has become very good at keeping parts of himself hidden. What does hiding look like in ordinary, everyday moments?
  2. Ashford High is where Jamie gets through his days quietly. How much does a place shape who we feel allowed to be?
  3. Why can saying how you really feel be harder than keeping the feeling to yourself?
  4. Armand says the book is inspired by real emotions from his own life. Does knowing that change the way you read it?

Anxiety, depression and loneliness

  1. Jamie overthinks everything. How does the book show what anxiety feels like from the inside? Did anything feel familiar, or new to you?
  2. Jamie cares deeply but struggles to say so. What makes it so hard for him to put it into words?
  3. What can the people around someone who is struggling realistically do? What can they not do?
  4. Who would you go to if things got heavy? What makes a person easy or hard to talk to?

First love and "not yet"

  1. Almost lives in the in-between, where one person wants more than the other. Why is that such a hard place to be?
  2. The description says "not yet" does not have to mean "never." What does hope look like when you do not know how things will turn out?
  3. The book is not just a love story. What else is it about, and does it need to be only one thing?

Hope

  1. The book talks about hope "the stubborn kind." What does that phrase mean to you?
  2. In his letter, Armand hopes readers remember that their story is not over. Why might someone need to hear that?
  3. If you could say one thing to Jamie, what would it be? And to Ethan?
  4. What are you taking away from the book?

Reading Almost with a group? I would love to hear how your conversation goes.

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