6. Abby is in her midthirties, an age when most of her friends are settling down. She has resisted putting down the traditional roots of a desk job, a marriage, and a house in the suburbs. To what extent is Abby’s struggle timeless versus a unique situation faced by women in their midthirties today? Did this conflict resonate with you or remind you of anyone in your life? Why or why not?
7. Morgan seeks help from Kayla, an adult outside her own family, because she fears her mother’s judgment. It is so important for teenagers to find adults they can trust, but when should adults keep the secrets of somebody else’s child, and when are they obligated to involve the child’s parents? Do you think Kayla, Abby, and Eileen did the right thing? What would you have done in that situation?
8. The bike trip brings together a group of strangers. While everyone on the trip knows somebody else, they all spend time getting to know new people, and we see the group come together in surprising ways by the trip’s end. Discuss the theme of building community in the novel. Are we our truest selves among strangers? How are the main characters influenced in powerful ways by conversations with people they’ve just met?
9. Several characters spend their journeys reflecting on their relationships with their mothers, and many of them have things they wish they could have told their mothers, or wish their mothers knew. In what ways are the different characters’ mother-child relationships unique and in what ways are they universal? How have you seen this play out in your own life? What do you wish your mother knew, or had known, about you? If you could tell your mother anything, what would it be?
10. What will you remember most about The Breakaway?