Great and Precious Things

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Consider the novel’s two primary antagonists, Xander and Judge Bradley. Which character did you most sympathize with, and why? What aspects of your personal experiences allowed you to empathize with or better understand this character’s actions, emotions, and antagonistic nature?

2. What parts of the town of Alba did you most relate to? How are your own experiences in a small town, community, or social body like the Historical Society similar to those in the novel? Discuss how these connections helped you better understand Cam and/or Willow as a character.

3. The characters in Great and Precious Things experience conflict between societal and familial obligations. What difficulties have you faced that created conflict between your societal and familial obligations? Did the novel provide ideas about how you could have handled your own conflict better?

4. Discuss a decision you made in the past that caused you grief and regret similar to what Cam experiences. What advice would you give to Cam to help him heal from the choice he made that led to Sullivan’s death?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Compare this novel to Rebecca Yarros’s 2019 novel, The Last Letter. Discuss how both novels thematically explore the issue of military service and a return to civilian life. Examine how the characters of Cam, Willow, Beckett, and Ella provide insight into the positive and negative aspects of post-military life.

2. Discuss Yarros’s depiction of Alzheimer’s disease. How could she have made Arthur a rounder character to balance the negative aspects of his character? Why might she have chosen not to?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Choose two of the following: the Rose Rowan mine, Arthur’s DNR order, Cam’s tattoos, unicorns, or milkshakes. Identify what each item symbolizes, and explain how that symbolism develops a theme in the novel.

2. Consider the townspeople as antagonists in Great and Precious Things. Discuss how they, as a whole, act against both Cam and Willow. How do they facilitate the major changes that Cam and Willow make in the text?

3. Compare the thematic context of Rebecca Yarros’s novel Variation (2024) to that of Great and Precious Things. What theme do the novels share that relates to love? Trace this theme’s development in both texts, discussing similarities and differences. Be sure to consider the shifting first-person point of view in each novel regarding the development of this theme.

4. Choose one allusion that the novel makes to John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (1952). Discuss how this allusion helps develop a character and/or conflict and then how it informs one of the novel’s themes.