Mistakes We Never Made

How does Finn grow as a character over the course of his road trip with Emma? What troubling memories and destructive habits does he need to confront as she wrestles with her own?

Why do you think the author chose to weave in flashbacks as separate chapters rather than including them in Emma’s present-day narration? How might this have changed the story?

What role does travel play in the novel? How might traveling with someone demonstrate their aptitude for a romantic partnership? How does the road trip serve as an example of the forced-proximity trope, and how does it push the boundaries of this trope?

The novel does not resolve the question of whether Sybil and Jamie get married. How does the open-ended nature of affect your understanding of Emma and Finn’s? How does it affect Emma’s understanding of her own future with Finn?

What role do cars play in this book? What does it mean that Emma associates them with both her father and, eventually, with Finn?

Mistakes We Never Made incorporates several tropes of romance novels. How does the author use these tropes both to advance the plot and to explore the novel’s themes?

What do mistakes symbolize to Emma at the beginning and end of the novel? Write an essay in which you analyze how her perspective on mistakes changes.

How does Emma’s past affect her approach to the present? How does she reckon with this past and change over the course of the book?