Next of Kin

Using the ideas in What Makes a Family and How Judgment Causes Harm, analyze Chloe’s relationship with Emily and Lane. Are the girls a family? Why or why not? How does Chloe’s fear of judgment impact their history, and what lessons does Chloe learn from the girls that help her along her character arc?

Compare and contrast Calvin and Warren. What role does each play in Chloe’s life? What does Chloe ultimately choosing Warren say about her character and what she wants from her life? How might the story have gone differently if Chloe chose Calvin, and what does this suggest about the greater impact of romantic choices on personal growth?

While Chloe reconciles with her birth mom and adoptive parents, Warren and Luke end the book still at odds with their father. Explore the significance of not every relationship in the novel ending happily. Does this make the story more authentic? Why or why not? If so, how? If not, what is unbelievable about it? What message does this difference offer about the choices people make about who to keep in their lives?

The Bonus Epilogue is told from Warren’s perspective four years after the Epilogue and highlights how joyful Chloe’s and Warren’s lives have become. Does this bonus chapter feel necessary to the story? Why or why not? What does the Bonus Epilogue accomplish by shifting to Warren’s perspective, and how would it have been different, both in writing and for the story, if it were told by Chloe? Include a discussion of the role point-of-view characters play in making a story what it is.

Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the foster care system as made clear by the events of Next of Kin. What does the system do well? Not so well? What changes could be instituted to increase the successful rate of adoptions and decrease the amount of harmful foster placements? What did answering this question teach you about the process of developing a system meant to serve a population of millions?

Using the relationships in Next of Kin, define trust. What elements of a relationship make it clear the people involved trust one another? What aspects make it clear trust is lacking? Discuss obligation in relation to trust and whether trust is ever obligated.

Using the ideas present in Everything Happens for a Reason, choose three events in Next of Kin and analyze how the characters’ backstories and the previous events of the story allowed each of your chosen events to occur. Could the events you chose have happened if the past unfurled differently? Why or why not? If so, how? If not, what in the past specifically leads to that moment only? Based on your analysis, do you believe everything happens for a reason? Why or why not?

Chloe and Warren both shield themselves from the world—Chloe through hiding the truth and Warren through anger. Compare and contrast their journeys to revealing their true selves, and discuss how hiding and anger kept them stagnant. At what point in their pasts did Chloe’s hiding and Warren’s anger shift from a defense mechanism to an excuse to push people away? What events help break down their walls, and why are they so critical to their character arcs? Support your answer with evidence from the text.