Book Club Questions for Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger

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Book club questions for Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger takes a closer look at this fictional take of the college admissions scandal. There will be spoilers so for more context about the book, check out my spoiler-free review first.

Is that song in your head, yet?? Title aside, I thought this was an overall enjoyable read. Yes, a bit superficial but that’s also the point. I quite liked Max and felt sorry for her at times. As I mentioned in my review, I thought Peyton and Skye were both fine as characters. Not a lot of depth but you don’t really expect that in these kind of novels.

I haven’t read all of Lauren Weisberger stories but the ones I have do tend to follow a similar path. And it’s almost like comfort food reading one of her novels again.

The Synopsis

A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all.

Until . . .

Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup.

Until . . .

Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity.

Until . . .

One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?

Book Club Questions for Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty

• Why do you think the author chose this song for the title of her novel? How did it relate to what happened in the story?
• Did you follow the real-life college admissions scandal? In your opinion, why would parents knowingly break the law like that to get their kids into these various colleges?
• What was your opinion on Peyton’s reasoning for trying to “buy” a Princeton admission for her daughter, Max? Do you believe she was so naive to not realize she was breaking the law?
• Why did her husband Isaac have to take the fall for what happened? What would you have done if you were Peyton?
• What are your thoughts about Skye’s storyline? What was behind her buying spree and going into debt? Did she do that out of boredom?
• Did Skye ever tell her husband about her out of control spending?
• Peyton buys Max’s way into Princeton but the irony is that she probably what have gotten in on her own. Why did Peyton have to meddle with her daughter’s future?
• Let’s discuss the ending. Why did Peyton turn herself in? What will be the lasting repercussions for doing so?
• Did you feel any empathy for Peyton?
• How did the scandal impact Peyton and Skye’s relationship for good?
• Have you read any of Lauren Weisberger’s books? How did this one compare to those?

More Recommendations

Hope you enjoyed Where the Grass is Green and the Girls Are Pretty! Here are some more recommendations along with links to book club questions.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. 
  
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since. 
  
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. 
  
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

You can order the book on Amazon here. Check out my book club questions here.

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they’re also building a new future—one neither of them could have anticipated.

With its breakneck pacing, dizzying plot twists, and evocative family drama, The Last Thing He Told Meis a riveting mystery, certain to shock you with its final, heartbreaking turn.

You can order the book on Amazon here. Check out my book club questions here.