Printable Book Club Questions for Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

The story starts off with a mysterious tone as I mentioned above with the murder of Christina who we eventually learn is Nick’s mother. Why do you think Jennifer Weiner started the book of this way? Do you think she wanted to set the mystery tone early on?
It’s interesting in the video that Jennifer says she didn’t plan for there to be a murder mystery. Let’s speculate why she went that way with the story. Did you like that shift in tone? Why or why not?
Our introduction to Daphne, a plus-size influencer, is when she’s meeting with Leela, a woman in charge of a clothing line that Daphne wants to represent. First, what were your initial impressions of Daphne?
Looking back did you sense there was anything off about Leela in this initial meeting?
Why do you think Daphne decided to become an influencer? What do you think about influencer culture in general? Do you follow any?
What are you thoughts about Instagram vs. reality? It seems people try to pretend and craft the perfect image, like Drue, but reality is quite often very different.
Let’s talk about Drue and Daphne’s friendship. Do you believe it was ever authentic or do you think Drue simply continued to use Daphne up until her death?
We learn what eventually drove the two apart—after Daphne tells off a jerk guy that Drue tried to set her up with, Drue is very cruel to Daphne. Let’s talk about this scene.
Drue comes back to Daphne’s life and begs her to be in the wedding and eventually she agrees. Why was Daphne so drawn to Drue? Did she make a mistake by allowing Drue to reenter her life?
Let’s talk about Daphne’s first meeting and night with Nick.
The story’s tone shifts when Daphne finds Drue dead on her wedding day. In then turns into a murder mystery about who killed Drue. Who did you suspect did it?
As Daphne, Nick and Darshi work to find out Drue’s killer and clear Daphne and Nick’s names, Daphne discovers a lot about her deceased friend. That Drue was unhappy, her family was running out of money and she wasn’t in love with her reality TV show fiancé/husband. And it turns out she was in love with Aditya, a kind but sloppy man—a complete surprise to the rest of the crew. Let’s discuss all these revelations about Drue.
As Daphne learns more about Drue, she begins to realize that her admiration of Drue wasn’t warranted and in fact, it seems Drue was envious of her in many ways. Let’s talk about it.
What did you think about the reveal of Drue’s killer?
The story ends on a happy note with Daphne accepting who she is and what she has in life, including Nick. Let’s talk about what next for Daphne.
Have you read other books by Jennifer Weiner? How did this one compared to those?