Bad Words
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Where did you end up reading most of this one, and did you have a go-to snack or drink in hand while you did?
Before we go anywhere else: what is a word you secretly love the sound of, and one you would happily never hear again?
The title promises bad words, but the book keeps showing how slippery that label is. Which word in your own life has flipped from bad to fond, or fond to unbearable?
This is a love story told largely through how people talk to each other. Which small exchange made you put the book down and just sit with it for a second?
There are moments here where someone says the wrong thing and the world does not end. Did that comfort you, and has anyone ever been that forgiving with your wrong thing?
When the book made you laugh, what kind of laugh was it (relief, recognition, surprise), and what does that tell you about where you were sitting emotionally while reading?
Robinson keeps circling the idea that the honest sentence and the kind sentence are not always the same one. Where in your own life have you had to choose between them, and did you choose the way the book would?
By the last stretch, the book quietly asks what it costs to keep loving someone who sees you clearly. Without giving anything away, did reading it leave you feeling braver or more careful about being known?