John of John
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did you need a blanket, a cup of something, or a break partway through?
Was there a small domestic detail (a meal, a kitchen, a bit of weather, a bus ride) that made you feel instantly at home in the world of the book?
Stuart writes love that shows up as small practical acts rather than big declarations. Which quiet gesture in this book warmed you most, and who in your own life does that for you?
The book sits in a very specific Scottish working-class world. What felt surprisingly familiar to you in it, even if your own upbringing looked nothing like it?
How did the book handle tenderness between men and boys, and did any of it move you or make you think about someone you know?
Stuart is very good at the comfort people find in each other when money and options are thin. Where in this book did you feel real warmth, and what made it land?
By the last stretch of the book, had your feelings about any of the characters softened or shifted? What do you think the book was gently asking you to understand about them?
Without giving anything away, how did you feel when you closed the book, and what did you most want for the people in it? What does that longing say about what you want for yourself?