Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Wounded:
1. The book's title, "wounded," has numerous meanings. What is its significance? Who all in this novel is wounded—and in what ways?
2. When Gina tells Mike that "Jesus kissed [her] hand and pierced it," why does Mike think, "not this"?
3. According to Mike, "People of God go through life believing without seeing; that's the nature of faith." Then he refers to the famous quotation from Hebrews (I:1): "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." How does that understanding of faith affect those surrounding Gina? How easy is it for doubt to enter into our own lives—all of us? What would your reaction have been to Gina had you met her in real life?
4. Why is Gina chosen? And why is she a surprising, even unbelievable, recipient of the stigmata?
5. Gina is visited by two different men of the cloth: a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister. What are their reactions to Gina? What do they reveal about themselves...and what do you think of them?
6. Were you disturbed—or intrigued—by Burney's treatment of Jesus as both a human with human lovers and the Son of God?
7. What about the novel's structure—told in rotating voices of the main characters? Why might Burney have chosen that format—and does it work for you? Talk about how the characters (and their voices) differ from one another. Is there one in particular whom you favor?
8. Do you find the stories of the saints engaging...or do you feel they're intrusive, disrupting the plot's momentum?
9. What does Wounded suggest about human struggle and God's beneficence—and about the "types" of people who are elegible to receive grace?
10. Does this story alter, reinforce, or challenge your view of Christianity and what it means to be a person of faith?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution.)
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