Book Club Guide for Amphibian
Suggested questions and prompts
In what ways did the girlhood described in Amphibian resonate or contrast with your own coming-of-age and adolescence?
The novel deals with the challenges and failures of sex education—both that which is formally given by schools and informally received from parents, friends, and culture. Do you think the sex education Sissy received was adequate? How do you think sex education for young people could be improved?
In the novel, Sissy navigates her first experiences of desire but also of intimacy with someone outside of her family. How are these two feelings differentiated and muddied?
Sissy’s experience of pleasure changes from the beginning of the novel—when she delights in the touch of the grass on her skin and takes joy in what she later learns is an orgasm—to the end of the book, when she understands how these pleasures are socially conditioned. What is your interpretation of this journey? What does it say about the presence or, indeed, absence of female pleasure in conversations around sex?
What does the choice of present tense narration add to the story? How would the book have changed if it were told from Tegan’s perspective? Or from in third person narrative?
Sissy and Tegan’s friendship is as intense as a first love. What is it that draws Sissy to Tegan?
Tegan is a complicated character. How do you think she feels about Sissy? How do your feelings about her change over the course of the book?
Kevin is also still a child when he meets Sissy. How would you characterize what happens between them? What issues of consent does this and other episodes in the book bring up?
Mou is an unconventional, troubled, but deeply loving mother. By the end of the book, how did you feel about her choices? How does the depiction of Mou compare to that of Brenda? The book is full of relationships between mothers and daughters across generations. What do these multi-generational ties add to the story and to our understanding of the characters?
Myths are woven into Amphibian, including the myth of Daphne and Apollo, Philomela and Tereus, and The Little Mermaid. Sissy is also inundated with zealous high school gossip especially about the girls at school and how they behave—who to love and how much—which is often picked up by the “chorus of girls” in her head. What is the role of myth in Amphibian? How are the myths, the gossip, and the chorus of girls connected? Where and how do we learn about the socially acceptable ways to behave as a woman?
There is a ritual at the heart of the novel. Why do you think this ritual becomes so important to Sissy? Do you think there should be coming-of-age rituals in contemporary culture that help girls define for themselves when they are ready for womanhood? What could these entail?
Looking at the titles for the five sections of the novel—”preparation,” “cleansing,” “separation,” “the passage,” and “rebirth”—what do you interpret these to mean?
The book follows Sissy through puberty, but she goes through another less conventional metamorphosis at the same time. What did this transformation represent to you? Is it real or imagined? Does it matter?
What does the ending mean?
What assumptions or beliefs did this novel challenge or illuminate for you?
Tools and resources
Interview with the author from Debut Digest.
Interview with the author in Brooklyn Rail.
Recording of the reading and Q&A from Amphibian’s NYC book launch at Books Are Magic.
Essay on female masturbation in Vogue.
Craft essay on voice in LitHub.
Download this guide as a pdf here. You’re also welcome to contact the author here if you’d like for her to make an appearance at your book club.