1. Tess, Em, and their mother select the name Zoe "not so much because we loved the name but because we didn't know anyone else who had it." This reasoning runs counter to the thinking of people who choose a name to create connections, perhaps to a beloved relative or a famous person. In the naming of Zoe, any existing context is assumed to be negative. Is it significant that Zoe's name denies context instead of affirming it?

2. Tess has two dads who differ on practically all points. Her stepdad, David, is a successful lawyer who tries "real hard" and is "all about efficiency." Her biological father, Nick, "is basically a zero in the professional life department," never tries hard, and yet is the person to whom Tess instinctively turns. Within the confines of the story, which character do you find more appealing? Would your answer be different if you were talking about real people instead of fictional characters? If so, what accounts for the difference?

3. In the first chapter of Dear Zoe, Tess declares that nothing changes everything. In the last chapter, she suggests that she was mistaken and that, to the contrary, "everything changes everything." Why does Tess now feel differently about the relation among events, and which of her two statements do you believe is closer to the truth?

4. Why is Tess so obsessed with her daily makeup ritual?

5. Is Zoe a presence in this novel, an absence, or both?

6. In the chapter titled "Church," Tess makes mordantly funny observations about religious attitudes and practices. How do you react to her critique of the Catholic and Episcopal churches?

7. Even before Zoe's accident, Tess occupies an ambiguous place within her family because she is not David's daughter. How does her status as a stepchild influence her responses to everyday life, as well as the cataclysmic disruption of that life?

8. Consider Em's role in the novel. How is she an essential part of Beard's story? What dimensions does her presence add to the novel?

9. Jimmy Freeze, who seems at a loss to put his own life in order, becomes essential in helping Tess to reconstruct hers. Just what is it about him that makes him such an unexpectedly good influence on her?

10. How does Tess's first sexual experience transform her? Is it represented as a necessary rite of passage or as something still more significant? Does her newly acquired sexual awareness translate into a clearer awareness of herself?

11. How do the massive public tragedies of September 11, 2001, affect the significance of Zoe's death and its impact on Tess's family?

12. Tess speculates at the end of the novel that perhaps "Z" is the shape of everyone's life. Has she succeeded in extracting some kind of coherence from all that has happened to her? What do you imagine the shape of Tess's life will be after the novel is over?