What She Knew (Macmillan)

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 MYSTERY QUESTIONS
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for What She Knew...then take off on your own:

1. How does the novel's title, What She Knew, relate to the narrative? What is it's significance to the work?

2. What do you think of Rachel? What kind of mother is she? How does she evolve throughout the course of the novel? And what about Rachel's sister, Nicky, who seems to know more than she lets on?

3. Talk about DI Jim Clemo. In what way does his voice serve as a counterpoint to Rachel's? His involvement in the case is professional, but how does it affect him? Also talk about DC Emma Zhang, whom Clemo recommends, perhaps unwisely, as Family Liaison Officer.

4. What role does social media play in the novel? Do you think the online reaction is realistic?

5. Almost every reviewer refers to the book as a page-turner. Did you experience it that way? What creates the book's intensity?

6. Macmillan told Huffington Post that she wrote three different endings to the book: one too pat and easy, the second too dark, and the third, "a more truthful conclusion than the other two." What do you think of the ending? Is it satisfying? Want to take a stab at what the other two might have been like (Macmillan has not said, by the way)?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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