You Will Know Me (Abbott)

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for You Will Know Me...then take off on your own:

1. Who do you find more disturbing in this book: teenagers or adults? Talk about the grownups and the way their behavior mimics that of teenagers...or vice versa.

2. Why in particular does Katie Knox resent the other parents who try to "drag her into their little circle, their gym drama, their coven"?

3. How does Megan Abbott depict the world of female gymnastics? What are its contradictions in terms of the way the sport ages the girls yet restrains their maturity?

4. What hardships does gymnastics impose on the body? Discuss how the sport offers girls a means of mastering pain and taking control of their bodies. Is this discipline admirable, a good thing? What do you think, for instance, of Devon who endures the pain and never once cries?

5. Put yourself in the shoes of the Knoxes. What would you do if you were the parents of a child like Devon, "who worked harder and wanted something more than either of them ever had"?

6. Abbott is a master of deception: she drops a hint or clue with one hand, but subverts what you think you know with the other. At which point were you fairly sure of something, only to have the rug pulled out from under you?

7. Who do you find most frightening in You Will Know Me? Which character troubles you the most?

8. What is the thematic significance of the title? How well do we really want to know someone? How well CAN we really know anyone?

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

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