Anonymous Girl (Hendricks-Pekkanen) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. If you were in Jess’s shoes, would you have snuck into Dr. Shields’s morality and ethics survey? Why or why not? After the questions started to become more invasive, do you think you would have continued answering them, or looked for a way out?

2. What did you think of the authors’ decision to use the second person "you" in Dr. Shields’s chapters? How did it affect your experience of reading the novel? Did it change your perception of any of the characters, especially Dr. Shields?

3. Early in the novel, Jess thinks, "Sometimes an impulsive decision can change the course of your life. "Do you agree? Have you ever made any impulsive decisions that dramatically affected your life? What were they?

4. On page 202, Jess asks, "How do you know if you can really trust someone?" What do you think—how do you know? Can you ever know? What about someone makes them seem "trustworthy" to you?

5. Do you think Dr. Shields truly had a good marriage, or was it doomed from the beginning? Why do you believe this, and what about Dr. Shields informs your thoughts?

6. Did you have an idea of what had happened to Subject 5, or were you surprised? If you did suspect what occurred, can you point out what kind of foreshadowing or clues led you to this conclusion?

7. What did you think of Dr. Shields’s morality and ethics questions? Did you find yourself answering them? Which question did you find the most challenging?

8. An Anonymous Girl explores the lies that link people together and the damage these deceptions can cause. Is it ever okay to tell a lie? When does a secret become a deception?

9. How much of a motivating factor was money for Jess? In your opinion, was the money Jess earned worth what she endured? Can trust ever really be bought?

10. At the start of the novel, one of Dr. Shields’s questions to Jess was, "Do victims have a right to take retribution into their own hands?" How would Jess and Dr. Shields answer this question at the end of the book? How would you answer it?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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