Characters
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Camille Preaker
Adora and Alan Crellin
Amma – step-sister
Marian – deceased step-sister
Joya – Adora’s mother
Frank Curry – editor (wife Eileen)
Murdered girls:
Ann Nash
Natalie Jane Keene
Chief Vickery
Detective Richard Willis
Misc. Friends
Adora’s – Annie B. (best friend), Jackie O’Neele (had
falling out with Adora)
Camille’s from high school – Katie (now aide at school),
Angie
Amma’s – Kylie, Kelsey, Jodes (Kelsey), Lily Burke
(Chicago)
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- Discuss the party Camille went to with her high school girlfriends. Why was she so different from them?
- Did you know anything about people cutting themselves before reading this novel? What understanding did you gain into this problem?
- Compare Adora's pulling out her eyelashes with Camille cutting herself. Why did each woman do that? Is there a relationship between the two problems?
- When did you start to expect that Adora had murdered Marian? That Amma and her friends had killed the two girls?
- How did Adora's parenting (or lack thereof) contribute to both Camille and Amma's personalities and problems?
- How did you explain Amma's fixation with the doll house?
- What did Alan know? Should he have done anything?
- Discuss the dynamics of the Nash family - Ann had the plainest name of all three girls and was described as the "extraneous third daughter" who was born when parents were trying to have a boy.
- What was the significance of both Ann and Natalie being biters? Also of their personalities - they both were described as having strong personalities and minds of their own. Consider Natalie being violent and stabbing a girl in the eye with scissors in her old school and Ann with a needle during sewing class in Wind Gap. Why did she do that?
- Consider Camille and Richard's discussion about sexism on pages 110-111 of the hardback edition. Camille thought it was sexist to give women special consideration and that sometimes rape is really a drunken woman making a stupid choice. How does this relate to her rape episode with the football team when she was a young teen?
- Which characters did you see as positive? Negative? Why?
- Did you like this book? Why or why not?
First Semester
Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any
Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is now available at
wordassociation.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.