Death in Her Hands

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Thinking about your experience reading this novel, what was it like to be inside Vesta Gul’s mind? Did you find her narration compelling, unsettling, frustrating, or something else entirely, and how did your feelings about her evolve as the story progressed?

2. If you are familiar with Ottessa Moshfegh’s work, how does Vesta compare to the alienated narrators in novels like Eileen or My Year of Rest and Relaxation? What common threads do you see in how Moshfegh explores female isolation and the psyche?

3. What were your expectations when Vesta first found the note? Did you anticipate a traditional mystery, and how did you feel as you realized the investigation was happening entirely within her imagination?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. How does Vesta’s extreme isolation in her remote cabin shape her reality? Think about a time you’ve experienced solitude. How does being alone influence your thoughts or creativity, and where do you see a line between productive solitude and the kind of loneliness Vesta experiences?

2. Vesta creates an elaborate story around Magda to give her life a sense of purpose and structure. In what ways do we all use storytelling to make sense of ambiguous situations or to cope with feelings of uncertainty in our own lives?

3. What do you make of Vesta’s relationship with her dog, Charlie? How does he serve as her anchor to the real world, and what did his presence in the story mean to you as a reader?

4. Walter’s memory acts as a critical inner voice that Vesta both battles and internalizes. Have you ever felt the influence of someone from your past shaping your current thoughts or decisions? How does Vesta’s struggle with Walter’s posthumous judgment resonate with that experience?

5. In what ways do you see Vesta’s investigation functioning as a project to keep her mind occupied during a period of grief and transition? Have you ever thrown yourself into a new hobby or complex task to navigate a difficult time?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. What do you think the novel says about the societal conditions that can lead to extreme isolation, particularly among the elderly?

2. How does the novel’s exploration of solipsism, the idea that only one’s own mind is sure to exist, speak to our current moment? Do you see parallels between Vesta’s self-contained reality and the way people can now curate their own information bubbles online?

3. What does the novel suggest about how society perceives older women, especially those who live alone? How might the story have been different if the protagonist were a 72-year-old man?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Vesta is a classic unreliable narrator, but the novel reveals this from the very beginning rather than using it as a twist. How does this upfront approach change your experience as a reader? How does it shift the story’s focus from “what happened?” to “why is she creating this reality?”

2. What does Vesta’s decision to enter the pine woods in her final act suggest about her desire for self-authorship, and how does this setting shape the meaning of her disappearance?

3. The novel self-consciously plays with the mystery genre, with Vesta even looking up “TOP TIPS FOR MYSTERY WRITERS.” How does this metafictional element subvert the conventions of a traditional detective story, like those by Agatha Christie? What commentary is Moshfegh making on the genre itself?

4. What is the significance of Magda being an invention rather than a real person? Which specific aspects of Vesta’s own repressed trauma, particularly concerning her marriage to Walter, does she explore and process through the character of Magda?

5. Consider the discovery of the note fragment in Vesta’s own handwriting. Do you believe she wrote the original note and then forgot, or is the truth more ambiguous? What does this revelation confirm about the theme of the mind as the author of reality?

6. Why do you think it was necessary for Vesta to kill Charlie in the climax of the novel? What does this violent act represent in her complete and final break from the external world?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. You’re tasked with creating a character profile questionnaire for Vesta, much like the one she uses for Magda. What five key questions would you include to get to the heart of who she is, and what do you think her honest answers would be?

2. From which secondary character’s perspective would you have liked to see a chapter written? What might we learn about Vesta and the town of Bethsmame if we saw her through the eyes of Shirley, Henry, or one of the neighbors hosting the murder mystery party?

3. Design a symbolic memorial for the fictional Magda, based on the life Vesta invented for her. What objects or elements would you include, and how would your design reflect Vesta’s own subconscious needs and unresolved grief?