It Should Have Been You: A Novel
71 pages • 2-hour read
Andrea MaraIt Should Have Been You: A Novel
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Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child abuse, bullying, mental illness, and substance use.
Digital Communication and the Collapse of Privacy
It Should Have Been You portrays digital communication as a destabilizing force that erodes the boundary between private and public life. Author Andrea Mara presents a world where a single message triggers lasting and uncontrollable consequences. Susan’s misdirected text illustrates how the spread of online content outpaces any attempt to contain it. The novel depicts a culture where private expression can swiftly turn into the subject of public debate with widespread social, emotional, and physical consequences.
The narrative is set in motion by Susan’s accidental WhatsApp post, which immediately establishes the inherent risks embedded in digital interaction. A snide commentary intended for the private audience of her sisters is transmitted to the 300-member Oakpark group. Within minutes, the message is read, interpreted, and—crucially—captured through screenshots. Detached from the context of Susan’s sleep-deprived frustration, the text becomes an “open-the-popcorn moment” for an entire community (8). One tap turns a private vent into a public document to be scrutinized and judged by others. The WhatsApp platform functions as an accelerant, enabling instantaneous dissemination without accountability for how the message is received or repurposed.
The novel further explores how easily digital information can be weaponized, transforming social missteps into catalysts for real-world harm. Susan’s message migrates beyond WhatsApp to other platforms, illustrating the networked nature of digital ecosystems. As the information circulates, it gains momentum, losing any connection to its original context. The escalation reaches a critical point when a local Facebook buy-and-sell group then doxxes Susan by posting her full name, phone number, and home address, inviting harassment. This development exposes Susan to tangible danger when she receives a text saying, “You deserve to die for that message and what it’s done” (23). The threat is followed by physical violence when an unknown person throws a brick through her bedroom window, while her infant sleeps inside. The distinction between online and offline spaces blurs as the apparent consequences of Susan’s message intrude into the sanctuary of her home.
The collapse of privacy also extends to the novel’s teenage characters, whose interactions mirror the adults’ behavior. The teenagers’ use of platforms such as Snapchat demonstrates social media’s role in shaping social identity and enforcing hierarchy. After Susan’s message exposes Nika’s secret relationship, her peers shame and ostracize her through group chats. Nika’s retaliation—posting a video of Maeve’s diary entries via an anonymous account—further exemplifies the weaponization of private information as deeply personal material is repurposed for public humiliation.
Ultimately, It Should Have Been You presents digital communication as a mechanism that both facilitates and accelerates the breakdown of social boundaries. The novel reveals a culture in which the distinction between private and public has been erased, replaced by a flow of information that is impossible to contain. In this context, reputation becomes precarious, shaped by the unpredictable dynamics of online circulation.
The Unforeseeable Consequences of Small Transgressions
In It Should Have Been You, Mara constructs a plot where even apparently small choices create widespread and unpredictable consequences. The novel shows how lapses of judgment—petty resentments, fleeting anger, or careless communication—can initiate chains of causality that spiral beyond any individual’s control. As Celeste observes, this dynamic resembles “[t]he flap of the butterfly’s wings” (220): a minimal disturbance that escalates into far-reaching disruption.
Susan’s impulsive text message is the clearest example of this pattern, functioning as the narrative’s inciting micro-transgression. What begins as a tired mother’s outburst becomes profoundly consequential as Susan exposes Warren’s affair, mistakenly identifying his lover as Aimee. From this moment, Mara traces a domino effect of retaliation and escalation. Felipe’s decision to send Rory a screenshot and Rory’s murder of his wife illustrate the fatal consequences of momentary lapses in judgment. Venetia’s subsequent killing of Rory, driven by loyalty to Aimee, further compounds this cycle, extending into her pursuit of vengeance against Susan. This trajectory culminates in Felipe’s death, completing a chain of events that occur “all because of a text” (2). In this way, the narrative traces the path from a small transgression to devastating loss.
The chain reaction set in motion by Susan’s text is echoed in other narrative threads, reinforcing its thematic importance. Jon’s affair with Savannah ultimately entangles him in a murder investigation, as well as destabilizing his marriage. His subsequent attempt to contain the fallout leads him to persuade Greta to impersonate Susan. The call in which he asks Greta to “come over and pretend to be Susan” escalates the unpredictability of events (299), bringing Greta face-to-face with the woman who injured her while drunk driving. Greta’s decision to push Savannah, made in a moment of overwhelming anger, ultimately causes Savannah’s death. Significantly, the death is accidental rather than premeditated, underscoring the novel’s emphasis on unintended consequences. However, Greta’s elaborate machinations to cover up her involvement in Savannah’s death demonstrate how attempts to mitigate one transgression often generate further ethical breaches.
The narrative also illustrates how past transgressions continue to reverberate into the present. Cody’s decision to lock a four-year-old in a garden while babysitting resurfaces after Susan’s text, damaging his prospects and feeding Celeste’s resentment. This illustrates how past mistakes, once embedded in social memory, can be reactivated by new circumstances. Similarly, Felipe’s retrospective guilt about forwarding Roy the screenshot, captured in his admission, “He would not have seen it if it wasn’t for me” (223), highlights the weight of culpability for unintentional consequences.
In It Should Have Been You, no single character fully anticipates the ramifications of their actions, yet each contributes incrementally to a larger pattern of harm. The novel portrays a world in which culpability is diffuse and consequences are often disproportionate. Small transgressions—texts sent in anger, secrets carelessly exposed, and lies told to avoid discomfort—become catalysts for irreversible damage.
The Pervasiveness of Deception and Hidden Lives
In her depiction of Oakpark, Mara presents a community where deception governs individual identity and behavior. The novel portrays a world in which nearly every character sustains a private reality that conflicts with their public persona. Infidelity, fabricated identities, coded language, and criminal cover-ups form the hidden architecture of relationships in Oakpark. These deceptions are closely tied to the performance of suburban respectability, where maintaining the appearance of order and moral propriety takes precedence over truth. As successive revelations emerge, Mara systematically dismantles the illusion that this community is built on honesty, exposing a culture sustained by concealment and mutual complicity.
The most visible and socially disruptive deceptions center on infidelity. Jon’s affair with Savannah exemplifies the use of deception to preserve a respectable façade. By telling Savannah that he’s single and using a pay-as-you-go phone while explaining his absences to Susan as work commitments or new running habits, he effectively constructs two parallel identities. This allows him to inhabit incompatible roles simultaneously: devoted husband and father in public and unfaithful partner in private. Warren’s affair, exposed through Susan’s text, reinforces this pattern while also demonstrating the fragility of such carefully maintained illusions. Significantly, the same dynamics reappear among the younger generation, as Nika secretly conducts a relationship with Zach, who’s dating her friend Ariana. These interconnected storylines suggest that deception is endemic to Oakpark’s social fabric, reproduced across generations.
Beyond infidelity, deception escalates into more elaborate forms of impersonation and criminal concealment. Greta’s actions represent the most extreme example of this progression. Initially drawn into Jon’s web of lies when he asks her to “come over and pretend to be Susan” (299), she agrees to impersonate her sister to protect Susan from a painful truth. However, this deception spirals into catastrophe when her confrontation with Savannah ends with Savannah’s death. Greta’s subsequent response, sending a text from Savannah’s phone to adjust the timeline and inventing a suspect named “Sam,” illustrates the compounding nature of deception. One lie necessitates another, producing an increasingly complex and precarious narrative that must be constantly maintained.
Mara also demonstrates how deception permeates everyday life through smaller lies, driven by the performance of suburban respectability. Susan and Jon’s use of “physio” as a euphemism for marriage counseling reflects a reluctance to acknowledge vulnerability within a culture that prizes familial stability. Celeste’s concealment of her age similarly highlights the pressure to conform to idealized standards of success and desirability. Meanwhile, Susan uses the online identity “DaisyJones6” to post anonymously on a parenting forum about her struggles with motherhood and intrusive thoughts of harming Bella. These patterns reveal how the characters feel unable to express uncomfortable truths within their social environment. Oakpark creates a culture where deception is tacitly encouraged, provided it remains hidden. Consequently, residents are less concerned with ethical behavior than with how their behavior is perceived.
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