Keep Your Friends Close

Detective Perez at one point comments on Whitney’s “white privilege.” What racial critique does the novel offer alongside its class critique, and how does Perez’s character facilitate it?

Analyze the novel’s use of social media as a plot device. How does its presence amplify the characters’ concerns about image?

Discuss how the affluent West Hollywood setting acts as an antagonistic force that shapes the characters’ values and actions.

Compare the portrayal of friendship and maternal competition in Keep Your Friends Close with that in another prominent work of domestic suspense, such as Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies. How do both novels use a wealthy, insular community to explore the dark side of idealized motherhood and friendship?

The novel explores various types of secrets, from financial struggles and addictions to infidelity and profound identity deceptions. To what extent does the narrative distinguish between secrets kept for self-preservation versus those intended to manipulate or betray? Do the characters’ motivations for secrecy alter their moral culpability, in Berry’s framing?

Analyze the function of the male characters, particularly Colin, Ryan, and Tommy, as catalysts who expose the vulnerabilities and deceptions of the central female characters.

Lucinda Berry’s background in clinical psychology is noted for lending her work authenticity. Analyze specific passages of internal monologue from Brooke and Jade to demonstrate how Berry’s prose captures distinct psychological states to build suspense and character depth.

Choose one of the three principal narrators and discuss the function the flashbacks serve in their narrative arc. How does developing their story in this nonchronological way support both their characterization and the novel’s overall meaning?