Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. The novel is written entirely in the second person, as a long, intimate, one-sided conversation between Sally and her deceased sister, Kathy. How did this narrative choice affect your reading experience and your connection to Sally?

2. This story joins a tradition of novels that explore grief through a unique lens. What distinguishes Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance from other works you may have read about sibling bonds and loss, such as Long Bright River by Liz Moore or I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez?

3. Espach balances intense themes of trauma and guilt with a classic coming-of-age story. Did the novel feel more like a story about grief or a story about growing up, and how did these two threads intersect for you?

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

1. How did Sally’s deep admiration for her older sister, Kathy, resonate with your own experiences of sibling dynamics or close childhood friendships?

2. The personality quiz that labels Kathy a spontaneous “Green Person” and Sally a structured “Red Person” has a lasting impact on Sally’s self-perception. Have you ever felt defined by a label, and how did it affect the way you saw yourself or your choices?

3. Peter represents a conventional path of stability that Sally ultimately rejects. Is there a time in your life when you’ve chosen a different path against prevailing social expectations?

4. The characters find very different ways to cope with tragedy, from Susan’s consultations with a psychic to Billy’s decision to enter a seminary. Was there a character whose choices resonated most with your own experiences?

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

1. How does the 1990s suburban setting, with its specific cultural touchstones like sensational daytime talk shows and dial-up internet, shape the characters’ experiences of trauma, gossip, and community?

2. The community quickly forms a simplified narrative around the accident, casting Billy as the villain and Kathy as an angel. How does the book explore the tension between public perceptions of tragedy and the private, messier truths of those involved? 

3. What do the characters’ various methods of coping with their grief suggest about the ways people search for frameworks of meaning and atonement in the face of senseless loss?

4. Sally and Billy’s secret bond is built through AOL Instant Messenger and late-night calls, capturing a specific moment in technological history. What did you think about the portrayal of this early digital intimacy, and how has communication in times of crisis changed since then?

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

1. What is the significance of the recurring motif of physical wounds and scars? How do injuries, from Billy’s childhood stunts to the scars from the crash and his later tattoo, function as outward symbols of the characters’ internal guilt?

2. How does the symbol of the glow-in-the-dark stars on the bedroom ceiling evolve throughout the novel? What does it represent about the sisters’ bond, Sally’s grief, and her eventual need to forge her own identity?

3. Sally’s mother impulsively buys a white couch before the accident, an object that becomes imbued with layers of meaning. What does the couch represent initially, and how does its symbolism change for the family after Kathy’s death?

4. How does the final scene, set in the eye of Hurricane Kathy, serve as a culmination of the novel’s water motif?

5. Sally is the sole narrator, shaping the story through her own memory, love, and guilt. Do you consider her a reliable narrator? How did her perspective influence your interpretation of other characters, especially Billy and her parents?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Sally’s narration is a collection of “notes” on Kathy’s disappearance. Write an additional “note” or memory to add to the book from the perspective of another character, like Susan, Richard, or Billy. What would that memory be, and what would it reveal?

2. Design a small, symbolic garden to memorialize Kathy. Based on the imagery in the book, what plants or features would you include? Consider the family’s connection to Bill’s Tree and Garden and the dying maple tree.

3. The novel ends on a hopeful but uncertain note for Sally and Billy. If you were to write the next chapter of their story, what do you imagine would be the first major conversation they have after the storm passes?