How does Carrie’s relationship with vulnerability change over the course of the novel? Analyze moments when she attempts to eliminate vulnerability as well as moments when she deliberately accepts its risks.

How does Walsh’s dual-timeline narrative structure manipulate the reader’s sympathies for Johan and Robin by revealing the past incrementally?

How does the novel complicate the distinction between a person’s intentions and the consequences of their actions? Choose at least three characters whose choices produce effects they did not intend.

What are the narrative consequences of filtering the story through Carrie’s limited point of view, particularly regarding characters whose true motives remain hidden from her?

After researching Thailand’s 2003 “War on Drugs,” how does that history shape the novel’s depiction of institutional power and individual helplessness?

How does Carrie’s perspective as an inexperienced British tourist shape the novel’s depiction of Thailand? Consider whether the narration challenges or reproduces conventions of exoticism associated with Western travel writing.

How do the characters’ professions as surgeon, architect, and activist reflect their core approaches to managing love, trauma, and deception?

If you have read Rosie Walsh’s The Love of My Life (2022), how do the novels differently explore the theme of a partner’s concealed identity?