The Perfect Divorce

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Discuss your overall impressions of The Perfect Divorce. Which were your favorite and/or least favorite aspects of the novel, and why?

2. How did your experience reading The Perfect Divorce compare to your experience reading The Perfect Marriage? What did you find surprising or disappointing about this second installment in the series?

3. Compare Rose’s novel to other psychological thrillers. For example, what genre, narrative, or thematic threads do you notice between The Perfect Divorce and titles like Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets and Mary Kubica’s She’s Not Sorry?

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

1. Discuss your responses to the revelation that Alejandro Perez didn’t kill Sarah Morgan. How did this plot twist upset or confirm your impressions of Sarah and her story?

2. How do you regard Sarah’s character? What aspects of her identity and her actions challenge your own moral or ethical code?

3. Do you relate more closely with Alejandro’s, Marcus’s, or Bob’s character? What about each of these characters is resonant to you? Which aspects of their characters are least believable or most repellant, and why?

4. Compare Carissa Brooks’s and Stacy Howard’s situations. How do these women try to escape their circumstances, and why do they use these methods? What would you do similarly or differently if you were Carissa and/or Stacy?

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

1. Throughout the novel, the characters attempt to solve various murder cases and criminal mysteries. How are justice and truth represented in this context? Are any of the characters operating by a true moral or legal code of ethics? What do these aspects of the novel say about the modern justice system?

2. Consider the portrayals of Sarah and Bob. What female and male stereotypes do they fulfill or subvert? Is the novel making a commentary on gender roles via their characters, or affirming gender stereotypes?

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

1. The novel is written from various first-person points of view. Explore the narrative and thematic significance of this formal choice. How would The Perfect Divorce resonate differently if it were written from an alternate point of view?

2. Explore how the primary characters’ past lives play into their lives in the narrative present. What decisions do they make or relationships do they pursue because of their former experiences or mistakes, and why? What is the result?

3. The novel is set in Old Town Manassas, Virginia. Explore how this macro setting contributes to the novel’s overarching mood? Which other micro settings (Sarah’s house, the Morgan Foundation, the sheriff’s office, Cuts by Carissa) contribute to the narrative atmosphere?

4. The Perfect Divorce is a psychological thriller novel and a murder mystery. Discuss how these genre classifications dictate the novel’s plot trajectory and themes. How do tropes function in the narrative? Do they reaffirm or subvert cultural stereotypes?

5. Images of knives and guns recur throughout the novel. Discuss what symbolic significance these images might hold.

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Create a playlist that captures the rising action, climax, and descending action of the novel. Consider which plot points and/or plot twists spur this narrative arc, and what mood each event creates. Share your playlists and discuss your reasoning behind each song.

2. Write a different ending for the novel from an alternate character’s point of view. How do you imagine Stacy, Carissa, Marcus, or Summer’s life has changed a year later? How would they describe their life in the wake of recent events?

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