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Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual violence and harassment, gender discrimination, and mental illness.
Does Marin’s final transformation into an Oscar nominee represent a successful subversion of Hollywood’s power structures or a cynical acceptance of them? How does this reflect Sager’s perspective on the ethics of the entertainment industry?
How does Sager’s use of dual timelines and embedded diary entries influence the reader’s understanding of reliability in the story?
How does the novel’s revenge plot complicate popular narratives of victimhood, solidarity, and justice for women in Hollywood? How might you relate this to the larger context of the #MeToo movement and Sager’s response to it?
Discuss the novel’s presentation of supernatural phenomena as a believable cover for mental illness and traumatic experience. Does this reflect larger sociocultural trends?
To what extent can Violet be seen as a sympathetic avenger, and at what point do her actions undermine her moral standing?
Does Marin remain a sympathetic character throughout the novel? How is this sympathy affected by her actions in the novel’s final chapters?
How does Marin’s character arc complicate the horror genre’s “final girl” trope?
Comment on the setting of New Avalon as a lens for discussing the power of mythmaking. How do myths affect the characters’ attitudes toward the island?
Beyond Violet’s plot and Daisy’s diary, how do characters use performance in smaller moments to negotiate power and construct their desired realities?
How does the novel try to advocate for justice for Daisy/Azra’s character? Does the novel give her a closed resolution at the end, or does it leave the door open for other characters, including Marin, to seek justice for her?



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