The Whispers

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

1. Blair frequently compares herself with Whitney. Have you ever compared yourself to others? What do you think made you compare yourself with another person, and what did you learn from the experience?

2. Throughout the novel, characters engage in willful ignorance to maintain the appearance of control in their lives. Can you recall a time when you chose to ignore “whispers” of intuition? Why did you do so?

3. Whitney describes motherhood as a “voluntary death,” while Blair embraces immersing herself in her daughter’s needs. Where do you fall on this spectrum of attitudes toward parenthood?

4. The characters in the novel often feel invisible in different ways: Mara in her neighborhood, Blair in her marriage, and Whitney in her struggle to be the perfect mother. Could you relate to their feelings? 

5. What family patterns have you found yourself either repeating or consciously breaking in your own life?

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

1. The novel is in part a dramatization of the “Mommy Wars,” cultural battles surrounding how to understand and approach motherhood. Where do you see this conflict playing out in contemporary societies?

2. Mara’s neighborhood changes dramatically through gentrification in a way that symbolizes the broader erasure of immigrant history. What similar patterns of cultural erasure do you see in communities today?

3. In what ways have societal expectations for mothers evolved in recent years, and do you see any progress in how motherhood is publicly discussed?

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

1. Did you like the novel’s rotating third-person limited perspective? What do multiple perspectives reveal about female rivalry that a single perspective could not convey?

2. Think about the imagery relating to consumption that appears in the text. How is this imagery important, and what themes does it develop? 

3. Xavier’s fall serves as both the inciting incident and the mystery at the heart of the narrative. How does this structure affect the pacing and emotional impact of the story?

4. Many characters in the novel repeat patterns from their own upbringing. How does this generational repetition comment on the lasting impact of parental relationships?

5. Whitney’s attempted suffocation of Xavier represents an escalation of her character’s struggle. What does this scene reveal about Whitney that wasn’t previously apparent?