Please note this book deals with confronting content, and it’s important to always make sure everyone in your group feels comfortable and safe discussing some of these questions and topics.
Discussion Questions
- Was The Quiet Tenant what you were expecting from the cover and blurb? Did you find it difficult or upsetting to read at any point?
- Have you read many other books in the psychological thriller genre? If so, how is The Quiet Tenant similar or different? Do you think there are any other genres this novel could cross into?
- What do you think are the key themes of the novel, and how are they explored through each perspective?
- The book makes sure we never hear from Aidan’s perspective. Did you notice this while reading? Discuss this choice in comparison to other pieces of pop culture in the thriller or true crime space, that do give a voice to the killer.
- Did Clémence Michallon’s choice of second person narration for ‘Rachel’ affect your reading experience? Do you think it changed your opinion of, or connection to, her character? Consider and compare this in relation to Emily and or Cecelia, whose voices come through first person narration.
- How did the three different perspectives change the tone and pace of the book? Did you find yourself fearing for characters because of what they did or didn’t know? How might the book have been different with one perspective?
- Reread the book’s epigraph: ‘Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves Are of all such creatures the most dangerous?’ (Charles Perrault, Little Red Riding Hood). Do you think the choice of a child’s book was deliberate, and why? Who do you think the author could be referring to with this quote?
- “It’s embedded in you, once you’ve been a girl. You pass them on the street. You hear their laughs. You feel their pain. You want to lift them into your arms and carry them over to the end point, sparing their feet from the thorns that drew blood from your own. Every girl in the world is a little bit me, and every girl in the world is a little bit mine. Even yours,” (pages 26-27). What does this quote mean to you, and how is it applicable to the connections that form between Rachel, Cecelia and Emily?
- What did you think of the ending? What might the future look like for each of the women involved
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