Stopped Heart (Myerson) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're made available. In the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to kick off a discussion for The Stopped Heart...then take off on your own:

1. How did you experience The Stopped Heart? Were you thoroughly terrified? Was it a page-turner or nail-biter for you?

2. Julie Myerson doesn't insert obvious breaks (not even an asterisk) when she switches from past to present. Did you find it difficult at times to tell which time frame you were in? Why does the author not define the two eras more clearly?

3. Myerson doesn't spare readers when revealing the tragedy that faces Mary and Graham Coles. Myerson releases information slowly; nonetheless, how painful was it for you to read?

4. The novel's prose is remarkable in the way it limns the shape of grief: Mary, for instance, is "struck by how pointless it felt to push a metal hook with an ornament hanging off it through a hole in her ear." What are some other passages which struck you as particularly descriptive of sadness?

5. The red-haired young man appears to Mary and disappears. But rather than be alarmed, she welcomes the hauntings. Why?

6. Talk about James Dix—how he appears out of a violent storm; how he insinuates himself into the center of the family, and how he gains control over Eliza. Who, or what, is he?

7. Just as Mary senses the cottage's former lives, Lottie makes references to its future ones. Consider the name Merricoles. Where else do past and future intersect with one another?

8. How do the two stories mirror one another? Consider the inclusion of abduction, cruelty, sexual obsession, and the impossibility of keeping children safe.

9. What does Myerson suggest about past evil? Does she offer a way to help us right past wrongs or offer or an explanation regarding the nature of evil? Or not?

10. Can any marriage withstand the kind of devastating tragedy the Coles have experienced? How would you describe the state of their marriage at the beginning of The Heart Stopped? What about Eddie's attentions to Mary? What were your initial feelings toward their budding attraction to one another?

11. Do the twin plots work as a narrative device in The Stopped Heart? Critics aren't always in agreement on this point. What do you think?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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