You Are Not Alone (Hendricks) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
1. How does data shape Shay’s world and how does she process it? Does her data journal ultimately serve a higher purpose? Did you find Shay’s data entries helped set up key moments in the story? Which data nuggets did you find particularly interesting or surprising?

2. Discuss how the Moore sisters came to infiltrate the lives of Stacey, Daphne, Beth, and Amanda. How did their paths overlap and what does each woman bring to the table in terms of their talents? What are they asked to sacrifice for the favors they’ve been given?

3. Were you impressed by the Moore sisters’ level of surveillance and intervention in others’ lives? How is this influence wielded in both sinister and life affirming ways? What ties these seemingly dissimilar women together?

4. Do you think Shay could have avoided being absorbed into the sisters’ orbit? What was appealing to Shay about these glamorous women? Is loneliness Shay’s greatest weakness?

5. What psychological tricks and methods (like offering gifts) do the Moore sisters use to brilliantly manipulate their targets?

6. When did you suspect Amanda was in danger? What about Shay? What early signs tipped you off?

7. How did your feeling about Detective Williams evolve throughout the book? When did you realize that she was operating behind the scenes to help Shay?

8. Describe how you felt watching Shay transform into a clone of Amanda and paradoxically grow into a more independent and confident version of herself. Were you torn about how Shay was evolving? When did the cost grow too high?

9. What is it about New York City—a modern, bustling, and compressed city—that serves as an ideal backdrop or accomplice to this story?

10. Discuss the early lives of the Moore sisters—what did you learn later in the novel that helped color your reading of their actions or behaviors? Did you root for them at any point in the story? Who was really the master architect of their plans, and how did the sisters manage to look out for each other?

11. Discuss Sean and Jody’s role in Shay’s life. How did their triangle affect Shay’s susceptibility to the Moore sisters’ overtures? What do the people in Shay’s life get wrong about her or misread?

12. When Shay visits Amanda’s mother, she feels as if she’s tumbled into something called the Snowball Effect: “Basically it means that people who commit small acts of dishonesty find it easier to tell more lies. As your fabrications pile up, your anxiety and shame start to disappear” (p. 116). Why does Shay think this? And does the Snowball Effect apply to the other women in this novel besides Shay?

13. “Everything is working beautifully. Even though Cassandra and Jane don’t enjoy deceiving the other women, it’s necessary to protect them” (p. 195). Do the other women in the group consent to setting up Shay for the crime? Why? How do they engage with the sisters’ plans, even if seemingly coerced by their debt to them?

14. What cracks do the sisters begin to show that giveaway their scheme? The clues inadvertently dropped about a smoothie recipe, bedroom doors being left ajar, meeting the neighbor with a cat--do these tip off Shay initially? How does she continue to justify their kindnesses against the mounting evidence of something sinister at work?

15. Who is James and why does he become the target for the circle? What heinous acts has he committed?Does he deserve the punishment he gets?

16. What separates justice from revenge? Can you justify the intentions of the Moore sisters? Is their mission sympathetic? Is their approach more swift and satisfying than the legal system, as they assert?

17. Could you imagine yourself falling under the spell of the Moore sisters? What would appeal to you, or what characteristics of your personality would make you the most vulnerable to their influence?

18. Did you enjoy the cat-and-mouse chase and subway clash at the end of the novel? Were you satisfied and surprised by how all the puzzle pieces came  together?

19. Did you consider Shay’s last actions suspect—is there any question she committed a murder? What do you think she feels in her heart?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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