Whisper Network

Examine one of the five main characters from the book. What has shaped them? Why do they act the way they do? Do they change in the course of the novel?

Sloane suggests that being a “good guy” is an oxymoron (382). Using textual evidence to back up your argument, discuss whether good guys exist.

The women have various levels of privilege. Rosalita is a poor single mother of color, while Grace is white and has a trust fund and a rich husband. Discuss the role that privilege plays in the novel. How does it affect each woman’s politics?

Explore the novel’s connections to real life: Its use of the #MeToo movement, cancel culture, transformative justice, and other elements of recent history.

How does the novel conceive of gender? Is being a woman a constructed notion or an essentialist one?

Why does the novel use both the first-person plural and third-person omniscient narrators? What does each accomplish that the other cannot?

Examine real and imagined violence in the novel. How do descriptions of women’s revenge fantasies differ from actual violent incidents? Why and how does the novel portray each?

Why do Grace and her sorority friend refuse to accept the idea of rape culture? Discuss how their understanding of women reporting assault differs from and echoes that of men.