Book #11: The Wicked Sister, Karen Dionne

How grateful we were today to have Karen Dionne join Shelf Indulgence Book cLub's discussion of The Wicked Sister!!

Two generations of sisters. An unthinkable crime. A secret that could ruin a family. 

For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents’ deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns to the place where she once felt safest in a quest for answers: her family’s sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.

Discussion Questions:

How did the narration style of The Wicked Sister shape your reading experience? 

Did you enjoy hearing from both past and present perspectives? 

How did Jenny’s story inform the modern-day story? 

Who do you think the “wicked sister” of the title refers to? 

Compare and contrast the two sets of sisters—Rachel and Diana, and Charlotte and Jenny. How are their sibling dynamics similar or different? 

How did the sisters’ connections, or lack thereof, affect their choices? 

How is memory—and its fallibility—portrayed in the novel? 

In what ways does the unreliability of memory steer Rachel’s life? 

How is mental illness, and the stigma that surrounds it, portrayed in The Wicked Sister? Consider the different ways in which Rachel’s supposed mental illness and Diana’s real diagnosis are treated and handled in the novel. 

Discuss the importance of White Bear as a symbol throughout the novel. Also look at the impact of nature and wildlife on the different characters, particularly Rachel’s connection to the raven and the spider. 

Do you think that Jenny and Peter are good parents to their daughters? Were they right in their decision to move the family to the Upper Peninsula? What do you think you would have done in their position? 

How does the setting of The Wicked Sister contribute to the essence of the story? 

Could the events of this novel have taken place anywhere else? 

While discussing fairy tales, Trevor says, “Everything is black and white, good and evil. And there’s always the reversal at the end, where the good guys get to live happily ever after.” In what ways does The Wicked Sister parallel a fairy tale? 

Why do you think the author chose to reference various fairy tales throughout the novel? 

Compare and contrast the manner in which different characters cope with guilt. How does Rachel’s relationship to guilt change over the course of The Wicked Sister?

What do you imagine Rachel will be like as a mother? 

How will her own family history shape her relationship to Trevor and their daughter? 

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