Book #15 : We Were Never Here, Andrea Bartz

Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice?

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?

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Discussion Questions:

1. The Chile trip seems to be a blast for Emily and Kristen. It serves as a huge bonding trip and everything is going picture perfect. Until Emily discovers that Kristen killed Paolo, the backpacker she met at a bar and took back to their hotel. Kristen says it was an act of self defense. What were your thoughts as this all unfolded? Should Emily have questioned Kristen more about what happened?
2. This wasn’t the first ‘cover-up the murder’ experience for these two friends as the same thing happened the year before when Kristen killed the backpacker Sebastian who assaulted Emily. While on the surface it appears to be a bizarre and horrifying coincidence, let’s discuss the differences between the two incidents.
3. Why do you think Emily agreed to go along with Kristen and hide both murders? What would you have done if you were Emily?
4. Emily and Kristen are so close—yet there are clear cracks in their friendship. When did you start to suspect that Kristen was possessive and manipulative?
5. At first Emily believes that Kristen is a savior in some ways—the one to rescue her when things go bad. In what ways did Kristen play that part of the ideal best friend role?
6. Why was Emily initially resistant to tell Kristen about Aaron?
7. When Kristen moves back to Milwaukee, it throws Emily for a loop. While she tries to pretend to be excited, having Kristen in the same city brings back all the trauma of their past two trips. When did Emily start to suspect there was something dark about Kristen? 
8. Should Emily have gone to the police herself when Paolo’s family went to the media about their missing son?
9. Why did Kristen save the evidence of both murders?
10. We eventually find out more about Kristen’s past, including that her father abused her friend Jamie and potentially Kristen herself. Jamie’s mom tells Emily the entire story and it turns out that Jamie was the one to light Kristen’s house on fire, killing both of Kristen’s parents. Let’s talk about this reveal. 
11. Did that reveal show Kristen’s actions and behavior in a different light for you or did your opinion of her stay the same?
12. Everything comes to a head in Phoenix and Aaron inadvertently ends up killing Kristen. What did you think about the climax?
13. Were you surprised that both Emily and Aaron ended up free in the end? How did you feel about the ending overall?
14. Do you prefer to travel to huge tourist destinations or do you try the backpacker/off the beaten path route?
15. If they turn the book into a TV series or movie, who should play the key roles?