The Only One Left

Consider class in the novel. How does the Hope family view mansion staff? How do town authority figures treat their underlings? How do those lower on the socioeconomic ladder view the powerful and the wealthy? How are these attitudes different and similar in the novel’s two timeframes of 1929 and 1983?

How does time affect the perception of townspeople about the infamous murders that took place nearby? What does the novel say about press interest in true crime and the public consumption of violence as entertainment?

Examine the relationship between women and violence in the novel. Lenora has never been convicted of a crime, but is nonetheless presumed guilty. How and why do gender role expectations play into her pariah status?

Compare mother-daughter relationships in the novel. Why are Evangeline and Kathleen so closely connected to opiate addiction and overdose? How do daughters’ conceptions of their mothers inform their development into adult women?

Discuss Hope’s End as a Gothic setting. Research other haunting houses from Gothic fiction to compare. Examples include Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839), Manderley from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938), or the Overlook Hotel from Stephen King’s The Shining (1977).

What techniques does Riley Sager use to heighten tension, create suspense, and otherwise propel the plot? How does first-person narration contribute to these elements of the thriller?

How do characters wield power in the novel? How does having power add to characterization? Is there a distinction made between legitimate and illegitimate uses of power? Why or why not?

How does the novel treat generational trauma? What psychological or emotional inheritance gets transferred to younger generations in the town as a whole? In the Hope family? In the McDeere family?