Thank you for your thoughtful analysis.

You are spot on with how Munro makes horror plausible by grounding it in the real world.

I agree that Lloyd’s letters seemed unnecessarily long. I don’t think anything would have been lost by shortening them to a paragraph.

Yes, I appreciated Linda’s observation about the breathing space. And I liked the ending too–I love hope.

It was interesting to see how you broke it down for analysis. I read the story as being from Doree’s perspective, but I can see your point about the secondary characters. Are you sure the white space was Munroe’s decision? I’d have guessed it was the editor’s. I agreed with your analysis of the word “use.”

I look for different things as I read with more focus on the story, pace and characters as opposed to the physicality of the words on the page and usage. I was impressed by how Munroe established tension early (you flagged this too.) The best part of Munroe is how she builds character through little details like Mrs. Sands’s shirts. She makes horror seem plausible by grounding it in the real world.

Not all of the story worked for me. The letter section was too long and broke the narrative flow, but then again I’m never too crazy about stories told via letters, especially in contemporary fiction. Lloyd never felt real to me. It was a cop out to blame his behavior on insanity. A little more back story about him would have helped, ie was he abused or abandoned as a child? Also, it would have been more believable had he been physically abusive either to his wife, kids or patients before he snapped.

I did like the ending – unusually upbeat for Munroe to leave us with so much hope.

Great comment from Linda about breathing space. I’m sure that was intentional. Munroe has a wicked sense of humor.

Fun discussion!

You have a perfect balance between reading like a reader and reading like a writer. I do have a tendacy to analyse every book I read. Specially at the begining of the story. But after a studie of the cover, the stucture, the pages number, the chapters numbers, etc. , I do let myself navigate into the story.

Merci!

I wonder about a few things.

In section 13, Doree seems to tell Lloyd “You told me to stop contradicting you or get out of the house. So I got out of the house” and “I fully intended to come back. I wasn’t walking out on anyone.” Those few lines are in quotes, but did she really speak them out loud? If she does, I’m not clear if she says it to him right after the murders or when she visits him later.

And, in the end you highlight Munro’s repetition of “use” and “useful.” It seems to be related to the quote above. Lloyd blamed his act of violence on Doree’s leaving, and because she was at Maggie’s Doree was of no use, no help to the kids.

That leads me to the ending and the scene with the boy. For me, Doree breathing life into the boy becomes an act of redemption for her. I agree with your comment that you see Doree as the boy. And, in that moment with him, I see Doree fall into the other dimension Lloyd tells her about, so that as she revives the boy, she gives life back to the children she couldn’t save.

“Be quiet, be quiet, she wanted to tell them. It seemed to her that silence was necessary, that everything in the world outside the boy’s body had to concentrate, help it not to lose track….”

Then, that last line, just one word (no quotes on purpose) telling herself, No. Lloyd was of no use anymore.