Introduction

On the surface, sixteen-year-old Lesley Holloway is just another bright new student at Hawthorn Hill, a posh all-girls’ prep school north of London. Little do her classmates know that she recently ran away from home, where her father had spent years sexually abusing her. Nor does anyone know that she’s secretly cutting herself as a coping mechanism...until the day she goes too far and ends up in the hospital.

Lesley spends the next two years in and out of psychiatric facilities, where she overcomes her traumatic memories and finds the support of a surrogate family. Eventually completing university and earning her degree, she is a social services success story—until she becomes unexpectedly pregnant in her early twenties. Despite the overwhelming odds she has overcome, the same team that saved her as an adolescent will now question whether Lesley is fit to be a mother. And so she embarks upon her biggest battle yet: the fight for her unborn daughter.

Editorial Review

No editorial review at this time.

Excerpt

Have you ever wanted something so much, it’s not a desire so much as a beacon? Have you ever prayed for it so hard your fingernails curl into your palms and your eyes squinch shut and your whole body just hums? ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. How does Crowell use visual imagery to give the reader greater access into Lesley’s psyche? For example, how did you understand the “ceiling” metaphor?

2. Discuss the importance of music to Lesley. How does its role in her life evolve as the novel progresses? You might also consider the role of music in your own life, and how your taste or relationship to it has evolved. Have certain types of music (or certain artists or playlists) been influential to you at specific moments in time?

3. How does the trip to Russia change Lesley’s relationship with the Kremskys?

4. A poster that catches Lesley’s eye in the social services office asserts “You CAN break the cycle of violence.” What do you think this means for her– and what do you think the novel saying about the possibility for second chances? How is the past shown to reverberate into the present within the narrative? Is this necessarily a bad thing?

5. Lesley acutely experiences both dissociation and embodiment throughout the novel. Discuss some examples of these as a group. How do instances of each also serve as coping mechanisms for Lesley, and how does embodiment, in particular become a sign of growth and mechanism for her healing?

6. Turn to pages 47-48 and re-read Lesley’s analysis of self-harm, and her explanation as to why she does it. Do you think that causing deliberate physical injury to oneself, such as cutting, is different from other forms of self-inflicted harm (like addiction to harmful substances or eating disorders)? In what ways do you think we all engage in self-harm, to some degree?

7. Did Lesley challenge your assumptions about sexual identity? If so, what surprised you? Why do you think she ultimately described her sexual orientation as “queer” to Dr. Orton, rather than “bisexual”? In your discussion, you might also consider the historically fraught conflation of a minority sexual identity with mental illness (for example, the DSM-IV labeled homosexuality as deviant behavior until as late as 1974).

8. Both Gloria and Lesley find that their identity as a mother enables them, in key moments, to draw upon a deeper reserve of strength than they otherwise felt they had. Can you find these instances in the text? Regardless of whether or not you are a mother, have you ever experienced something similar?

9. Did you think that Lesley should have contacted Declan once she discovered she was pregnant? What would you have done in her situation? You might also consider Lesley’s attempt to flee the UK and travel to the United States. Did you empathize with her struggle to make that decision? Would you have taken that kind of risk?

10. Consider the women who take on maternal roles for Lesley. What is each character uniquely able to offer or teach her—and how do their influences manifest in her choices, and her own experience of motherhood? Conversely, what does Lesley offer or teach these women?

11. Aurelia and Clare are spectral presences in Lesley’s subconscious throughout the novel. Why do you feel they haunt her as vividly as they do? In particular, why do you think Lesley seems more haunted by the ghost of her mother than that of her father? You might also consider whether there are people from your past who similarly “haunt” you, and what it is about those relationships that have stayed with you.

12. For many characters in Etched on Me—Sophie, Gloria and Jascha, Lesley, even Clare’s parents—bringing a child into the world proves to be an uphill battle. Alternatively, Lesley’s parents both fail her, in critical ways. With this in mind, what do you think the novel is ultimately saying about family?

13. The British system of healthcare and social services is clearly different from that of the United States. Do you agree with Imogen that the investigation into Lesley is an example of “socialism gone awry”? Or does the case of Ainsley McIntyre, and the possibility for other, similar scenarios, justify a certain level of scrutiny towards future mothers?

Weblinks

»	Author Jenn Crowell's web site
»	Publisher's Book Info

Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.

Member Reviews

There are no user reviews at this time.
Rate this book