1. Although it ended up being one of the red herrings, there is clearly sexual tension between Ambrose and the underage Isa when he’s drawing her. Was it giving Lolita vibes? 

2. Did you find the subplot of Isa and Owen’s relationship compelling? 

3. One of the reasons Isa gives for not telling Owen the truth is the risk of losing their jobs, but she later quits her job. Could she have confided in Owen? 

4. Luc tells Isa: “I should have chosen you.” Later, he’s still in love with Kate. Did he really mean he should have pursued a relationship with Isa all those years ago, or was he just trying to sleep with her? 

5. Was the plot a little too predictable? Did you have it figured out before the end? 

The Plot was Too Predictable:    

       I have read almost all of Ruth Ware’s books. With such an interesting premise, I was expecting a fast-paced novel that would keep me guessing until the very. This is one of her earlier books, so novice mistakes while setting up a thriller were to be expected. But her red herrings were tenuous. The plot was very predictable. I had it figured out pretty quickly, so finishing the book was a bit of a chore after that. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ruth Ware. This just isn’t one of my favorites from her. 

Isa is Such an Unreliable Narrate but not in the Good Way:

        Personally, I found Isa’s character one-dimensional and not all that likeable as a protagonist. Isa is a new mother, who has a dark past and lies habitually. That’s it. That’s the whole character. As expected of a true pathological liar, she is an unreliable narrator. She makes herself out to be a good person who did a bad thing (burying a dead body) but when they go to the Alumnae dinner, its clear Isa and her friend group tormented the other girls at Salten House. She is flaky. I absolutely hated that she was going to cheat on her husband with Luc because she was mad at him for catching her lying. 

        The biggest plot hole is that she’s so aggressively unbothered by Luc’s death. He was her first crush. He saved Freya from burning to death. Throughout the book she’s in love with him, but he’s not in her thoughts at all after he runs back into the fire to die with Kate.

The Hesitation: 

       Besides the too obvious foreshadowing, and Isa’s unlikeable character, I absolutely hated that Ware glossed over the more sensitive topics. If an author is going to write about topics like inappropriate relationships between students and teachers, it’s really disingenuous to go out of their way to gloss over it. The way she wrote about Ambrose painting them in the nude really downplayed how fucked up it is. I just wish she had added a little more grit, which I know she is capable of from her other books.