READERS GUIDE

Reader’s Guide
How I’ll Kill You by Ren DeStefano
Discussion Questions:


1. Sissy is highly sensitive to her sisters’ opinions of her. At what point do you feel she began to prioritize her own wants? What impact did it end up having on her, positive and negative?

2. What qualities does Sissy have that set her apart from her sisters? What do you think it is about her that ultimately causes her to deviate from their wants concerning the plan to kill Edison?

3. The theme of family—the ones we’re born into and the ones we make along the way—is prevalent in this novel. What did Sissy learn about these kinds of family by the time she broke free?

4. The ending of the novel leaves Sissy with new possibilities. Why do you think the author wrote it that way? How do you see Sissy’s next few years playing out?

5. Sissy believes there is goodness in her sisters, and in herself. Is it possible for someone to be a cold, calculated murderer and at the same time be capable of loving their family?

6. Does Sissy change after she’s apart from her sisters? Or is there evidence to suggest she was always the person she is at the end of the story?

7. Although Sissy and her sisters were raised in foster care, Sissy had an easier time finding a foster family who loved her. Does this play a role in how she turned out? Do Moody and Iris’s harsher upbringings explain how they turned out?

8. Because it will keep her family together, Sissy never questions that she’ll have to murder Edison, and she’s surprised when she begins to realize she doesn’t want to do it. In what ways is it harmful to love someone so much that you’ll do anything they wish?

9. Dara is Sissy’s neighbor and Colin is her foster brother. Yet, Sissy hid her affection for these characters from her sisters. Why did she do this? What did she worry would happen if her sisters found out?

10. What kind of life could Sissy and Edison have together? Is it possible that they could be happy?