READERS GUIDE
Keep Your Friends Close Discussion Guide1. Keep Your Friends Close opens with a startling moment. What was your immediate reaction to the scene, and how effective was it in grabbing your attention?
2. Keep Your Friends Close is narrated in first person, allowing us to become intertwined with Mary’s and Willa’s inner thoughts, observations, and judgments. How did this affect your reading of each character? To what extent can you trust Mary or Willa?
3. When Mary first befriends Willa at the playground, Willa says, “it can be hard to connect to other women—for me, at least.” In what ways did this statement make Willa more appealing to Mary? What did that statement tell you about Willa, and what did Mary’s response tell you about Mary?
4. The story alternates between past and present, each section picking up a detail from the previous chapter. How did this structure maintain the story’s mystery? Did you have a preferred timeline and narrator?
5. Keep Your Friends Close speaks to female friendship, but author Leah Konen’s depictions of Mary’s relationships with Cassandra and Willa also hold sinister qualities. How does Konen achieve this? Which friendship were you most intrigued by, and why?
6. Early in the novel, Mary encounters Willa after not seeing her for months, and Willa pretends to be someone else. How would you have reacted to a friend in the same situation? Do you agree with Mary’s reaction?
7. In various forms, the women mention their desire for freedom—both financially and socially. How does motherhood exacerbate or reconcile their feelings of entrapment with their desire to be free?
8. Keep Your Friends Close is set in Brooklyn and Woodstock, New York. How do the settings impact the characters’ ability to play “hide and seek” with each other? Which location was the most claustrophobic to you – the big city or the small town?
9. We see a glimpse of both Mary and Willa after the action of the novel has ended. What was your reaction to the ending? Were you satisfied by the resolution to the mystery of who killed George? What do you think is next for Mary and Willa?
