READERS GUIDE

Until Alison Reading Group Guide
1.   Despite the parallels between the two frenemies, Rachel and Alison grew up in competition with each other. To what degree is this specific to the girlhood experience, and why?
2.   Brad, Ethan, and Cam each take up a lot of space in the environments they’re in. Discuss the similarities and differences between the three boys and why you believe both Rachel and Alison conceived of each one the way they did.
3.   A young Alison pens the story of Guinevere the unicorn in her junior high writing class. What does Guinevere symbolize, and in what ways does her presence persist through both Alison’s and Rachel’s coming-of-age journeys.
4.   Rachel feels a responsibility to report on Alison’s murder, and through this investigation she opens her eyes to the realities of both past and present. To what extent would you consider Rachel an unreliable narrator, and how does this story’s journalistic moments either reinforce or undermine Rachel’s validity as a narrator?
5.   Russo explores class and gender in a deeply resonant manner. To what extent do you think Alison could have evaded her early death if her circumstances had been different? In your opinion, is there a reason Alison was often deemed the target? How easily could it have been Rachel?
6.   As a clear addition to the dead-girl campus novel canon, Until Alison is largely set on campus. Discuss the function of such a place for a story that interrogates the interplay between gender and violence.
7.   Russo offers multiple flashbacks into the cruel and cringey world of junior high and does so with an astute eye and impressively raw touch. Discuss the importance of these scenes to the story as a whole. To what extent did Russo’s youth-filled depictions bring you back to the strife of adolescence? What feelings did it evoke?
8.   Russo deftly captures the flaws in both Rachel and Alison, and in many ways identifies no character as the clear “hero.” Between the two, whose side did you find yourself most often on, and why do you think you felt that way?
9.   The title Until Alison is layered. Discuss your interpretation of the title and how it evolved, if at all, as you read Rachel’s story.
10. At the beginning of the novel, Rachel boldly states “Nobody deserves anything.” Good or bad. Now having finished reading, do you agree?