69 pages • 2 hours read
Clare MackintoshI Let You Go
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Examine the relationship between Jenna and her abusive husband, Ian. Is it believable? Do you think she should have acted differently? What do you think has led her to make the choices she makes?
The author purposely fools readers prior to revealing the twist in the middle of the book. Analyze the ways this rhetorically accomplished. How does Mackintosh play upon assumptions to make readers believe one thing when something else is actually motivating Jenna? When read again, after knowing what the twist entails, how is the experience different?
How do you interpret the relationships between Ray and the women in his life—Mags and Kate? How are the women different, and how are they similar, and what attracts Ray to each one?
Explore the ramifications of setting this story in Wales. Look at how the villages and townspeople add to the atmosphere and conflict. What kind of role does the setting play? How does the beautiful, wild coastline influence the story?
Ian Peterson is a textbook psychopath. What exactly does this mean? List examples within the book that show how his personality matches with the traits psychopaths exhibit, such as charm, narcissism, lack of empathy, manipulative tendencies, no regard for the law, and a lack of inhibition.
How do family dynamics play a role in the weaving of the plot, and what do they add to the narrative? Talk about Ray’s relationship with Mags and his children, or Jenna’s with her abusive father and her mother and sister.
One of the themes focuses on “what-if” moments. These decisions or events happen quickly yet influence a person’s life for better or worse. Pick three such moments from the book and analyze how they could have gone differently, and what the effect might have been had they done so. Are there such moments in your life that might have changed everything?
Examine whether one’s fate is determined by the self, others, or a natural source. Is Ray actually a “good guy,” as readers might interpret him? What makes him different from Ian?
This is very much a psychological domestic thriller. What types of strategies does the author use to heighten the emotion and drama within the narrative? Did you find any of it formulaic, or overwrought? If so, why? What kept you reading? Of the twists in the story, were you able to predict some of them?
Explore the pacing of the book. Did you find it slow at first? Why might the author have planned it that way? How did it change during the course of the story, with the revelation of Jenna’s identity and the introduction of Ian’s point of view? Look specifically at the ways in which the author uses the pacing to build suspense and emotional connection.
