Each of the Carroll family members struggles with assigning various amounts of blame on the others for their suffering after Julia’s disappearance. Is this a natural reaction or a fully useless exercise? Why do you think the characters continue to do so when it runs counter to healing?

Why do you think Slaughter ordered the chapters as she did in the narrative, with Sam’s letters interspersed and numbered separately from the other chapters? What narrative effect does this have on the progression of the plot? How does it intensify the unfolding details?

Several of the Carrolls were jailed or have struggled with law enforcement at some point. How do you think certain factors like race, class, and gender may have played in their favor (or against it) during these incidents? Could they have fared worse or better under different circumstances? How did their attitudes toward law enforcement contribute, if at all, to the attention and response they received?