1. Bryony and Vanessa believe that Lucy was their mother's favourite child - what evidence is there for this in the novel? 2. " Mum was going to die. Mum was going to leave me. And she was the only one I had. " Vanessa feels isolated throughout the novel: why do you think she does not talk to her sisters, her friends or Alan? Who do you think she should have confided in? 3. How differently do you think Vanessa's life would have turned out if she had had brothers rather than sisters? Do you think her mother would have treated her sons in the same way as she treated her daughters? 4. Discuss the importance of the Scottish landscape and the natural world in the novel.

5. How convincingly do you think the author captures the voice of an abused teenage girl? 6. Why do you think that Vanessa chooses to stay with her mother when their father comes to collect them? 7. Discuss Alan and Vanessa's relationship. Do you think, as Lucy did, that their difference in their social backgrounds was responsible for their break up? Why does Alan not integrate Vanessa into his social group at school? 8. What do you think that Vanessa's refusal to acknowledge Bryony's anorexia tells us about the two siblings and their relationship? 9. Do you think that Bryony is telling the truth when she tells Vanessa that her father and Lucy blame her for her mother's death? Why do you think they would blame her?.