Page 121 of Killing Monica

Bushnell makes a point about how Henry reminds Jonny of a character in a black-and-white movie, and indeed, at the end of the book, we discover that those were the only movies Hellenor/Henry had grown up on. Discuss what Bushnell is saying about how we use images in a particular environment to construct our own identities.

What do you think about Bushnell’s “happy ending” not being about a man? What other books, plays, or movies can you think of in which the woman has a happy ending that doesn’t involve a man?

Discuss why we still cling to the idea of a happy ending with a man given the real world that we live in, where at least half of marriages don’t work out and over fifty percent of the female population is single.

Several moments with SondraBeth are associated with The Wizard of Oz—for instance, at the very beginning of the book, SondraBeth says, “We’re not in Montana anymore.” Hellenor is compared to Peter Pan, and at one point, Henry refers to Monica as Tinker Bell. How does Bushnell use iconic characters from other works in her own narrative, and how do these references contribute to our understanding of the characters?