Ruth’s answer to “SPOILER * I have a question about the mother and the ending of the book... I am still surprise…” > Likes and Comments

That's sneaky! The whole time I had been picturing it on a telephone. I had to reread the newspaper article several times just to make sure I had read it correctly.
It definitely makes sense though, with everything that Eleanor went through that night and the trauma she endured.

Astute observation! I, too, will have to go back and reread to catch that. I definitely always pictured her sitting on her couch, staring straight ahead and enduring her mother's...chats. :)

(view spoiler)[I was suspicious when she was ‘rudely interrupted’ and immediately speaking with Mummy but the phone never rang. And by the social worker’s reaction.(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

I kept wondering about it too. Like one of their initial conversations when there's no introduction or phone ring and the mother is already talking to her. I literally said out loud, "Wait what? Is she in the room with her?" I kept thinking it was a physical visit until it was implied that her mother was in prison. That ending still caught me off guard, sneaky indeed!

The mother was in her imagination.

I also went back and re-read some of those "phone calls". At the end, twice, it said "empty air". That's chilling, now that we know it was in E's imagination.

Why did her mother want to kill the entire family... So she never met her father, that is sad.