Jay asked:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

1 like · like
6 years ago
13 answers

To answer questions about Trust Exercise, please sign up.

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I guess it was satisfying to me because it showed the spiraling impacts of the adult men in the theatre school/world continuing to abuse younger girls, which may seem to be romantic and exciting formative first sexual experiences (the first YA-like part of the novel), but have real lasting consequences (Karen's trauma, Claire's adoption and search for her mother's story).
It was kind of heartbreaking that "Karen" ' s daughter never finds out who her mother was, or what happened to her, and is again abused by the drama teacher (Robert Lord in 3rd part, "Mr Kingsley" in Sarah's novel, who obviously used his position to abuse lots of the school's students (Manuel in the 1st part, and implied that Sarah knew she was being groomed in 2nd part when she was his 'special friend', unclear if he abused Karen as well)).

I also found the moment that Claire is recognised by the school staff member powerful, because of the dramatic irony & near-miss, that she only realised much later that that staff member recognised her mother in her face. A recurring theme in the book is how different stories are told to hide, avoid or take attention away from how things really happened for Sarah and Karen when they were young. In writing their stories Sarah and Karen are shaping how others see them, and regaining control of their past in which these abuse-of-power-sexual-experiences happened. Sarah explains away her relationship with Liam as rebounding from her romanticised version of her relationship with David, and conveniently ignores Mr Kingsley's sexual relationships with other students/his attempt to groom her. Karen's tale reveals Sarah's fabrications but diminishes the impact of her relationship with Martin on her own life and deliberately hides her desire to hurt him in revenge. As readers we don't really get to see them truly, but for Claire the truth is immediately evident in her face as she is the child of one of these relationships, and no amount of re-telling the stories in a different way can erase her existence, and the impact on her life of these seemingly transient sexual relationships between adults and teenagers that our culture & Sarah and Karen's mothers accept as okay. (hide spoiler)]

flag

Sarah Saville

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

flag

Karen Throckmorton

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

flag

Andrew Garvin

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

flag

Amy I think its an issue with this book - one constantly thinks one is missing a point. If a reader feels that way maybe its the author who cant make her point and allows the reader to think its them?

flag

Derek Jones

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

flag

Ricky0282

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

flag

Bella (Kiki) Sarah and Karen are the same person, expressing their feelings differently toward Kingsley, who is actually Lord. Sarah is despondent because she doesn't feel she was good enough for Kingsley or Lord to keep her around, and Karen is the part of her who is very angry. Am I the only person who found it odd that Sarah would call Karen's mother and sleep at her house when Sarah and Karen weren't even friends any longer? Or that Karen's mother would sleep in bed with Sarah? The mother was Sarah's mother. Actually, there was only one mother and one Sarah. Karen was just another facet of Sarah. She was the part of Sarah who expressed anger. Not as in Dissociative Identity Disorder, but for the purposes of writing this book. Remember how angry Karen was that Sarah changed the names or split characters into more than one, etc.?

Liam and Martin didn't exist at all, and there was no trip to England. That's why Liam and Martin act so cartoonish or cookie-cutter. They are. They are just stand-ins for David and Kingsley, or Lord.

Kingsley, or Lord did impregnant Sarah, and then he dropped her. She gave the baby up, and that baby was Claire, of course, though Lord doesn't know Claire is his daughter. The secretary who recognizes Claire as Sarah's child is undoubtedly Sarah's mother, who recognizes her daughter in Claire, but knows it's too late to do anything about it.

The book loses a lot of its confusion once you realize that Sarah and Karen are the same person and Liam and Martin never really existed, but are David and Kingsley, or Lord.

There was one teenaged girl, Sarah or Karen (I think her real name was Karen). There was one mother, the school secretary. Liam was David and Martin was Kingsley, whose real name was Lord.

I think the book was written this way to show the different ways young women process abusive relationships. (I'm not sure Manuel even existed. I think Sarah made him up and made up Knigsley's gayness to comfort herself when the older man tossed her aside.)

flag