What was your first impression of Marion? What was your first impression of John? How are they similar and different from each other?ĥ. Is John a good brother to Marion? How would you characterize their relationship? Are there any redemptive qualities in John’s actions toward Marion?Ĥ. How does Marion’s childhood, particularly her parents’ old-fashioned and aloof parenting styles, affect her later in life? How do Marion and John take after their parents?ģ. Is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? Does Marion go mad?Ģ. Consider Marion’s warning to herself about the noises from the cellar on the novel’s opening page: “Don’t think about it, she warned herself, or you’ll go mad, just like Great-aunt Phyllis” (p. With only her teddy bears and imaginary friends for comfort, Marion does her best to shut out the shocking secret that John keeps in the cellar.īut when John becomes suddenly ill, Marion must open the door to the other side and come face-to-face with the gruesome truth-and her own darkness.ġ. Marion tries to live by her brother’s rules: doing the shopping and the laundry, preparing their quotidian meals, and staying out of his business. Marion Zetland, a timid, middle-aged spinster, lives with her authoritarian older brother in the decaying mansion of their childhood on the edge of a northern seaside resort. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. This readers group guide for The Visitors includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. As the truth slowly unravels, we finally begin to understand: maybe John isn’t the only one with a dark side… Reading Group Guide For years, she’s buried the signs of John’s devastating secret deep into the recesses of her mind-until the day John is crippled by a heart attack, and Marion must face what he has kept hidden.įorced to go down to the cellar, Marion discovers more about herself than she ever thought possible. A timid spinster who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to live by John’s rules, even if it means turning a blind eye to the noises she hears coming from behind the cellar door.and ignoring the women’s laundry in the hamper that isn’t hers. Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother John in a crumbling mansion on the edge of a northern seaside resort. What becomes of a child who grows up without love? With the smart suspense of Emma Donoghue’s Room and the atmospheric claustrophobia of Grey Gardens, this “bizarrely unsettling, yet compulsively readable” (Iain Reid, internationally bestselling author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things) thriller explores the twisted realities that can lurk beneath even the most serene of surfaces.

Catherine burns the visitors