1. How does Crowell use visual imagery to give the reader greater access into Lesley’s psyche? For example, how did you understand the “ceiling” metaphor?
2. Discuss the importance of music to Lesley. How does its role in her life evolve as the novel progresses? You might also consider the role of music in your own life, and how your taste or relationship to it has evolved. Have certain types of music (or certain artists or playlists) been influential to you at specific moments in time?
3. How does the trip to Russia change Lesley’s relationship with the Kremskys?
4. A poster that catches Lesley’s eye in the social services office asserts “You CAN break the cycle of violence.” What do you think this means for her—and what do you think the novel is saying about the possibility for second chances? How is the past shown to reverberate into the present within the narrative? Is this necessarily a bad thing?
5. Lesley acutely experiences both dissociation and embodiment throughout the novel. Discuss some examples of these as a group. How do instances of each also serve as coping mechanisms for Lesley, and how does embodiment, in particular, become a sign of growth and mechanism for her healing?
6. Turn to pages 47 and 48 and re-read Lesley’s analysis of self-harm, and her explanation as to why she does it. Do you think that causing deliberate physical injury to oneself, such as cutting, is different from other forms of self-inflicted harm (like addiction to harmful substances or eating disorders)? In what ways do you think we all engage in self-harm to some degree?
7. Did Lesley challenge your assumptions about sexual identity? If so, what surprised you? Why do you think she ultimately described her sexual orientation as “queer” to Dr. Orton, rather than “bisexual”? In your discussion, you might also consider the historically fraught conflation of a minority sexual identity with mental illness (for example, the DSM—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—labeled homosexuality as deviant behavior until as late as 1974).
8. Both Gloria and Lesley find that their identity as a mother enables them, in key moments, to draw upon a deeper reserve of strength than they otherwise felt they had. Can you find these instances in the text? Regardless of whether or not you are a mother, have you ever experienced something similar?
9. Did you think that Lesley should have contacted Declan once she discovered she was pregnant? What would you have done in her situation? You might also consider Lesley’s attempt to flee the UK and travel to the United States. Did you empathize with her struggle to make that decision? Would you have taken that kind of risk?
10. Consider the women who take on maternal roles for Lesley. What is each character uniquely able to offer or teach her—and how do their influences manifest in her choices, and her own experience of motherhood? Conversely, what does Lesley offer or teach these women?
11. Aurelia and Clare are spectral presences in Lesley’s subconscious throughout the novel. Why do you feel they haunt her as vividly as they do? In particular, why do you think Lesley seems more haunted by the ghost of her mother than that of her father? You might also consider whether there are people from your past who similarly “haunt” you, and what it is about those relationships that have stayed with you.
12. For many characters in Etched on Me—Sophie, Gloria and Jascha, Lesley, even Clare’s parents—bringing a child into the world proves to be an uphill battle. Alternatively, Lesley’s parents both fail her, in critical ways. With this in mind, what do you think the novel is ultimately saying about family?
13. The British system of health care and social services is clearly different from that of the United States. Do you agree with Imogen that the investigation into Lesley’s fitness for parenthood is an example of “socialism gone awry”? Or does the case of Ainsley MacIntyre, and the possibility for other, similar scenarios, justify a certain level of scrutiny toward future mothers?