health stabilizer. Colleen Hoover, I’m sick of loving you but I can’t stop. Kathleen Tucker, Dina Silver, Claire Contreras, Christine Brae, Cait Norman. Holly for moving to come help me when I needed it most. Bertha, I love you so, thank you for helping me keep my everyday life together. My early readers, Dez, Tobi, Amy, Lindsey, Tasara, Jaime. To the lovely Tess Callahan, who wrote one of my favorite books, April & Oliver. Andrea Dunlop for your valuable insight. Shanora Williams for your friendship. James Reynolds for your friendship and sharp ideas.
My perfect babies, Scarlet and Ryder, who ate a lot of takeout while I wrote this book, thanks for all the babysitting hours you guys put in and for coming to hang out with me in my office for all those months I made it my crawl space. And to Avett, who ripped up my notebook outlining The Wrong Family: thanks for reminding me to be a pantser, Avett.
Thanks, Mom, for being my forever supporter and never telling me to get a real job. You told me I could do this and I believed you. Jeff for always supporting and feeding me.
To my husband, Joshua, who sat for hours with me in the dark while I wrote, bringing drinks and snacks and falling asleep on my office floor so I wouldn’t be in there alone. You’re all the romance I’ll ever need.
And finally, to my aunt Marlene Groenewald, who told me a version of this story twenty years ago. I think of you every day. This book would not exist without you. I love you so much and I miss you. Tell Dad I said hi.
The
Wrong
Family
Tarryn Fisher
Reader’s Guide
Discussion Questions
Motherhood is a theme that runs through this whole book: Winnie’s relationship to Sam, Juno’s relationship with her own estranged sons, Juno’s relationship to Sam, and, of course, Josalyn’s role as a mother and Winnie’s interference in that. As a society, how do we judge mothers who we perceive have made mistakes, and how does the role of motherhood in this book reflect that?
Winnie is a complicated character who doesn’t always behave well or do the right thing. Did you feel sympathy for Winnie, even after you discovered the full truth about her? Why or why not?
How does Winnie’s need to control things around her, especially her family life, backfire on her?
Nigel is clearly unhappy in his marriage. Why do you think he stays?
While Juno isn’t perfect, her situation is created by a lot of systemic inequality regarding mental health, physical health, housing needs, and the prison system. How do you think real people are disenfranchised by these systems? Do you think everyone who might be disempowered by these systems is disempowered in the same ways? How difficult would it be for someone like Juno to get back on her feet?
Why do you think the Straub family denied to themselves that Dakota needed some serious mental health assistance? Why do you think that this kind of issue goes undiagnosed? What advantages does Dakota have that others who struggle with mental health might not have? Discuss the mental health struggles that Dakota, Juno, and Josalyn have, respectively. How differently did their situations turn out, and why do you think that is?
Juno has some definitive thoughts about Winnie and the Crouches’ marriage. Do you agree with the opinions she has formed? Why or why not?
Why do you think Juno chooses to stay in the crawl space? What options do you think she has, if any?
Discuss the ways in which privilege functions for the characters in this novel.
In many ways, Winnie is performing the perfect family life she wants to have, even though her performance is designed to hide a terrible secret. In what ways do we perform in our own lives, and in what ways does society pressure and prompt us to do that?
The Wrong Family Author Q & A
What was your inspiration for The Wrong Family? Did it start with the idea of a troubled marriage, or did it start with the crawl space?
When I was fifteen, my aunt Marlene, who was visiting from South Africa at the time, told me a story about a couple in her city. In short: they’d found a squatter living in their closet, and the squatter had been there for months. I was less mortified than I was intrigued. What a great idea! Sneak into someone’s house and live there without them knowing! I wanted to be the squatter; I wanted to