Scarleton Series I : Before the Cult (23 page)

•What does the
death of Macxermillio and the scene signify/mean to the character
and to the story as a whole?

•What does Kim
Besert mean to Sandy and why did so much depend upon how she treats
him as compared to Krissy?

•Why is what
happens in the bar so significant to Sandy Macxermillian?

•In the end
what is the most accentuated theme in the novel, the struggle
against suicidal and/or homicidal urges, the search for belonging,
social exclusion, trust/betrayal or death?

•What aspect
about death is mostly explored in the story? (E.g. it’s ability to
bring solace and comfort, a bridge to other modes of existence, a
tool of complete annihilation, the liveliest thing about life etc.)
And why is that?

•What seems to
be the point of the novel?

•What is the
meaning of the calling? What characteristics/symptoms does it
allude to about the nature of mental illness, especially about
depression, and suffering from it?

•What might
have influenced the author to name the main character Sandy and
what does it do for the novel?

•The author has
said in an interview, about the novel, “it reeks of my struggle
with chronic depression, anxiety and inattentive ADHD” and, about
the period it was written, he had “a couple of suicide attempts”,
he was “in and out of hospital”, “had a near death experience” so
“death and suicide were concepts that occupied my mind”. Does this
translate into the novel?

•What could be
said the novel reveals about the nature of depression?

•Does the novel
provide a first-hand account of being a delusional depressive? To
what extent and how? What do you think?

•The end,
Chapter 14, what is it all about or mean? How does it fit, if it
does at all, to the whole story?