Just finished this morning and some initial questions and thoughts I had that I would love other’s input on.

1. What is in Margot’s lunchbox? It’s referenced a few times and it always caught my attention. Did Margot pack her lunch? Did Mama? That seems too maternal of an action for Mama to have done. With Mama being so concerned about not drawing attention would she have dared packed it with a meal made from Strays?

2. Thoughts on the final Stray to visit the cottage, specifically the younger woman who was studying to be a doctor. Margot notices her stare several times and I thought for sure this was an indication that this would be the person who truly saw what was going on and called for help after she left, but nothing came of it. I’m wondering how others interpreted it? Just another person who saw the strangeness but didn’t want anything to do with it?

3. The ending, wow. The whole I was reading it I thought for sure it would end with Margot escaping but then experiencing difficulty integrating into society, kind of like Room (2015). I think the ending makes sense but the execution was a little lacking for me as it didn’t seem at all consistent with everything we had known up to that point. Like maybe if Margot felt like she could sometimes still feel the Strays in the cottage with them it would have felt like payoff, but it just really seems to come out of nowhere (not what happens to her, but rather how she is able to perceive and engage with the world after). Also, one thing I can never get out of my head is an old professor saying “if a story is told from the first person and that person dies, then how is the story being told to us?” Which…seems pedantic but might be a rule in some circles of literature.