Questions for Further Reading Things We Have in Common by Tasha Kavanagh Whether you are reading this book as part of a group or on your own, we hope the below questions enhance your reading experience. Join the conversation online with #ThingsWeHaveinCommon 'If you'd glanced just once across the field, you'd have seen me standing in the middle on my own, looking straight at you, and you'd have gone back through the trees to the path quick, tugging your dog after you. You'd have known you'd given yourself away, even if only to me. But you didn't. You only had eyes for Alice.' 1. This novel is written in second person. How did the direct address affect your reading? Did your reaction change as you progressed through the story? 2. Yasmin is a very introspective character, often imagining scenarios removed from her daily life. How does this trait shape her as a narrator? What external factors contribute to her fantasies? 3. Why do you think Yasmin fantasises about Alice's disappearance? What emotional need, if any, does this fulfill for her? 'I knew I'd been obsessing about you. And I didn't really know anything about you anyway. I'd only seen you once. I thought about how you could just've been a completely normal person that was staring at Alice for some innocent reason…and not at all because you were going to do something very bad.' 4. In many ways, this is a whodunit. How did the pacing and narration affect your understanding of what happened to Alice? 5. Does this novel challenge our understanding of guilt and innocence? Who is the perpetrator? Who is the victim? 6. What did you think of the last sentence? 'I got a weird feeling, then, deep inside – like nothing anywhere in the whole universe mattered except you and me – like we belonged, in some preordained, destined way, to each other. Like fate.' 7. Several different communities are represented in this novel. What are they? How do normative societal structures let Yasmin down? 8. How does Yasmin's life at school impact on her life at home, and vice versa? 9. To what extent is this novel a search for belonging? 10. What roles does Mr. Caldwell fill in Yasmin's life? What roles does she fill in his? 11. What does the China dog represent? 12. Would you befriend Yasmin?
'That moment she was mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good: I found / A thing to do, and all her hair / In one long yellow string I wound / Three times her little throat around, / And strangled her' 13. This poem, 'Porphyria's Lover' by Robert Browning, is quoted early on by Yasmin. What is its significance? 14. Do you think Yasmin is an obsessive character? Why or why not?