2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

We learn through Holly’s point of view that she and Billy Sullivan were responsible for Lizzie’s death. What’s your opinion of that whole scene where his mother, Susan, drugs Holly and Everett to help Billy kill them through their eventual demise? Were you feeling sorry for Holly, rooting for her to live?

Also...was there something unnatural between Susan and Billy?

There was something very disturbing about Susan and Billy's relationship and it is definitely suggested that it was more than a little Oedipal.

That said, I never guessed she was his accomplice. That was the one surprise for me in the book.

I didn't feel at all sorry for Holly, only Everett. I wouldn't have minded if Holly had gotten her just reward at the hands of Billy and his mother.

Yes! It wasn’t just me. Definitely something disturbing about their relationship.

I just didn’t want Billy to get away with his crime. If he’d succeeded at murdering Holly, he would have gotten away with everything.

Jonetta wrote: "I just didn’t want Billy to get away with his crime. If he’d succeeded at murdering Holly, he would have gotten away with everything.."

Agreed!
However, I do think that of the two of them (Holly and Billy) she is worse. He's a garden variety psychopath incapable of controlling his rage and his urges. I even think that it was his mother who actually came up with the saints' deaths as camouflage for the murders - Billy needed them dead, but his mother planned it.

Holly, on the other hand, is fully aware of her own capacity for evil and just doesn't care. She's like Amalthea.

The people around these two didn’t stand a chance.

I didn't want Billy and his mother to succeed in killing Holly because I knew they would also kill Everett. After Holly admitted that she helped Billy kill Lizzie and falsely accused the Staneks of child abuse, it would have been payback. But, I didn't want to see her boyfriend die.

Lauren, I agree. Holly is very much like Amalthea.