Book Summary and Reviews of The Need by Helen Phillips

Book Summary

From the award-winning author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat, comes a subversive genre-busting thriller about a woman who grapples with the complex dualities of motherhood - joy and dread, tenderness and anxiety - after confronting a masked intruder in her home.

There were footsteps in the other room...

So begins The Need, a sharp and haunting exploration of the joys and perils of modern motherhood. Molly is a paleobotanist who spends her days working at a fossil quarry where she sometimes unearths artifacts that defy understanding, including a controversial Bible that has recently attracted gawkers and conspiracy theorists. By night, she cares for her two young children—four-year-old Viv and one-year-old Ben—while her musician husband is away on tour. She's frazzled, sleep-deprived, and it seems the edges of her reality blur more each day.

When she hears an intruder in the house, Molly is desperate to keep her children safe. She confronts the figure in the deer mask—and discovers that this stranger knows everything about Molly and her family. Molly fears the most sinister motives even as she reluctantly, terrifyingly, acquiesces to the intruder's demands. What happens once she learns the true identity of the trespasser is chilling and otherworldy.

With tight, gorgeous prose and the urgent pacing of the best psychological thrillers, Helen Phillips unfurls a story that is at once cerebral and transcendent. The Need toggles between Molly's surreal work life and her harrowing home life, excavating deep truths about modern motherhood even as it poses provocative questions about the nature of the universe and the ethics of empathy. The hopes and heartaches of parenthood exposed in these pages, coupled with the gripping sci-fi speculation, makes for a haunting, propulsive, and unforgettable read from an author the New York Times calls "breathtaking and wondrous."

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Were you familiar with paleobotany before reading The Need? What role does this field of study play in the story?
2. The imagery in the novel, such as the deer mask, is quite surreal. How does this contribute to the overall mood and themes of the book? What other motifs added to the novel's eerie atmosphere?
3. The novel has been described as a psychological thriller and a fever dream. How does The Need blend elements of multiple genres like sci-fi, horror, and domestic drama? What genre would you use to describe the novel?
4. Do you expect parents and non-parents might have differing experiences of reading the novel? Does The Need challenge any preconceived notions about motherhood and identity?
5. Electric Literature ...