Book Summary and Reviews of A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Book Summary

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town.

By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she's worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

The book opens with a prologue, the first line being: "I thought I knew what monsters were." Why do you think the author chose to start the book with this line? What were your expectations for the book after reading the prologue?
1. Chloe struggles to define "home." On page 20, she says: "Home. That, too, is a loaded phrase. A home isn't just a house, a collection of bricks and boards held together by concrete and nails. It's more emotional than that. A home is safety, security." What is Chloe's home? How did you define the idea before reading, and how (if at all) has that definition changed?
2. On page 76, Chloe says this about lightning bugs: "I remember getting home that night and seeing the lightning bugs in our driveway, ...