by S. F. Kosa
3. Miles tells the team at the Hatchet that the Oracles of Innocence story was huge news at the time. Why do you think audiences are fascinated by cult stories? What comes to mind when you think of cults?
4. Compare and contrast Eszter and Parvaneh. What do you think draws them together? What separates them? How would you describe their roles in the Oracles of Innocence?
5. Describe Darius. What character traits does he have that push him to hold this leadership role? How do you picture him?
6. What part of the Oracles of Innocence lifestyle did you find most intriguing? Most outlandish? Where do you think the dangerous turning point was?
7. If you had an Oracles of Innocence name, what would it be? Imagine you could take on a new identity and new way of life. How do you think that would feel? Why do you believe people choose that route?
8. Describe Miles and Dora’s partnership. Do you think of them as allies or adversaries? How do their goals align?
9. Trauma plays a large role in the story. How do each of these characters manifest or work through their respective traumas?
10. What do you make of Xerxes’s journey? Do you think his past defines him? If you were in his shoes, what would you make of your tumultuous early years?
11. What do you think happens to Dora once the story closes? Do you think she finds the peace she’s been seeking?
A Conversation with the Author
The Night We Burned is a fascinating look at cults and cult psychology. What inspired you to write this thriller?
As a psychologist, I’m always trying to understand why people behave and think how they do, and cults (also called “high-control groups”) provide a fascinating challenge in that respect: Why do typical, intelligent people “allow” themselves to be manipulated and controlled in such strange, weird ways? I think most of us are fascinated with that question. My focus in this book was to show one (very extreme) example of how someone gets drawn in and why they stay long after things go bad.
Did you model the Oracles of Innocence after any real-life group? A mix of different groups?
The Oracles of Innocence grew from my understanding of several existing or past groups, including Heaven’s Gate, the Branch Davidians, and the followers of Charles Manson. More prominent in my mind than any other, though, was the Peoples Temple and its notorious leader, Jim Jones. Several times before the Jonestown mass suicide event, Jones essentially had his followers “practice” by asking them to drink substances and then telling them they’d ingested lethal poison. He got them used to that kind of obedience before the tragic finale. He also exploited female followers by telling them that sex with the leader would help purge or heal them of their various trauma histories and issues (this is not an uncommon behavior among cult leaders). Jones also became obsessed with persecution, and the mass suicide came when he became convinced that the government was going to invade the compound and kill them all, including the children. In The Night We Burned, Darius uses all these strategies to control his followers.
What character did you connect with the most?
Dora, I think. She’s painfully imperfect but wants to do better. She’s terrified but wants to be brave. She knows the stakes and doesn’t want to give up what she’s built for herself over the years, but she also grows to understand that she’s missed a few key ingredients. She comes to realize she’s not trusting or prioritizing her relationships as much as she should, in part because of what she went through when she was a member of the Oracles.
Talk a bit about Dora and the way she has dealt with her trauma. What research did you do to bring Dora’s character to life?
In terms of a formal psychology text, I relied on Alexandra Stein’s Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems, which explains how, under the right conditions, almost anyone can be manipulated in unexpected and surprising ways. Also helpful was Steven Hassan’s BITE model (behavior, information, thought, and emotional control), which outlines how groups draw in and maintain control over members. A lot of people think only weak-minded or gullible individuals can be lured into high-control groups, which results in a lot of shame and self-condemnation for people who have survived them. Dora is an example of such a person—twenty years later, and even though she can intellectually understand why she joined and why she stayed, emotionally she’s still fragile, in part because she’s avoided seeking treatment and still bears the internalized stigma from her past. To portray her mindset, I not only read books like Waco by David Thibodeau and two books by Jeff Guinn (Manson and The Road to Jonestown), but I also watched several documentaries that included interviews with former high-control group members, including The Vow (about NXIVM), Wild Wild Country (about the Rajneeshpuram), Holy Hell (about Buddhafield), and Going Clear (about Scientology). These former group members provided a range of perspectives but also showed how intelligent, accomplished people can be drawn into these groups—and often experience trauma that requires long-term treatment to heal.
Talk a bit about the relationship between Eszter and Parvaneh. Why is their friendship so crucial to the story?
The relationship between Eszter and Parvaneh grounds and humanizes a story in which frankly crazy stuff is going on. I think their connection, forged from similar pasts and mutual need, helps carry readers through the difficult and hair-raising sequence of events that leads to the fire. Eszter doesn’t lure or manipulate Parvaneh into the group so much as she wants to share this wonderful thing she’s experiencing with someone who might need it as much as she does. It’s only later that she realizes it was a terrible mistake, but at that point, it’s too late to save both of them.
This novel has such an amazing twist to it. When you begin writing a thriller, what comes first, the hook or the twist? Do you always know the twists before you begin?
It depends. Sometimes the twist comes first, but in this case, the hook did. I knew I wanted to tell a story about a fact-checker who needed to conceal details of her past, and only later did I decide how I wanted to tell that story. At first, I considered including several additional perspectives (e.g., Miles, Ben Ransom), but after I churned on it a bit, I decided it would be best to distill it down to the two most important voices: Parvaneh and Dora.
What’s been on your reading pile lately?
In the realm of fiction, I am currently riveted by On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. In terms of nonfiction, I recently finished Culture Warlords by Talia Lavin and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, both of which I highly, highly recommend.
What do you ultimately want readers to take away from The Night We Burned?
One extraordinarily common mistake we all make as humans is called “fundamental attribution error.” It’s our tendency to blame a person’s character or personality when things go wrong. But when we do that, we lose all sympathy, and it’s often because we don’t think deeply enough about how the pressures and pulls of the situation shape human beings’ decisions and behaviors. I’d love for readers to come away from The Night We Burned with more appreciation for how people’s contexts, the behavior of others around them, and the dynamics of their present circumstances can lead them to do things we can’t necessarily predict if we focus only on what’s “wrong” with them personally.
Acknowledgments
Like all my books, this one was a true team effort and collaboration. Many thanks to everyone at Sourcebooks Landmark, including Dominique Raccah, Kirsten Wenum, Heather Hall, Gretchen Stelter, and Sabrina Baskey, for their enthusiasm, support, and commitment to all the details that made The Night We Burned what it is. Much gratitude to my editor, MJ Johnston, for believing in this book and pushing me to make it better and especially for recognizing the power of the relationship between Eszter and Parvaneh from the beginning. Huge thanks also go to James Iacobelli for designing a cover that made me gasp the first time I saw it—and that made me keep going back to look agai
n.
Thank you to the team at Irene Goodman Literary Agency and, in particular, to my fierce agent, Victoria Marini, for all your coaching, strategy, and honesty. I’m grateful for our partnership. Thanks also to Olivia Fanaro at United Talent Agency for your advocacy and enthusiasm. And to Jena Gregoire at Pure Textuality PR for your organization, creativity, reliability, and patience.
To my wonderful friends, including Lydia Kang, Jayne Tan, Natasha Goldman, and Paul Block, thank you for tolerating me no matter what emotional state I happen to be in and for feasts and merriment and conversation, even when virtual. And to Claudine Fitzgerald—I hope you realize how much I profoundly appreciate your cheerleading and belief in me, lady. Thank you.
I would not be able to dwell in the darkest places of the human psyche without the counterbalance of joy and light that comes from my family, particularly my children. Thank you to Taylor for mutual accountability and the sprints that carried me through the end of the first draft, and to Erin, Asher, Alma, and Evelyn for providing delight and comic relief when I emerged from the writing cave. Thank you to my parents and sisters, nieces and nephews, who love me unconditionally and generously. And of course, I could not have done any of this without the rock-steady support of my partner in crime. Peter, thank you for believing in me and my books, even in the moments when I can’t quite manage it. And thank you for letting me spoil all the twists before you have a chance to read them.
About the Author
S. F. Kosa is a clinical psychologist with a fascination for the seedy underbelly of the human psyche. The Quiet Girl was her debut psychological suspense novel. She also writes as Sarah Fine and is the author of more than two dozen fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi, and romance novels, several of which have been translated into multiple languages. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and their (blended) brood of five young humans.
Check out The Quiet Girl from S. F. Kosa!
Good girls keep quiet. Quiet girls won’t stay silent forever.
When Alex arrives in Provincetown to patch things up with his new wife, he finds an empty wineglass in the sink, her wedding ring on the desk, and a string of questions in her wake. The police believe Alex’s wife simply left, his marriage crumbling before it truly began. But what Alex finds in their empty cottage points to a different reality:
His wife has always carried a secret. And now she’s disappeared.
In his hunt for the truth, Alex comes across Layla, a young woman with information to share who may hold the key to everything his wife has kept hidden. A strange, quiet girl whose memories may soon break them all…
“Dueling narratives propel this stunning psychological suspense… Hitchcock fans won’t want to miss this nuanced, multilayered novel.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Prepare to be enthralled—The Quiet Girl will grab your emotions and then hang on with a death grip.”
—Maureen Joyce Connolly, author of Little Lovely Things
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