The Short Version
His & Hers, Alice Feeney’s 2020 psychological thriller, suits a book club because it is built to be argued over. It has three voices, Anna, Jack and an unnamed killer, and two of the narrators are unreliable. The title is the hint: there are two sides to every story, so someone is always lying. It is also the novel behind the Netflix series, so some of your group may have seen the show first.
Below are twenty questions: ten that avoid the ending and ten that spoil it. A short section compares the book with the series. We rate the book four out of five. It is a fast read set over about three days, so most readers finish it in a weekend.
Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group
This is a dark adult thriller. It includes explicit sex, sexual abuse of teenagers in the back story, the death of an infant, domestic violence, cruelty to animals, strong language and graphic murder. If anyone in your club may find that hard, say so before you pick it.
Spoiler-Free Questions
- Anna Andrews, a BBC newsreader, loses her job on a Monday and is sent the next day to cover a murder in the village she left at sixteen. How does that opening set up the book?
- The detective on the case, Jack Harper, is Anna’s ex husband. Why does it matter that the two narrators are tied together this way?
- Chapters alternate between Her and Him, each with a time stamp. Did the ticking clock make you read faster?
- Both Anna and Jack are unreliable. Whose account did you trust more at the start, and when did that change?
- The killer’s chapters are short, unnamed and vague. What did you assume about the killer from the voice alone?
- Anna drinks quietly from miniature bottles all day. How does that shape your trust in what she tells us?
- Jack was secretly with the victim, Rachel, the night she died, and he hides it from his own team. Is he a sympathetic narrator?
- Blackdown looks like a postcard English village, with thatched cottages, but is cold and gossipy underneath. How does the setting add to the tension?
- Anna and Jack lost a baby, and that grief hangs over every scene. How does the book show grief turning two people into strangers?
- Our review says the book leans on coincidence. Did any moment make you roll your eyes?
Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)
- Anna’s mother turns out to be the killer, and the book never gives her a first name. Did you suspect her, and why does the author keep her nameless?
- She hid by seeming to have dementia, and the cancer was real but she never took the tablets. How does the book use age and invisibility as a disguise?
- Zoe writes Andrews in her own blood on the bathroom tiles. Everyone reads it as a warning about Anna. Did you spot the other reading?
- The mother cleaned half of Blackdown for twenty years and kept spare keys. Which clue did you miss on a first read: the honey tea, the spotless rooms or the keys?
- Her motive goes back to Anna’s sixteenth birthday, when Rachel, Helen and Zoe took her to the woods. Did the book earn that explanation?
- Charlotte died at three months old in her grandmother’s care, and the mother never called an ambulance. How does that change the way you see her?
- Cat Jones turns out to be Catherine Kelly, the girl from the woods. Was she a fair choice for the fall guy?
- Anna hides the knife in her mother’s beehive and lays a patio over the garden. Is she protecting her mother, or becoming her?
- The last chapter shows the mother making another red and white friendship bracelet. Who is it for, and is that a good last note?
- Rank the red herrings: Jack, Anna, Priya, Richard. Which one fooled you longest?
The Book Versus The Netflix Series
The Netflix series premiered on January 8, 2026, with all six episodes at once. The killer and the motive are the same, but the setting moves from Surrey to Georgia, with Anna a former Atlanta anchor returning to Dahlonega. The killer’s chapters are replaced by a letter from Alice, Anna’s mother, read in voiceover. Cat becomes Lexy, and Richard survives to be arrested. Tessa Thompson plays Anna and Jon Bernthal plays Jack. If your group has seen both, ask which version made the mother more frightening.
What To Read Next
If your group wants a spoiler-free recommendation first, start with our review. After the discussion, the ending explained page walks through every clue about the mother. Our books-like-it list covers more thrillers with narrators you cannot trust, and the book-versus-show page covers the adaptation in full.
