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Do You Follow?
Alexa lives a sheltered life with her widowed father, feeling stifled by his helicopter parenting. When she secures a marketing job and apartment in New York City—much to her father’s and therapist’s concern—Alexa has high hopes of finally sneaking her way into adulthood. But her newfound freedom is cut short when her estranged twin sister Beth, after a long stint in a psychiatric setting, unexpectedly shows up at the doorstep of her tiny apartment.
Alexa too has spent time at the Weinstein Center. But she's determined to lead a normal life now and soon begins to date a YouTuber client. According to Beth, something isn’t quite right with Curt, but Alexa shrugs her clingy sister’s warnings off. It’s Beth who’s crazy, after all . . . As the sister bond grows strained over Alexa’s relationship and career success, questions mount, and secrets unfold, revealing the wickedly dark shared history of the twin siblings. What exactly happened when the twins were only nine that set this vile trajectory in motion?
Things get more complicated, and one treacherous act threatens everything Alexa has been working toward. It will be on her—and Beth—to claw the way out of this situation.
This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Greenleaf Book Group.
Book club questions for Do You Follow? by J.C. Bidonde
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
In general, social media is critiqued in a light, humorous, and satirical way in the book, yet is depicted as having earth-shattering consequences. Please discuss the portrayal of social media in Do You Follow? and its role in the book. Do you agree with how it is portrayed?
Why do you think the author chose New York to place the story in? What sort of atmosphere and effect is created by using the big city as a setting? How would the story be different if placed in a rural small town?
Bidonde uses Alexa’s journal as a tool for creating tension in the novel. Symbolically and metaphysically, what else does the journal stand for or convey?
Is there a book or movie you can think of that compares in terms of Beth and Alexa’s story? Is there a fascination with twins in our culture, whether it be scientific, comical, or morbid? How does Do You Follow? explore themes of twindom?
As a reader, do you have a preference for Alexa or Beth as characters? Which one do you relate to more, or have more empathy towards?
What was your initial reaction upon discovering that Alexa and Beth were conjoined twins, and then that Beth was dead, as we encounter this information somewhat late in the story? How did you feel about this by the end of the book?
Once you knew Beth was not a “living” character, did you care about her any less? Did it change the stakes or the way you read the book?
Alexa is not of sound mind when she is charged and is permitted to serve her sentence in an asylum. Do you feel that, if she were an actual person, she would receive a similar sentence? Should that real individual then be allowed to roam free if they ever receive an all-clear on her mental health?
Though Alexa’s therapist is a likable protagonist, he fails in saving Alexa from her fate. Is the author making a point about the effectiveness of intervention for mentally ill patients? What is your own opinion, and did the book sway or influence you at all?
Do you think Kurt deserves any of our empathy? Is he all bad guy, just a victim of social media and/or mental illness, or a combination of both?
Do You Follow? Book Club Questions PDF
Click here for a printable PDF of the Do You Follow? discussion questions