48 pages • 1 hour read
Gillian McAllisterWrong Place Wrong Time
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Research the Bootstrap Paradox, the theory that accounts in part for Jen’s time loop. Assess how the novel answers the question: Why does a time loop happen?
Why does McAllister not end the novel with Jen’s return (and redemption)? What effect does ending on Pauline’s dilemma create?
How is the time loop in Wrong Place, Wrong Time similar and different from other time loop narratives, such as Groundhog Day?
Perhaps the greatest revelation for Jen is her father’s complicity in the crime organization. What does her conversation with him on the day he dies reveal? What does Jen learn this time that she missed before?
The novel suggests there are several kinds of prisons, both physical and mental. Compare and contrast the challenges faced by Kelly/Ryan, Jen, Jones, and Kenneth Eagles. How do the characters create their own prisons? Whose prison is the most tortuous, and why?
What are the defining characteristics/elements of time loop novels? How do they differ from more conventional time travel narratives?
In Wrong Place, Wrong Time, the reader learns about Jen’s life through reverse chronology. What impact does this have? How would the novel have been different if Jen’s family life was revealed in chronological order?
The minor character of Eve plays a major role in Jen’s redemption. How does Eve’s kidnapping fit the novel’s larger exploration of parent-child relationships?
To whom and what does the title refer? How might it refer to both Jen, who is trying to solve a murder, and the reader, who is trying to assemble the plot backward?
