How much do you think Anna’s mother knew about her husband’s activities? Do you think she felt her daughter was involved?
I don’t think Anna’s mother knew what her husband was up to, and it didn’t sound like she really cared enough about him to try to figure it out. She knew her husband had a dark streak, and that her daughter was more like her father, so she held that against “Elena.” Overall, she seemed cold, uncaring and totally gave up on her daughter, yet formed another family years later.
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I think the mother knew her husband was a bad person, but probably not realizing what he really did. She also thought her daughter was so much like him, so therefore probably thought of her as a bad seed. She was a bad mother very unloving.
I think Anna’s mother knew her husband was crazy and suspected her daughter was too - which was why she abandoned Anna. It was telling that she became a different person when she remarried and had other children.
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I think she definitely knew more than she revealed. She didn’t want to face the reality of what her husband was capable of and she put her family through unnecessary trauma and suffering.
I think her mother knew what her husband was doing, but probably not the number of his victims or full extent of his depravity. She was in denial until the police caught up with him and she had to face the truth when he was taken into custody. She also thought Anna was too much like him. I think she was horrified, terrified, and paralyzed, eventually just throwing in the towel on both of them so she could go off and start a new life, free from the overwhelming emotions she undoubtedly experienced when the truth was revealed. I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to marry a serial killer and have his child. How would you live with something like that? For her, the only way was to escape and start over. But I also don’t know how you abandon your child. I think there could have been a whole different novel with the mother as the central character.
The author provided clues about Anna’s mother and described a person who needed to be escape. She still should have helped Anna.
i think her mother suspected her husband was doing something that wasn’t good. I was very disappointed that she didn’t try to take care of her daughter.
Like many spouses/relatives of serial killers, I think she was in denial as much as she could be. While she may not have known completely, she did at some level know what was going on. She did seem to believe that her daughter was being groomed to continue her father’s “work.” Since Elena was enthralled by the forest and her father, her mother would have expected Elena to be the same type person. To me, this shows Elena’s mother’s weakness in refusing to confront the evidence all around her.
I think her mother was highly suspicious of her husband’s activities. I also think that her mother was jealous of the relationship Elana had with her father and worried Elana was involved in something evil.
I wonder if it was an “ignorance is bliss” sort of relationship. Granted, it doesn’t sound like there was much bliss, but there is a big difference between recognizing that something is “off” with your partner and believing that he might be a serial killer. If she felt stuck/trapped, it sort of makes sense. Still, I was not a fan of how she treated Anna as a child. Even in fiction, I just can’t fathom hating (and if felt like hate) my own child and not even acknowledging her as your own.