[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-347771-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-347771-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","private-rites-discussion-guide","Private Rites - Discussion Guide","","Private Rites by Julia Armfield is a speculative novel about sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes navigating queer love and loss in a drowning world where arcane rituals and religions return. After their father dies, the sisters uncover secrets that fracture their bond through revelations in his will. Relationships unravel as the City’s perspective deepens the world’s decay and surveillance grows, reshaping grief, inheritance, and the family home’s role.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/","Story & Novel",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/private-rites-discussion-guide/347771/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/private-rites-discussion-guide/347771.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Fahsai","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",13,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the significance of the title Private Rites, and how does it change after finishing the book?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The guide asks readers to consider how the title shapes expectations for the novel’s themes and rituals, and whether the meaning becomes clearer once the story is complete.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How do the three sisters’ perspectives shape the story?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The narrative moves between Isla, Irene, and Agnes, and the guide prompts readers to identify similarities and differences among their experiences and to choose which sister resonates most and why.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What does the City’s narration add to the novel’s world and plot?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"At several points, the City’s perspective is used; the guide focuses on how this narration expands understanding of the novel’s world and what it helps readers learn.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},347771,1790637481,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,87,91,95,100,105,110,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":22,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":30,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":96},549768702563,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/8000c4aa63b76e948b?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786536092046926083","Private Rites  \nby Julia Armfield  \nAbout the Book  \nFrom the award-winning author of OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA, a speculative reimagining of King Lear, centering on three sisters navigating queer love and loss in a drowning world.  \nIt?s been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and arcane rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father, an architect as cruel as he was revered, dies. His death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father?s most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will.  \nMore estranged than ever, the sisters? lives spin out of control: Irene?s relationship is straining at the seams, Isla?s exwife keeps calling, and cynical Agnes is falling in love for the first time. But something even more sinister might be unfolding, something related to their mother?s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always seemed unusually interested in the sisters? lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperiled world.  \nDiscussion Guide  \n1. In your opinion, what is the significance of the title PRIVATE RITES? What expectations did it set for you of the novel to come? Does it hold new meaning now, after finishing?  \n2. We move back and forth between the three sisters? perspectives. How are those perspectives similar and different? Were you particularly drawn to one of the sisters? If so, why?  \n3. At several points, we hear from the perspective of the City. What does that narration add to the story, and what does it  \nhelp us learn about the world within the novel?  \n4. The novel?s epigraph comes from Shakespeare?s King Lear, which is also a story about the three daughters of a famous man and an inheritance conflict that drives a wedge between them. If you are familiar with King Lear, discuss the parallels between that story and this one. Would you consider this to be a kind of retelling or reimagining? Why or why not?  \n5. On page 26, Irene lists some of the frustrations of speaking to her family members: ?A person can be thirty, thirtyfive, and yet still largely described by her sisters in terms of things that happened to be true at the age of seventeen.? How do we see this taking place between the sisters in the novel? Do you relate?  \n6. Agnes is often portrayed as the ?outsider? of the siblings. Why do you think Irene and Isla don?t seem to accept or trust her? Why do you think their father decided to give Agnes his house?  \n7. As readers, we only learn about the sisters? parents through flashbacks. What sorts of memories about the parents are we presented with? What commentary is the book making about how much our parents shape us as people, both in life and after their death?  \n8. All three sisters have very different relationships with their partners. Which of the partners, if any, seem involved orwell integrated into the dynamic between the siblings? What does the novel suggest about how much a partner can understand your dynamic with a sibling?  \n9. Though the book opens with their father?s death and references Isla and Irene?s mother?s death several times, the sisters don?t really grieve in the traditional sense. In what ways are the sisters shown grieving their parents? deaths, or grieving their lack of a cohesive family structure more generally?  \n10. How does Julia Armfield show the slow decline of the city narratively throughout the book? What effect does this have on the plot and the relationships between the characters? Would you consider the novel to be ?dystopian?? How is it familiar and different from our world?  \n11. In the final scenes, the sisters reflect on how all three of them are ?","cbCaij605weC1i5H","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaij605weC1i5H","pdf",36164,"English","# Discussion Guide\n## Title and expectations\n## Three sisters’ perspectives\n## The City’s narration\n## Connection to King Lear\n## Speaking and age perceptions\n## Agnes as outsider\n## Flashbacks and parental impact\n## Partners and sibling dynamics\n## Grief without traditional mourning\n## Narrative decline and dystopian framing\n## The family home as danger\n## Surveillance and the final scenes\n## What the future holds","[{\"question\":\"What is the significance of the title Private Rites, and how does it change after finishing the book?\",\"answer\":\"The guide asks readers to consider how the title shapes expectations for the novel’s themes and rituals, and whether the meaning becomes clearer once the story is complete.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the three sisters’ perspectives shape the story?\",\"answer\":\"The narrative moves between Isla, Irene, and Agnes, and the guide prompts readers to identify similarities and differences among their experiences and to choose which sister resonates most and why.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the City’s narration add to the novel’s world and plot?\",\"answer\":\"At several points, the City’s perspective is used; the guide focuses on how this narration expands understanding of the novel’s world and what it helps readers learn.\"}]","Private Rites - Discussion Guide | PDF",1790069052]