logo

54 pages 1 hour read

Claire Swinarski

What Happened To Rachel Riley?

Nonfiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Authorial Context: Claire Swinarski

Claire Swinarski is an Edgar Award-nominated author who has penned books for both children and adults. Swinarski was drawn to writing from a young age. Inspired by books like From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Holes, and the Harry Potter books, Swinarski dreamed of becoming an author even as a child. This love for books and storytelling and her affinity for podcasts are some of the biographical elements that she incorporates into What Happened to Rachel Riley? (“About.” Claire Swinarski).

Just like Swinarski, the protagonist of the book, Anna Hunt, is an avid reader and podcast listener. However, Swinarski further weaves these loves of hers together into the fabric of the narrative, using it to unravel the mystery at the heart of the book. Personally enamored by books that aren’t narrated in “straight prose,” Swinarski uses multiple forms of media—emails, text messages, notes, and podcast recordings, among others—to present the pieces of the puzzle in her book (“Q & A With Claire Swinarski.Publishers Weekly, 5 Jan. 2023). This allows the author to explore multiple perspectives of the events and characters in the book and access information that is not immediately available to Anna as the protagonist while maintaining the book’s suspense and narrative tension.

Beyond just the narrative technique and surface elements in the book, Swinarski’s life experiences also influence the themes of the book. Anna’s investigation into Rachel’s story helps uncover the deeper issue of sexual harassment within the middle school, and Swinarski drew the details of the incidents and adults’ responses from her youth. She describes how, when she was in school in the early 2000s, “butt slapping was the thing” (“Q & A With Claire Swinarski”). This forms an early iteration of “the game” in the book, which Anna learns about from Kaylee. Swinarski also drew the girls’ responses of laughing it off despite it feeling weird and Rachel’s description of a teacher witnessing it but doing nothing from her experiences. She uses this to explore the different manifestations of sexual harassment, the responses to it, and The Complexity of Holding Boundaries and Exerting Bodily Agency.

Swinarski uses her experience as a mother to influence how the students and school ultimately tackle the issue. Swinarski is a parent to three children (“About”), one of whom is a boy. The latter, in particular, inspired her to display how one can hold problematic behavior accountable while simultaneously creating lasting, positive change. Swinarski notes how it was important to her to depict this possibility of change even within the boys in the story, stating, “There’s no such thing in my opinion as an evil 12-year-old. […] It was so important to me to show that the boys have the capacity to change their minds, to decide to do something differently” (“Q & A With Claire Swinarski”). Thus, when the young girls in the book finally decide to step forward and share what has been happening, they decide to call a community meeting and open a dialogue rather than name, shame, and blame their classmates. Additionally, while the boys show accountability by penning an apology note, they also receive help and support to change their behavior through the educational sessions that make up their detention. This helps affect change, as seen in how one of the boys actively calls out his friend when he snaps a girl’s bra strap again. Thus, Swinarski displays the possibility of real, tangible change, ending the book on a positive note.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text