Don't Let Her Stay

Content Warning: This novel contains descriptions of emotional abuse, death by suicide, and stigmatizing and potentially offensive language and stereotypes regarding people with mental health conditions. Its contents are reflected in this study guide.

Denial is a main source of conflict in Don’t Let Her Stay. Richard’s denial puts Joanne and Evie in direct danger, causes Joanne to lose trust in him, and ultimately results in his death. Chloe exacerbates Richard’s denial to undermine Joanne, while Richard denies the painful truth about Chloe. This denial, in turn, disorients Joanne and causes her trust in herself to falter. In this way, the author suggests that denial can be dangerous, especially when the truth is painful.

The author peppers Richard’s hidden suspicion of Chloe throughout the first half of the novel, conveyed through his tendency to take her side and quick temper when Joanne suggests Chloe is up to something. Though, initially, this appears to be cruelty, the author suggests that there is more to his behavior. In Chapter 27, for example, after Richard tells Joanne about Sophie and laments Chloe’s trauma, Joanne assesses that “[h]e knows what she’s like, but he pretends he doesn’t. Or maybe he is so much in denial that he can’t bring himself to admit it” (164).