Dear Debbie Quiz

Think you remember every twist in Freida McFadden's Dear Debbie? This 20-question quiz will challenge your recall of key plot points, character motives, symbols, and how the pieces fit together. For deeper dives, explore our full guide to Dear Debbie, the common questions and answers, and the ending explained.

Quiz Questions

Part 1: Multiple Choice

1. Plot – What prompts neighbor Brett Carlson to confront Debbie outside her home?

   • A. He accuses her of breaking into his basement and cutting power to his office.
   • B. He claims she poisoned his dog.
   • C. He says she stole his newspaper every morning.
   • D. He believes she scratched his car with a shovel.

2. Plot – Why is Debbie fired from her “Dear Debbie” column?

   • A. The newspaper cuts the advice section due to budget.
   • B. A husband threatens a lawsuit after she advised a reader to leave him and hinted at poison.
   • C. She is caught plagiarizing an advice column from a competitor.
   • D. Her boss discovers she has been writing the column under a false identity.

3. Plot – What does Debbie use to drug Zane at the shipyard playground?

   • A. Crushed sleeping pills in a soda.
   • B. An over‑the‑counter antihistamine in wine.
   • C. Opium-laced beer.
   • D. Rat poison stirred into a milkshake.

4. Plot – How does Debbie frame Coach Pike for placing a camera in the girls’ locker room?

   • A. She bribes a student to testify against him.
   • B. She hacks into his phone and plants incriminating photos.
   • C. She plants a nanny cam herself, then makes an anonymous tip to the police.
   • D. She convinces Izzy to report that Pike touched her.

5. Character Motivation – Why does Harley deliberately befriend Debbie at the gym?

   • A. She wants to learn gardening tips for her own apartment.
   • B. She hopes to join the book club and meet wealthy husbands.
   • C. She recognized Debbie’s name and wanted to get closer to Cooper.
   • D. She feels sorry for Debbie because other women exclude her.

6. Character Motivation – Cooper hides his job loss from Debbie mostly because:

   • A. he plans to disappear and start a new life.
   • B. he is afraid of her reaction and already feels unworthy.
   • C. he wants to secretly collect unemployment benefits.
   • D. he has a second, higher-paying job.

7. Theme / Symbol – The buzzing sensation in Debbie’s head primarily represents:

   • A. an undiagnosed medical condition.
   • B. the sound of the neighbor’s loud music.
   • C. her rising internal rage and need for control.
   • D. a supernatural warning of danger.

8. Theme / Symbol – What do the opium poppies in Debbie’s garden symbolize?

   • A. Her longing for a simpler life.
   • B. Her hidden capacity for poison and violence.
   • C. A harmless hobby that brings her peace.
   • D. The beauty of nature overtaking decay.

9. Synthesis – Which two characters share a secret alliance that started with an anonymous “Dear Debbie” letter?

   • A. Debbie and Harley
   • B. Debbie and Bev Petrie
   • C. Debbie and Cindy Bryant
   • D. Cooper and Harley

10. Synthesis – What is Debbie’s primary motive for setting fire to the Zeta Pi fraternity house?

    • A. She wants to collect insurance money.
    • B. She believes the current members are dealing drugs.
    • C. She is destroying the location where she was raped.
    • D. She mistakes it for the home of another enemy.

11. Plot – What piece of evidence in Harley’s apartment first alerts Debbie to the affair?

    • A. A lipstick stain on a coffee mug.
    • B. A man’s extra‑large T‑shirt that smells like Cooper’s cologne.
    • C. A framed photograph of Cooper on Harley’s nightstand.
    • D. A receipt from a restaurant where Debbie and Cooper had dinner.

12. Plot – The book club members become violently ill immediately after:

    • A. drinking Rochelle’s champagne.
    • B. eating Debbie’s homemade turkey‑avocado sandwiches.
    • C. tasting the elaborate charcuterie board.
    • D. exercising together at the gym.

13. Character Motivation – Cooper disables the Findly tracking app on his phone primarily to:

    • A. hide his visit to Harley’s apartment.
    • B. test whether Debbie is still watching his location.
    • C. pretend his phone has a dead battery.
    • D. install a different tracking app.

14. Theme / Symbol – Debbie’s advice column in the novel functions as:

    • A. a straightforward source of practical household tips.
    • B. a darkly humorous outlet for violent fantasies that she later acts on.
    • C. a satire of the author’s own real‑life advice work.
    • D. a minor subplot that never connects to the main action.

15. Synthesis – The epilogue shows Jesse in prison. He is beaten by other inmates because:

    • A. he was caught stealing from them.
    • B. he bragged about killing Ken and Harley.
    • C. a fellow inmate’s relative was an earlier rape victim of Jesse’s.
    • D. they want to frame someone else for the murders.

Part 2: Short Answer

1. Plot – What object does Debbie bury in Jo Dolan’s garden to ruin the roses?

2. Character Motivation – What traumatic event from Debbie’s college years drives her desire for revenge against Jesse?

3. Theme / Symbol – How does Debbie weaponize the concept of karma throughout the story? Give one example.

4. Synthesis – The Findly tracking app serves as both a tool of control and a source of vulnerability for Debbie. Explain how.

5. Plot – What substance does Debbie add to Cooper’s meal or drink that causes him to be violently ill and sleep through her secret errand?

Answer Key

1. A. Brett accuses her of breaking into his basement and cutting power to his office (Chapter 3). The other options are never mentioned.

2. B. A husband threatened a lawsuit after Debbie suggested leaving him and poisoning his wine (Chapter 15). Her boss Garrett fired her and the secretary who approved the column.

3. C. Debbie laces a beer with opium, Zane drinks it, and he passes out (Chapter 45).

4. C. She plants a nanny cam, then anonymously tips off the police, and later fuels the crowd’s outrage with a false claim about Pike staring at girls (Chapter 32).

5. C. Harley recognized Debbie’s name after seeing it in the gym and deliberately befriended her to get closer to Cooper (Chapter 21).

6. B. Cooper feels ashamed and fears that Debbie—whom he perceives as fragile—will be disappointed. He also struggles with his own insecurities (Chapter 11, 19).

7. C. The buzzing flares when Debbie is enraged and vanishes after she exerts dominance, as when she threatens the line‑cutter at the nursery (Chapter 9).

8. B. The poppies produce opium, which she uses to drug both Zane and Cooper, hiding deadly capability behind a pretty garden (Chapters 25, 45).

9. C. Cindy wrote to “Dear Debbie” about financial abuse; Debbie helped her escape Ken and later conspired with her to kill him and frame Jesse (Epilogue).

10. C. It is the fraternity house where Hutch (Jesse) drugged and raped Debbie during her sophomore year; she returns to burn it down as revenge (Chapter 56).

11. B. An oversized T‑shirt that smells of Cooper’s specific cologne and sweat out of place in Harley’s apartment (Chapter 35).

12. B. Their sudden vomiting happens right after each woman—except Harley, who did not eat one—takes a bite of the sandwiches Debbie brought (Chapter 13).

13. A. He disables Findly right before going to Harley’s apartment so Debbie cannot track that location (Chapter 19).

14. B. Even as Debbie deletes the drafts of unhinged advice, the column mirrors her homicidal planning and eventually aids her alliance with Cindy (various chapters, Epilogue).

15. C. Geho attacks Jesse on behalf of Misty Cardon’s brother; Misty was an earlier rape victim whom Jesse also killed (Epilogue).

16. She buries Japanese beetle trap refills (pheromone lures) in the mulch, attracting a swarm of beetles that devour Jo’s roses (Chapter 25).

17. During her sophomore year at MIT, Hutch (later revealed as Jesse) drugged her rum and Coke at a fraternity party and raped her (Chapter 43).

18. Debbie invokes karma as justification for her own sabotage. For instance, after burying the beetle traps in Jo’s garden, she smirks that the destruction is karma’s work, though she engineered it entirely (Chapters 8, 34).

19. Debbie uses Findly to monitor her family’s movements, reinforcing her need for control. Later, Cooper uses the same app to retrace her secret stops—including Coach Pike’s house and Harley’s apartment—which threatens to expose her plans (Chapters 46, 55).

20. She adds opium (harvested from her poppies) to his food or drink, making him too ill and drowsy to wake while she leaves the house to sabotage Jo’s garden and later confront others (Chapter 25).