Lights Out Quiz – 20 Questions About Navessa Allen's Dark Stalker Rom-Com

Plot and Sequence Questions (8 total)

1. How does Aly first encounter Brinley at the hospital?
   A. Brinley is crying in the breakroom after a difficult shift
   B. Brinley is shouting at a patient’s family
   C. Brinley is passed out in the supply closet
   D. Brinley is arguing with a doctor

2. What does Josh discover when he breaks into Aly’s house during the power outage?
   A. Aly’s cat attacks him
   B. Aly is waiting with a gun
   C. He feels no violent urges around the cat
   D. He finds a hidden camera already in the bedroom

3. What does Aly do after finding the Faceless Man’s mask on her bed?
   A. Calls the police immediately
   B. Retrieves a handgun and struggles with fear and arousal
   C. Posts about it on social media
   D. Hides in the closet and waits for him to return

4. During the car ride home in the snowstorm, what does Aly do?
   A. She demands Josh remove his mask
   B. She performs oral sex while holding a knife
   C. She calls Tyler to report Josh
   D. She threatens to jump out of the moving car

5. How does Josh prove to Aly that he is not her stalker during their first in-person meeting?
   A. He lets her search his apartment
   B. He runs a fake hacking program and uses a burner phone to text her as the stalker
   C. He shows her his father’s arrest record
   D. He admits to installing the cameras

6. What does Aly plant in Josh’s backpack to track him?
   A. A GPS tracker
   B. A voice recorder
   C. A strand of her own hair
   D. A hidden camera

7. After Brad Bluhm is accidentally killed, where do Josh and Aly take the body?
   A. To the police station
   B. To Aly’s mafia uncle Nico’s villa
   C. To an abandoned warehouse
   D. To Brad’s own house

8. In the epilogue, what game do Aly and Josh play in the forest?
   A. Hide and seek
   B. Consensual predator-prey primal play
   C. Paintball
   D. A scavenger hunt for the ring

Character Motivation Questions (5 total)

1. Why is Aly obsessed with the masked content creator “the.faceless.man”?
   (Short answer)

2. What drives Josh to break into Aly’s home and set up surveillance?
   A. He wants to prove he is not like his father
   B. He is hired by Tyler to spy on her
   C. He plans to kill her like his father did
   D. He wants to steal her identity

3. Why does Aly choose to get into the Faceless Man’s car in the hospital parking garage?
   A. She is too exhausted to drive
   B. She feels she has no other choice
   C. She is embracing her dark desires despite fear
   D. She wants to kidnap him

4. What is Josh’s greatest fear about himself throughout the story?
   (Short answer)

5. Why does Aly agree to attend monthly family dinners at Uncle Nico’s?
   A. She wants to reconnect with her family
   B. It is the price for Nico’s help disposing of Brad’s body
   C. She hopes to learn more about her mother’s death
   D. She wants to introduce Josh to her relatives

Theme and Symbol Questions (4 total)

1. The MacDonald Triad is mentioned in Josh’s chapters. What does it represent in the story?
   A. A set of warning signs for future violent behavior
   B. A hacking technique
   C. A type of BDSM scene negotiation
   D. A forensic tool for identifying victims

2. What does Josh’s mask symbolize in the novel?
   (Short answer)

3. The repeated use of hidden cameras and surveillance reflects which theme?
   A. The dangers of technology
   B. The tension between privacy and intimacy
   C. The inevitability of being watched by the government
   D. The humorous side of modern dating

4. How does the novel address the nature versus nurture debate?
   A. Josh’s father was a serial killer, but Josh himself is not violent
   B. Aly believes everyone is born evil
   C. Brad Bluhm’s behavior is blamed on his upbringing
   D. The book avoids this theme entirely

Synthesis Questions (3 total)

1. Compare Aly’s reaction to Brad Bluhm and Josh’s reaction to Brad’s accidental death. How do their responses reflect their past traumas?
   (Short answer)

2. The book begins with a trigger warnings chapter. How does this choice affect the reader’s experience, and what does it say about the author’s approach to consent?
   (Short answer)

3. If Josh had never discovered Aly’s comments on his masked videos, do you think their relationship would have developed differently? Explain with reasoning from the story.
   (Short answer)

Answer Key with Explanations

Plot and Sequence

1. A. Brinley is crying in the breakroom after a difficult shift. – Aly finds Brinley in shock and calms her down, then gives her a ride home. (Evidence from Chapter 2: Aly sits with Brinley after a traumatic night.)

2. C. He feels no violent urges around the cat. – Josh encounters Aly’s cat during the break-in and realizes he is not like his father, confirming he can control his darker impulses. (Chapter 3: He feels no violent urges, confirming he may not be like his father.)

3. B. Retrieves a handgun and struggles with fear and arousal. – Aly arms herself but also becomes aroused by the invasion, setting up the central conflict. (Chapter 4: She retrieves a handgun and struggles with fear and arousal.)

4. B. She performs oral sex while holding a knife. – This scene establishes their power dynamic: Aly maintains control by wielding a knife. (Chapter 9: She performs oral sex while holding a knife, alternating threat and pleasure.)

5. B. He runs a fake hacking program and uses a burner phone to text her as the stalker. – Josh deliberately misleads Aly to maintain his secret identity. (Chapter 11: He runs a fake hacking program while using an auto-response app on a burner phone.)

6. A. A GPS tracker. – Aly buys a tracking device and plants it in Josh’s backpack to prove he is the stalker. (Chapter 13: She buys a tracking device to prove it.)

7. B. To Aly’s mafia uncle Nico’s villa. – They bring the body to Nico for disposal in exchange for favors. (Chapter 18: They arrive at Uncle Nico’s villa with Brad’s corpse.)

8. B. Consensual predator-prey primal play. – They engage in a forest chase where Josh hunts Aly, ending with sex in a stream. (Epilogue: They play a consensual predator-prey game; Josh hunts her down.)

Character Motivation

1. Aly is obsessed because she has a mask kink and finds the anonymous masked creator sexually appealing; his content feeds her dark fantasies. (Evidence from Chapter 2: She scrolls masked thirst traps, obsessed with “the.faceless.man” and her subsequent arousal watching his videos.)

2. A. He wants to prove he is not like his father. – Josh breaks into Aly’s house to test his own dark desires and see if he can be intimate without violence. (Chapter 3: He feels no violent urges, confirming he may not be like his father and Chapter 7: He reflects on the MacDonald triad to reassure himself he is not a predator.)

3. C. She is embracing her dark desires despite fear. – Aly consciously chooses to get into the car, acknowledging her arousal and desire for the dangerous scenario. (Chapter 8: She chooses to get in the car, embracing her dark desires.)

4. Josh’s greatest fear is that he will become a serial killer like his father. (Repeated throughout: Chapter 3, Chapter 15, Chapter 21; he worries about inherited violence and the Ken Doll Killer DNA match.)

5. B. It is the price for Nico’s help disposing of Brad’s body. – Nico demands family dinners as repayment for the mob cleanup. (Chapter 22: Nico demands monthly family dinner as repayment.)

Theme and Symbol

1. A. A set of warning signs for future violent behavior. – Josh uses the MacDonald Triad (fire setting, animal cruelty, bedwetting) to reassure himself he is not a predator. (Chapter 7: He reflects on the MacDonald triad to reassure himself he is not a predator.)

2. Josh’s mask symbolizes identity concealment, the ability to express hidden desires, and the line between fantasy and reality. (Multiple chapters: mask kink, identity concealment; the mask allows both Aly and Josh to explore their darker sides.)

3. B. The tension between privacy and intimacy. – Hidden cameras and surveillance create a dynamic where Aly is both violated and aroused, blurring boundaries. (Chapters 5, 6, 13: Surveillance, voyeurism, violated privacy.)

4. A. Josh’s father was a serial killer, but Josh himself is not violent. – The novel argues that Josh’s choices and actions define him, not his genetic inheritance. (Chapter 21: Josh acknowledges he is not like his abusive father; Chapter 20: DNA match to Ken Doll Killer, but Tyler and Aly see Josh differently.)

Synthesis

1. Aly remains calm and even jokes about stabbing the corpse because her trauma nursing background has desensitized her to death, while Josh is sick with guilt and vomits, reflecting his lifelong fear of becoming a killer. (Chapter 18: Aly is calm, joking about stabbing the corpse; Josh is sick with guilt; also Chapter 16: Josh vomits in shock.)

2. The trigger warnings chapter explicitly informs readers of heavy themes, establishing informed consent before the story begins. This mirrors the novel’s emphasis on consensual dubious consent and allows readers to choose whether to engage. (Chapter 1: Trigger warning list, reader discretion, establishes expectations and consent.)

3. Likely not. Josh’s obsession began when he saw her comments on his videos; without that, he might never have targeted her. However, his desire for connection and his own darkness could have led him to her through other means, as he had already hacked her comments. (Evidence: Chapter 3: He discovers Aly has left dozens of comments on his videos, driving his obsession; but his stalking is premeditated.)

Want to see more? Check out the book overview, questions and answers, or the ending explained.