Shred Sisters Quiz: 20 Questions on Plot, Character, and Theme

Quiz: Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner (2024) 20 Questions on Plot, Character, and Theme

This quiz spans the entire novel, from the opening window crash to the final wedding. Questions are grouped by category: plot/sequence, character motivation, theme/symbol, and synthesis. Answer key with explanations follows.

Plot and Sequence

Multiple choice: What event opens the novel?

A) Amy wakes her father after Ollie crashes through a picture window.
B) Ollie runs away from home.
C) Amy finds pills in Ollie's room.
D) The parents announce their divorce.

Multiple choice: After Ollie's hospitalization, what does Amy discover that reveals Ollie's poor grades?

A) A stolen bracelet
B) Report cards
C) A tattoo
D) A journal

Multiple choice: What does Ollie give her mother for her 41st birthday?

A) A gold tennis bracelet
B) A box of stationery
C) A blue lacquer pen-and-pencil set
D) A book of Whitman poems

Multiple choice: What leads to Ollie's hospitalization at The Place?

A) She attempts suicide.
B) She is caught stealing a mink coat and silver spoons.
C) She fails out of school.
D) She attacks her mother.

Multiple choice: After Ollie leaves home again, how does she surface over the next few years?

A) Through letters and postcards
B) Through late-night calls from holding tanks, shelters, and department store security booths
C) Through social media posts
D) Through visits to her parents' house

Multiple choice: What happens to the bakery that their father invests in?

A) It becomes a successful business.
B) Ollie disappears with the money after four months.
C) It burns down.
D) It is sold to a competitor.

Multiple choice: After Amy's marriage to Marc ends, what does she learn about Courtney?

A) Courtney had an affair with Marc while Amy and Marc were still together.
B) Courtney moved to another city.
C) Courtney became a therapist.
D) Courtney had a child with Marc.

Multiple choice: What happens at the end of the novel?

A) Amy marries Ravi.
B) Amy attends Kira's wedding and meets Ravi.
C) Amy moves to California.
D) Amy reconciles with Josh.

Character Motivation

Multiple choice: Why does Amy ask to leave school after winning the Science Fair?

A) She wants to pursue acting.
B) She is being bullied and wants to escape.
C) She wants to travel.
D) She wants to work in a lab.

Multiple choice: Why does Ollie feign mental illness at the Baltimore mall?

A) To get attention from her father.
B) To avoid arrest for stealing crystal bracelets.
C) To be admitted to a hospital for treatment.
D) To meet Hunter Gray.

Multiple choice: Why does Amy marry Josh?

A) Because she loves him deeply.
B) To get him into rehab for insurance coverage.
C) To spite her family.
D) Because she is pregnant.

Multiple choice: Why does Ollie leave the bakery?

A) She is offered a better job.
B) She takes the $70,000 investment and disappears.
C) She has a fight with her mother.
D) She decides to go back to school.

Multiple choice: Why does Amy confront her mother about the pearl necklace?

A) Because she wants to wear it.
B) Because she feels her mother favored Ollie.
C) Because she thinks it is fake.
D) Because she wants to give it to Courtney.

Theme and Symbol

Multiple choice: What does the phrase “shred sisters” most likely symbolize?

A) The sisters' love of shredding paper.
B) The destructive and binding nature of sisterhood.
C) The family's business of shredding documents.
D) The sisters' shared interest in music.

Multiple choice: What do the tortoise-and-hare cuff links symbolize in the novel?

A) The contrast between Amy's steady progress and Ollie's impulsive behavior.
B) Marc's mother's abandonment.
C) The parents' marriage.
D) The bakery investment.

Multiple choice: What does the pink neon “Dough” sign represent?

A) Ollie's successful bakery.
B) The failed bakery venture and family secrets.
C) Amy's career in publishing.
D) The mother's love of baking.

Multiple choice: What does the “wishing stone” symbolize in the novel?

A) Amy's hope for a better future.
B) Childhood magic and grief.
C) Ollie's desire for freedom.
D) The parents' marriage.

Synthesis

Short answer: How does the novel use the motif of “shredding” to explore the sisters' relationship? Provide a brief answer.
Short answer: Compare Amy's and Ollie's paths to self-acceptance. What roles do therapy, career, and family play for each?
Short answer: What role does the mother's deathbed wish play in the sisters' reconciliation? How does it affect their relationship afterward?

Answer Key

A — The novel opens with Amy waking her father after Ollie crashes through a picture window while jumping on the couch (chapter 2).
B — Amy finds her own and Ollie's report cards, revealing Ollie's poor grades (chapter 2).
A — Ollie gives her mother a gold tennis bracelet that is clearly stolen (chapter 3).
B — Police discover a stolen mink coat and eight silver spoons under Ollie's bed; she is arrested, and her father persuades a judge to send her to The Place instead of juvenile detention (chapter 4).
B — Ollie surfaces through late-night calls from holding tanks, shelters, and department store security booths (chapter 6).
B — Ollie disappears with the $70,000 investment after four months, leaving her mother to cancel permits and auction equipment (chapter 9).
A — Courtney reveals she and Marc were in love and had been together before Amy and Marc separated; Marc later admits they fooled around while Amy and Marc were married (chapter 14).
B — Amy attends Kira's wedding, meets Ravi, and later ends therapy with Paul (chapter 19).
B — Amy asks to leave school because bullying continues; she wins the Science Fair but still wants to escape (chapter 5).
B — Ollie attempts to steal crystal bracelets, feigns mental illness, and is taken to Johns Hopkins ER under a false name (chapter 7).
B — Amy marries Josh en route to rehab so he can have insurance coverage (chapter 16).
B — Ollie takes the $70,000 and disappears, leaving the bakery project to collapse (chapter 9).
B — Amy confronts her mother about favoring Ollie when she receives a pearl necklace intended for her sister (chapter 12).
B — The phrase “shred sisters” evokes both the tearing apart and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood, as seen throughout the novel.
A — The tortoise-and-hare fable mirrors Amy's steady, deliberate path versus Ollie's impulsive, erratic one; Amy's mother gives the cuff links to Marc, highlighting the contrast.
B — The pink neon “Dough” sign is a relic of Ollie's failed bakery venture, symbolizing dashed hopes and the family's hidden history (chapter 15).
B — The wishing stone, a childhood object, is used by Amy at Josh's grave, linking childhood magic with adult grief (chapter 18).
Model answer: The motif of “shredding” appears in the title and recurs through acts of destruction—Ollie crashing through glass, the sisters' physical fights, and the emotional tearing of family bonds. Yet the phrase also suggests a shared identity: the sisters are “shred” to each other, inseparable even when torn apart. The novel uses this duality to show that sisterhood is both wounding and binding.
Model answer: Amy seeks self-acceptance through intellectual achievement, therapy (with Paul Weiss), and eventually a career in publishing; she learns to forgive herself and let go of the past. Ollie's path is more chaotic—marked by psychiatric hospitalizations, running away, and a late diagnosis—but she finds stability through medication, motherhood, and reconciliation with Amy. Both ultimately need family connection and self-forgiveness, but Amy's journey is more linear while Ollie's is cyclical.
Model answer: On her deathbed, the mother asks both daughters to get along. This wish becomes a catalyst for their reconciliation. After her death, Amy and Ollie grow closer, speaking daily and sharing in Raine's upbringing. The mother's final request, combined with the sisters' own maturation, allows them to move past old resentments and build a new relationship.

For more discussion, see the book overview or explore questions and answers and the ending explained.