Q: A role model?
A: No, I’m not a sociologist or a policy maker. And I don’t buy into that whole idea—“gay writers save lives.” If anything “saves” a life, it’s a person knowing oneself. All humans are hardwired for stories, but without those stories to inspire, teens—especially gay teens—are forced to forever reinvent their stories. I hope hidden can become a story or template that all teens, gay or straight, can take from.
Q: It’s difficult to imagine a suburban teen relating to hidden’s cloistered environment.
A: hidden’s closed, safe-house setting removes the teen from the typical high school setting. Popular culture is filled with examples of teens in teen-only spaces. hidden reinvents everything from Clueless to Degrassi to The Breakfast Club, all peer-centric universes.
Q: How do you imagine a gay / queer teen will benefit from reading hidden?
A: I think the question is, what pleasure will any reader take from reading hidden?
Q: Do you plan to write a sequel to hidden?
A: hidden is published as a stand-alone book. That said, if the book’s a success and people want to follow Ahmed’s story, I have thought about what might happen to him.
Q: Why did you chose to write what is, essentially, a “dystopia”?
A: Recent LGBTQ literature has been so universally utopian. I decided to write hidden because I saw an opportunity to write something more urban and dark.
Q: Yes, hidden isn’t set in the suburbs. Why is that?
A: For the dystopic element of hidden to work, I knew I needed to set the narrative in “the city.” As a place, the city occupies a large place in the queer imagination. The city’s a destination that holds the promise of freedom and self-expression.
Q: Right. You put together a teenager running away from home and the city.
A: Exactly, but hidden isn’t indulging the characters’ general dissatisfaction with life. They all have real and urgent reasons to run away. They all need a place to hide … and what better place than the city, a place where one can get lost. So, “the city” was a logical place for Ahmed to go. But this city isn’t perfect. It’s also rife with danger, even death.
Q: What was the idea behind separating the book into four sections?
A: I decided to divide hidden into four sections to create a sense of time passing. Until the last rewrite, I struggled with how to tell a story that covers a period of time that’s both active and static. And I happened to read an interview with an actor (Robert Downey, Jr., in Rolling Stone) who referred to four words—escape, hidden, invisible, and gone—that worked perfectly to divide the sections.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
hidden
Tomas Mournian
About This Guide
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Tomas Mournian’s hidden.
Discussion Questions
How does the safe house in hidden become a character? Describe how the author uses a place as part of the story.
Time both accelerates and stops within hidden—fast in the opening sequence (Run), and slow in the second sequence (Hidden). How does the writer indicate the passage of time in the second sequence?
The period of time covered is never explicitly stated, yet there are clues to its passage. What span of time does hidden cover?
Suspense underscores hidden’s narrative. What storytelling techniques does the author use to create a sense of suspense? How does that suspense express the consequences of the characters’ choices?
Many characters in hidden use fictional names. What are those names? How do those names serve a practical function? Symbolically, what do those names express about the characters?
When Ahmed first sees the other kids in hidden, he makes immediate judgments. How true / false do those assumptions prove? Have you ever seen something and made an assumption that’s proven less than accurate?
Food serves different purposes in hidden. For example, both Ahmed and Alice / Nadya describe chocolate milkshakes, but to different effect. What is the difference? What are other examples of food’s importance in hidden? What roles does food play in your life?
The author makes a specific language choice to show the romance between Ahmed and J.D. What is it? How does it allow any reader—i.e., female, male, gay, straight, etc.—to imagine one’s self in the story?
Ahmed’s mother is a powerful—yet unseen—character in hidden. What purpose does her absence / presence play in the narrative?
When Ahmed first sees Hammer, it’s love at first sight. But this changes. What happens to shift Ahmed’s interest? What is the role of desire in hidden?
During the Hidden sequence, Ahmed continues his journey, but it’s confined to one space, a contrast with the physicality of the novel’s opening sequence (Run). Discuss how Ahmed’s journey shifts from external to internal. Also, how does Ahmed change during this period of time?
Ahmed’s story is central to hidden. However, his story exists in relation to other character’s stories. By character, describe these other stories. Discuss how Ahmed’s own story is changed by hearing these stories.
Alice / Nadya’s story shifts between present and past tense. Discuss why the author may have chosen to tell her story this way. Also, does the use of past / present tense add or detract from the style of the story and character? Why is / isn’t it confusing?
How did the story impact you on a personal level? Which character did you most relate to? Explain.
“You can always leave,” Sugar advises Ahmed. The phrase reappears several times throughout hidden. How is the advice both physical and spiritual? How does Ahmed use the phrase to frame his final, crucial decision? Have you ever heard a piece of advice that you’ve taken to heart and acted upon? Why / why not?
In hidden’s opening section, Run, Ahmed looks out the van window and sees a boy his age. The boy climbs into a car to commit prostitution. At that moment, Ahmed makes a promise to himself that he won’t make the same choice. By the end of hidden Ahmed’s attitude toward sex workers has shifted. What happens?
Have you ever considered running away? Why? Could you make the same sacrifices of lifestyle described in hidden?
Ahmed makes the same choice at the beginning and end of hidden. What is that choice? How are the choices the same / different? At different points in your life, have you ever made a same but different choice? Discuss.
What was the ultimate life lesson Ahmed learned in his journey? If you feel there’s more than one lesson, what is it? Did you relate to these life lessons?
The ending of hidden and Ahmed’s story is open-ended. What do you imagine happens to Ahmed?
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