It’s only reading it so carefully, three years after I first wrote Maybelle’s intro, that I realise quite how two-sided the dysfunctionality of her friendship with Zoe is. There’s so much to unpick! I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I wonder what they would make of it.
The rivalry is strong, with Zoe’s passive-aggressive, internal responses being just as spiteful as Maybelle’s open attempts to put Zoe down. I don’t know whose side I’m actually on, now, on rereading chapter 8 of book 1!