Meggie’s suicide attempt

Meggie’s suicide attempt is discovered by Minnie, who summons Sephy and an ambulance after finding her mother in distress. The crisis turns private family grief into an argument over responsibility: Meggie connects the family’s treatment of Lynette to what has happened, while Juno minimizes the attempt. The book later places the episode within the wider chain of loss surrounding the McGregor and Hadley families.

Discovery and immediate response

Minnie calls for Sephy to get an ambulance. Sephy rushes upstairs and finds their mother on the floor beside a tablet bottle, with a few pills scattered nearby; Minnie is supporting her and calling her name. Sephy runs to the phone in shock, understanding that her mother has tried to kill herself. The episode is thus conveyed through the daughters’ urgent response and discovery, rather than through any account of Meggie’s actions from her own perspective.

Blame and competing interpretations

The attempt follows the family’s grief over Lynette. After a police officer leaves, Meggie turns to her children and says they must be proud of themselves, then asks whether Lynette’s death was truly an accident or whether Lynette had been thinking about what they had said to her. Her words place the family’s treatment of Lynette at the center of her despair and grief, though the surrounding exchange does not establish that this was the sole cause of the attempt.

The sisters’ response to the crisis also exposes tension within the household. Minnie is the one who discovers their mother and calls for help. Later, when Minnie whispers that their mother tried to commit suicide, Juno rejects that interpretation, arguing that four sleeping tablets are not enough to constitute a real attempt and describing Meggie as seeking attention and sympathy. This dismissal conflicts with Sephy’s immediate recognition of the seriousness of what she has witnessed; the scene supplies no confirmation that Juno’s explanation is correct.

Aftermath and wider significance

The attempt forms part of the family’s continuing experience of grief and distress after Lynette’s death, while the competing reactions leave the meaning of Meggie’s crisis contested. Sephy’s shock, Minnie’s urgent care, and Juno’s minimization show how differently the household responds to the same emergency, without resolving its underlying causes.

The novel later places this family crisis beside further losses. At Hewmett Prison, Sephy attends the execution of Ryan McGregor, whose sentence is announced as punishment for seven murders and political terrorism. Later, Callum reflects that Ryan’s death in July has left something inside him dead, and that he and other Noughts reject the authorities’ classification of Ryan’s death as suicide. Meggie’s attempt is not presented as the cause of these later events, but its place among the book’s family crises links private despair to the broader atmosphere of bereavement and political violence.