Fic­tion

Sounds Like Trou­ble to Me

Jean Troun­stine
September 1, 2025

Sounds Like Trou­ble to Me sheds light on what hap­pens when a cor­rec­tions offi­cer kills her abu­sive hus­band and sud­den­ly finds her­self on the oth­er side of the law. Not only is she shocked by the sys­tem­at­ic abuse against fel­low female pris­on­ers, but con­front­ed with the com­pli­cat­ed his­to­ry of her own abuse, she must strug­gle with her frag­ile mem­o­ry to uncov­er what actu­al­ly hap­pened before she goes to tri­al. It is the women she meets that change her, and in the end, she spurs on a MeToo move­ment behind bars. The book empha­sizes themes impor­tant to Judaism: fight­ing for jus­tice; act­ing in com­mu­ni­ty; women speak­ing out against abu­sive powers.

#metoo
crime
law
jbc net­work

Discussion Questions

Ques­tions cour­tesy of The Author

  1. Which char­ac­ters in the nov­el that had the most effect on you and why?
  2. How does the prison itself func­tion as a character?
  3. Describe Nettie’s trans­for­ma­tion through­out the nov­el. How does Isabelle help her change? Mali? The oth­er women? What oth­er forces act upon Net­tie behind bars?
  4. What does the nov­el reveal about moth­ers, daugh­ters, sis­ters, and chil­dren entwined in or touched by the legal system?

After more than 30 years work­ing inside the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem, Jean Troun­stine drew inspi­ra­tion from real events: a war­den who killed her abu­sive hus­band and was placed in a wait­ing-tri­al unit, and the col­lec­tive upris­ing of women at FCI Dublin who exposed sys­temic sex­u­al abuse.

  1. How does the pow­er shift when women decide to speak out? What does it take?
  2. What are the clear and not so clear steps the pris­on­ers go through to speak out?
  3. What are the con­se­quences when they do?
  4. Hav­ing spent decades in jour­nal­ism and advo­ca­cy, Troun­stine turned to fic­tion to explore emo­tion­al truth beyond doc­u­ment­ed fact. How does this nov­el exam­ine moral ambi­gu­i­ty, inte­ri­or lives, and the gray areas of pow­er, sur­vival, and jus­tice in ways jour­nal­ism cannot?
  5. Women in prison are not who we think they are. The pub­lic imag­i­na­tion gets women in prison wrong. Most incar­cer­at­ed women are there because of pover­ty, abuse, addic­tion, or coer­cion — not because they are inher­ent­ly vio­lent. Most are moth­ers. Their incar­cer­a­tion frac­tures fam­i­lies in ways the sys­tem bare­ly acknowl­edges. Does our soci­ety roman­ti­cize incar­cer­at­ed men as rebels or anti­heroes, and pic­ture incar­cer­at­ed women as bro­ken, immoral, or disposable?
  6. The nov­el takes us into a world of abuse where no one Is watch­ing. Nation­al con­ver­sa­tions about sex­u­al abuse often stop at the prison gates. Yet pris­ons are large­ly male-guard­ed insti­tu­tions hous­ing trau­ma­tized women with lit­tle trans­paren­cy or over­sight. The upris­ing at FCI Dublin made clear that abuse thrives in secre­cy. What uncom­fort­able feel­ings does the nov­el pro­voke for you about pow­er, account­abil­i­ty, and what hap­pens when there is no safe place to report harm?
  7. Sounds Like Trou­ble to Me resists por­tray­ing prison as pure­ly bru­tal or con­ve­nient­ly redemp­tive. How is prison a place of dan­ger, yes – but also of inge­nu­ity, resilience, and con­nec­tion forged under pressure?
  8. The Author came from a back­ground steeped in activism and cred­its her Judaism for want­i­ng to ​“heal the world.” Dis­cuss the activism in this book and its importance.
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