The nothing that ran the length of this hotel like a spine had appalled her.
-- Penny (Four)

Importance: This line refers to the moment that the elevator shaft is reopened by Clare and Penny. Not knowing what to expect behind the cover, Penny is surprised to find practically nothing at all — just an empty, dark hole. This is an important line because the elevator shaft runs throughout the course of the novel, as well as the length of the hotel, and it represents the rapid passage from life to death. Penny is appalled by the very emptiness of it, like death itself, and that is without her even knowing that Sara had died by falling down it. The image of the elevator shaft being "like a spine" gives the sense that it is death that connects everyone within the "Hotel World", and thus in life. It also makes us consider the hotel as...