Stranger's Death

The death of the stranger in Chapter 1 symbolizes the sudden horror that can sometimes collide with mundane, everyday scenarios. The man who dies is a stranger, and the death is caused by a random traffic accident, but the event is still quite traumatic and sudden when Lowen happens to witness it. This opening scene helps to develop the novel's overall atmosphere in which sinister things can lurk just underneath the veil of the everyday.

Writing

In the novel, writing symbolizes self-expression and deception. The novel explores how, counterintuitively, fiction writing can be a form of self-expression, and nonfiction writing can be a form of deception. For example, Lowen views her novels as a form of self-expression, and she ultimately discovers that Verity’s secret memoir may or may not be false.

So Be It

Verity’s secret autobiography—entitled So Be It—symbolizes the unsettling...