Homage

Throughout the novel, the author uses homage to the horror genre as a device to reveal things about the characters as well as supplement the plot of the novel. The author, Emil Ferris, is a lifelong fan of the horror genre and heavily draws on it throughout the novel. Rather than simply using passing references in the text or illustrations to the horror genre, Ferris integrates aspects of horror into the plot, making homage a critical device for character and plot development. The most prominent ways Ferris employs homage to the horror genre is in the chapter title pages, the way Karen draws herself and her friends, and the content of Karen’s dream in the final chapter.

Each chapter begins with a recreation of an actual 1960s-era horror comic. These recreations are meant to be a ritual for Karen, as evidenced in Chapter 1. She copies...