Summary
Part Three, Truth or Dare, Chapter 28
On Wednesday, Cooper meets with the group again at the coffee shop beneath Until Proven. This time, Kris and Ashton join them. Cooper is getting more comfortable being in public with Kris. They continue to speculate on Jake’s involvement, with Ashton noting Jake is “a complete control freak.” When Eli runs into the group, he is clearly interested in Ashton. The teens encourage her to update him on their investigation.
Kris speculates that there was another person in the room who is not under suspicion. The teens remember that Simon was depressed, and that that he told the group he was “the omniscient narrator.” Kris’s assertion that Simon committed suicide finally makes sense: it was “his version of a school shooting.” After all, he wrote on 4chan, “Do something original.”
Cooper thinks that Simon regretted his suicide at the last minute. The rest of the group realize that Jake was Simon’s accomplice, and that he was motivated by Addy’s cheating. They also realize Janae might be depressed because she knows the truth.
The narration briefly switches to Nate’s point of view in juvenile detention. He is trying to keep his head down, and he avoids thinking about Bronwyn, who he believes is “better off forgetting” that he exists.
Part Three, Truth or Dare, Chapter 29
On Thursday, November 8, Addy goes to Janae’s house to gather more information. There, Janae immediately admits that Simon set the whole series of events into motion. Moreover, she has Simon’s “manifesto,” which she was supposed to send to the police a year after his death. It states, “I want my suicide to be talked about for years.”
Simon hated three of the teens in the “murder club”: Bronwyn because she seemingly excluded him from Model UN, Nate because he hooked up with Keeley, Cooper because he had Simon disinvited from the after-prom party.”
Meanwhile, Addy was targeted because Jake had something on Simon—that he’d rigged the votes to get on junior prom court—and collateral on Addy helped shut him up as well as give him motivation to help out. Together, they planned everything, including sending Addy to the nurse's office for Tylenol.
Janae says that Jake “liked having the control” after Simon’s death. In addition, he got to make some changes to the plan, including hiding Cooper’s homosexuality from the final About That post draft. Janae felt trapped, because Jake had made a recording that made the whole thing sound like her idea. She was supposed to plane evidence on Addy, but she chose Nate instead.
Jake arrives at Janae’s house, and Addy hides, trying to make a recording of Janae confronting him. When her phone rings, he realizes she’s there, and she takes off running. He chases her into the woods and tries to choke her. She wonders, “How did I not see this coming?” Cooper saves her.
Analysis
These two chapters are the climax of the novel. The story of Simon's death is dramatically revealed, and Addy's life is threatened. The characters’ sleuthing has brought them closer to the truth—that Simon died by suicide and tried to bring his classmates’ lives into chaos with him, and that Jake provided help to get revenge on Addy.
This revelation further develops Simon’s characterization. The reader already knows that Simon was a cyberbully and school-shooting sympathizer. Now, it is seen that even in suicide, he was bitter and hateful towards his classmates. He sought to ruin their lives as revenge for small perceived slights, like Nate kissing Keeley. Moreover, he was arrogant in the extreme, considering his suicide and plot almost a work of art that would impress would-be school shooters on the internet for decades.
In developing this characterization, the novel also returns to the motif of social media, demonstrating its corrosive effects. Simon was desensitized to other human beings’ pain, and began to see both suicide and ruining others lives’ as a kind of game.
In addition, this chapter further develops Jake’s characterization. When Ashton calls him a “total control freak,” we see him outside of Addy’s perception. However, her shifting character is evidence enough that he exerted control over most aspects of her life.
However, when we learn that Jake actually involved himself in Simon’s plot to get revenge on Addy, we learn that he is not just controlling, but spiteful; a classic narcissist, a highschool indiscretion became a dangerous threat to his ego that required extreme action. Moreover, he hid his true motivations from both his best friend and his girlfriend. When he attacks Addy, he is fully established alongside Simon as the novel’s main antagonist.
