Genre
Mystery/Thriller
Setting and Context
Wind Gap, Missouri: the present day
Narrator and Point of View
Told through the point of view of narrator Camille Preaker
Tone and Mood
Mysterious, Violent, Solemn, Bleak, Sad, Exploitative, and Chaotic
Protagonist and Antagonist
Camille Preaker (Protagonist) vs. Amma and Adora Crellin (Antagonists)
Major Conflict
Camille's struggle to deal with her family drama -- and trauma -- while simultaneously dealing with her work assignment that took her to her hometown.
Climax
When Camille allows her mother, Adora, to "care" for her.
Foreshadowing
Amma's complicity in the murders of the girls is foreshadowed early on in the book.
Understatement
The number of people who support Camille after her hospitalization is understated.
Allusions
House of Leaves (2000), current events (Flynn was inspired to write the book by news stories about horrible murders and clearly alludes to real-life cases of murder throughout the book),
Imagery
Spiders are often featured in the book to represent how horrible Wind Gap, Missouri and its residents are.
Paradox
Spiders, which are almost always thought of as horrible-looking, are looked at as a thing of beauty and comfort when a person is being raped.
Parallelism
The stories of Ann Nash and Natalie Keene are paralleled in the book.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
Adora's mental illness is personified quite often in the book.
