Disclaimer

The loneliness of keeping secrets affects several characters in the narrative; the resulting isolation creates immense psychological burdens that cause characters to act irrationally to keep their secrets hidden. Catherine has been holding onto her secret for so long that it has completely altered her interactions with family and friends. Catherine is always on guard, which leads her to be emotionally distant from her husband and son. The constant lying to protect her secret creates constant paranoia of being found out. After Catherine receives the book and the threat of exposure becomes more real, the burden of her isolated fear manifests physically in her insomnia, sweats, and nausea. The symptoms compound, making Catherine irritable and frustrated, but she doesn’t feel like she can alleviate this stress because “she has made the secret too big to let out” (28). The burden remains Catherine’s to bear alone, now with the added threat of being blackmailed. Catherine’s eventual relief comes when she can share her trauma by telling others about it. When she no longer has to fear her family discovering her secret, she can act more naturally and freely.

Stephen’s isolation begins with his grief over Jonathan, estrangement from his wife, grief over her death, and forced retirement, but his isolation grows as he seeks revenge against Catherine. As Stephen becomes obsessed with stalking Catherine, he spends more and more time holed up in his house away from others. The burdens of Stephen’s isolation are reflected in the state of his home. Stephen’s neglect of his house leads to grime, rot, and disorder; the decay mirrors his psychological decline—he has likewise neglected his mental wellbeing in his quest to get justice for his family. Stephen’s isolation also manifests in his hallucinations of Nancy. Stephen begins by simply associating Nancy’s blessing from beyond the grave with items he finds around the house, but he quickly moves to talking to Nancy aloud and believing she lives on inside of him. At the peak of his isolation-induced delirium, Stephen even hallucinates Nancy sitting in front of his laptop. The burden of being alone in his grief is so strong that he conjures Nancy up so he doesn’t have to let her go. The frenzy of Stephen’s life is only alleviated when he leaves the house, as he must behave normally to blend in with others. Like Catherine, Stephen also finds relief in being around other people, but when he returns home alone, he also returns to his agitated and grieving mindset.

Nicholas is isolated both by Catherine’s secret and by his own secrets, which make the young man depressed about the state of his life. He feels disconnected from his family, particularly his mother, and he fears his parents’ disapproval for not living up to their expectations. When he restarts his drug use to cope with his loneliness and gets fired from his job, he hides both things from Catherine and Robert. The resulting isolation leaves Nicholas even more dejected—an emotional spiral that makes him feel like he has no one to turn to other than his acquaintances with drug addictions and his shallow virtual friendships. Nicholas’s cut-off state makes him susceptible to Stephen’s manipulation, as the young man’s craving for attention and connection allows Stephen to easily catfish him with the fake Facebook profile and to fake a relationship. Nicholas tries to reach out to his mother when he feels helpless in the wake of Stephen’s torrent of information, but she misses the call and, therefore, the chance to help Nicholas digest what he has learned and learn the actual truth. Instead, Nicholas must deal with Stephen’s disinformation and the feelings it raises on his own, and the immense pain of the supposed revelations pushes him toward harder drugs. By the end of the book, Nicholas and Catherine overcome their secrecy and self-isolation by becoming open and honest with one another. Nicholas allows himself to be emotionally vulnerable with Catherine, and the two become closer through their shared burdens.