48 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer HillierLittle Secrets
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1-Part 1, Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Fifteen Months Later”
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: The novel contains references to and depictions of suicide, depression, sexual assault, kidnapping, and dismemberment.
Marin Machado and her four-year-old son, Sebastian, go to Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, one Saturday afternoon. Sebastian begs Marin to buy him a lollipop, but Marin wants him to wait until they meet up with her husband, Derek. She then gets distracted by a call from her friend Sal Palermo and her search for a gift for her salon manager, Sadie. Derek finally calls and promises to meet her soon. Marin turns around and realizes Sebastian is gone. She searches frantically for him, but no one has seen him. She calls Derek, and he blames her for losing Sebastian when he arrives.
The couple gives the market security a photo of Sebastian, and they forward it to their team. Finally, they find footage of Sebastian leaving the market with someone in a Santa Claus suit just four minutes after Marin realized he was missing.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary
Sebastian is still missing 485 days later. Marin knows that most children who haven’t been found within 24 hours won’t be found. She owns a renowned downtown salon and recently returned to work. At the salon one day, she thinks about Sebastian again and has suicidal thoughts. In her office, she does breathing exercises her therapist, Dr. Chen, taught her and tries to focus on work. She’s been going to therapy for the past year, and Dr. Chen thought she was ready to be back at the salon. She’s still running the business but isn’t on the salon floor as often. When she is, she remembers why she loves her work.
After work, Marin attends the Support Group for Parents of Missing Children. On the way, she thinks about Sebastian and the past year. She silently accuses herself for what happened and worries about letting her pain heal.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary
Marin has asked Derek to attend the support group with her, but he doesn’t want to talk about Sebastian. Marin reports to the group at Big Holes, a member Frances Payne’s donut shop. She also lost a child. The other members include Lila Figueroa and Simon Polniak, whose sons also went missing. The group meets once a month.
Today, a new woman named Jamie joins. Frances opens the discussion, and the members share their fears and worries. Lila talks about her marriage, convinced her husband is cheating on her. Meanwhile, Marin reflects on her relationship with Derek. They haven’t been fighting, but their relationship has been strained. The group argues about whether or not Lila should confront her husband. Frances thinks Lila’s life would be better without a man, but Marin silently disagrees. Suddenly, Lila accuses Marin of staying in her dysfunctional marriage and lashes out at Frances for being pitiful, too. They all start arguing about who is at fault for their children’s disappearances and their dissolving marriages.
The group takes a break and Marin slips into thought. She still can’t make sense of what happened to Sebastian. She knows the person who took him was a kidnapper but doesn’t know why Sebastian would have agreed to go with them.
Frances tells the group about her recent nightmares. As Frances talks, Marin realizes she’s going to drop out of the group like three of their previous members. Outside afterwards, Marin and Jamie discuss how awful Frances’s situation is. Marin realizes that Frances’s pain makes her feel better about her own.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary
Marin receives a message from Vanessa Castro, the private investigator she hired shortly after Sebastian disappeared. She wants to meet in person, and Marin wonders if she found Sebastian. She calls Sadie to say she’s going to be late for work and cancels her therapy session. During her last session, she told Dr. Chen about her suicidal thoughts and her desire for revenge. Dr. Chen encouraged Marin to reconsider both feelings. After the FBI set Sebastian’s case aside, Marin had a mental breakdown, attempted suicide, and was admitted to a psychiatric facility. After her release, she started doing better but hired Castro because nothing materialized regarding Sebastian’s whereabouts. Without Derek’s knowledge, she tasked Castro to look into her and Derek’s colleagues. She thought someone they knew might have been behind Sebastian’s disappearance.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary
Castro informs Marin that their meeting isn’t about Sebastian. Rather, she discovered that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman in Portland, Oregon. Derek often travels to Portland for work. Castro’s contact went to Portland to investigate Derek’s work relationships and found him kissing the woman outside his hotel. Marin is overwhelmed but asks questions. Castro reveals that they’ve been seeing each other for six months. Marin grows increasingly angry as Castro reveals more information and shows her more photos of Derek and the woman together.
Castro apologizes for upsetting Marin but explains why she decided to tell her. She also explains that she’s still working on Sebastian’s case, but there haven’t been any new leads. She isn’t sure she’ll ever be able to find him, but because Marin still has money left on her retainer, Castro offers to keep working. Marin begs her to do whatever she can to close the case. Castro promises to keep digging and apologizes to Marin about Derek. Marin isn’t comforted by her kindness. After she leaves the office, Marin’s emotions intensify as she starts to replay Castro’s news of the affair in her head.
Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary
Marin’s anger grows. For the first time in months, she feels alive. She texts Sadie to say she won’t be coming in to work at all today. She drives back to her home in Capitol Hill. In the mud room, she studies Sebastian's leftover belongings and remembers his presence. She thinks about the day she made him a cubby for his toys and clothes. Marin has been talking to Dr. Chen about whether to get rid of Sebastian’s things. Marin has no interest in throwing them out and resents anyone who tells her to move on.
Marin goes into her bedroom with her laptop and opens new emails from Castro. She’s sent over more photos of Derek and his phone records. Castro suggests that Marin download the Shadow app if she wants to read all of the messages between Derek and his lover. The app is meant to help parents keep an eye on their children, as it sends the parents notifications whenever their children get messages. Marin downloads the app and starts going through Castro’s files. She discovers that Derek’s lover is McKenzie Li, a 24-year-old barista and art student. Marin is overwhelmed by hatred when she sees McKenzie’s photo. She starts stalking McKenzie on Instagram, discovering more evidence of when she and Derek have been together. She is furious that McKenzie is “trying to steal her husband” and ruin her family (63). She then receives notifications via the Shadow app, revealing Derek and McKenzie’s communications.
Part 1, Chapter 7 Summary
Marin travels to the Green Bean coffee shop where McKenzie works. She tries to remain calm when she places her order with McKenzie at the counter. McKenzie doesn’t seem to recognize her, and Marin guesses she has no idea who she is. She sits down and studies McKenzie, thinking about how embarrassed she feels. She also scrolls through McKenzie’s Instagram while having her coffee. Derek starts messaging McKenzie, and Marin receives the notifications. She can’t believe he has been cheating on her for half a year. McKenzie then comes to Marin’s table to refill her coffee. She compliments Marin’s engagement ring, still showing no signs of recognizing who Marin is. After she leaves the table, McKenzie messages Derek a nude selfie. They make plans to meet later, and Derek sends an explicit response. Marin wants to kill McKenzie.
Chapter 1-Part 1, Chapter 7 Analysis
The opening chapters of the novel introduce the narrative world and its central conflicts, characters, stakes, and themes. Written from the third-person limited point of view, Chapters 1-7 trace Marin Machado’s experiences in the wake of her son’s disappearance. The close narration inhabits Marin’s consciousness and presents the narrative world according to how Marin is experiencing it, a technique known as free indirect discourse. As a result, the narrative atmosphere is defined by Marin’s grief, shame, and despair.
These chapters primarily focus on Marin’s internal response to her son’s disappearance and sustained absence. Almost every day that Marin has woken up since Sebastian was kidnapped, she has wondered if “this will be the day she’ll kill herself” (13). Her recurring suicidal thoughts create a tense narrative undercurrent. Marin knows that “she needs to find a way to process what happened and move through it,” but she’s afraid of letting herself get better because she believes that healing “mean’s it’s over, and her little boy is lost forever” (20). Therefore, she privately holds onto her grief and guilt, even though she’s making outward steps toward healing, including attending a support group and therapy and returning to work. These disparities between Marin’s internal and external worlds augment the narrative tension and introduce the novel’s explorations of Identity and Self-Worth After Personal Tragedy. Ever since Sebastian’s disappearance, Marin has come to define herself according to what happened. As a result, she struggles to see herself outside the context of the past 16 months, and her identity becomes warped by her loss.
Marin’s meeting with Vanessa Castro introduces another primary conflict onto the page. While Sebastian’s disappearance at the Pike Place Market in Chapter 1 acts as the narrative’s inciting event, Castro’s revelations about Derek Machado’s affair create another layer of tension. Marin has believed that although she and Derek have been struggling, they will eventually work through their pain and resolve their marital tension. This is why the news of her husband’s six-month affair is so destabilizing. Marin is so convinced that her marriage with Derek will be okay that she silently judges her grief group members for their own marital difficulties. Castro’s revelation forces Marin to reconsider her relational circumstances. Derek’s refusal “to attend the group meetings with her,” to talk “about feelings,” or “to discuss Sebastian” suddenly becomes evidence of Derek’s infidelity (21).
Furthermore, Derek’s betrayal compounds Marin’s grief and drives her to anger. Almost immediately after Castro tells her about Derek’s lover, Marin is overcome by rage. Although the emotion is unhealthy, Marin basks in it because it enlivens her in a way that her grief hasn’t. To keep the feeling present, she directs her anger at McKenzie Li. She likens Derek’s infidelity to Sebastian’s disappearance, and therefore McKenzie to Sebastian’s kidnapper. Because the person “who took Sebastian doesn’t have a face,” but McKenzie does, Marin finds it easier to channel her complex emotions at the woman she believes is trying to steal Derek from her (63). Her grief is therefore compromising her ability to process her emotions in a healthy and calm way. She starts to obsess over McKenzie in the same way she has been obsessing over Sebastian because she’s terrified of losing another loved one.
Therefore, Castro’s revelation and Marin’s sudden and intense bitter feelings towards McKenzie introduce the novel’s explorations of The Moral Complexities of Revenge and Conflict and Loyalty in Intimate Relationships. Marin ultimately wants revenge against the person who stole Sebastian, but because she can’t exact this revenge, she begins to seek it against McKenzie. She partakes in harmful behavior to appease her hurt and pain. These complex interpersonal dynamics contribute to the rising narrative action and infuse the narrative with mystery. Furthermore, Marin’s emotional responses throughout Chapters 1-7 add dimension to her character. Amid tragedy and suffering, Marin resorts to seemingly outsized emotions. However, her unbridled responses to her pain capture the ways in which grief, guilt, and anger can distort the individual’s understanding of themselves. These complex internal and interpersonal dynamics promise to build over the course of the subsequent chapters, as Marin seeks revenge against her husband’s lover and continues to pursue her son’s whereabouts.
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