41 pages • 1 hour read
Megan MirandaThe Last House Guest
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Interlude 1-Chapter 10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Interlude 1 Summary: “Summer 2017”
This interlude flashes back to the Plus-One Party of summer 2017. Avery joins a drinking game where participants reveal secrets. One player, Greg Randolph, has a longtime interest in Sadie. He tells Avery that he saw Sadie in a boat at sunset with a local man, presumably Connor Harlow, Avery’s ex-boyfriend. Luce shows Avery a broken window, and as they inspect the damage, Avery sees Connor arguing with someone outside. Avery loses Luce in the crowd. When she steps outside for air, Avery hears someone else walking outside, but she cannot see them.
Chapter 6 Summary
Connor surprises Avery at the Blue Robin. She remembers a time when the two of them and Faith snuck into the Lomans’ house during the off-season. Avery asks if he remembers how the window broke at the Plus-One Party; Connor claims he only saw Luce looking at it, so he assumed she did it. Connor also denies having a relationship with Sadie. When he leaves, Avery sees the curtains move in the house across the street; someone was watching them.
Chapter 7 Summary
At home, Avery charges Sadie’s phone and accesses its contents. She finds a photo of Connor, taken by Sadie on his boat. Avery once pointed Connor out to Sadie when they first became friends. Sadie enjoyed listening Avery’s stories, especially ones about relationships, drunkenness, and general mischief. Avery finds more evidence of Sadie and Connor’s secret relationship on her phone and copies all the photos to her laptop.
Chapter 7 Summary
At home, Avery charges Sadie’s phone and accesses its contents. She finds a photo of Connor, taken by Sadie on his boat. Avery once pointed Connor out to Sadie when they first became friends. Sadie enjoyed listening Avery’s stories, especially ones about relationships, drunkenness, and general mischief. Avery finds more evidence of Sadie and Connor’s secret relationship on her phone and copies all the photos to her laptop.
Chapter 8 Summary
Parker returns home, and Avery asks him what Sadie’s suicide note said. He dismisses the questions and reminds Avery that Sadie was “obsessed” with death. Avery wonders if Connor hid Sadie’s phone in an attempt to keep their relationship secret. Parker reveals that the police matched the suicide note to Sadie’s diary, but to Avery’s knowledge, Sadie did not keep a handwritten diary.
Chapter 9 Summary
Avery takes Sadie’s phone to the police station. While she waits for Detective Collins, she recalls the night of her parents’ deaths in a car accident. Avery asks Collins what Sadie’s note said, but he is as dismissive of Avery’s concerns as Parker was. When Avery hands over the phone, Collins tells her what the note said: “I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way” (109).
Chapter 10 Summary
Avery decides to look through the box of Sadie’s belongings that the police returned to Parker earlier that day. While she waits for Parker to go out, she drafts a piece for the memorial dedication, but she cannot stop thinking about Sadie’s note. Avery remembers that she and Sadie fought earlier that summer, and she had written Sadie a note that also said, “I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” Avery considers the possibility that her note to Sadie was mistaken for Sadie’s suicide note.
Interlude 1-Chapter 10 Analysis
Avery’s narration in these chapters moves fluidly between the present, the recent past, and older memories. At the Plus-One Party, the secrets game is both an opportunity for truth-telling and a chance to see how the characters respond to the truth. When Avery brings up Sadie’s repeated rejections of Greg’s interest, Greg initially becomes angry and then publicly reveals his knowledge of Sadie and Connor’s secret relationship. It seems he only does this in spite; Avery embarrassed him, so he puts her on the spot in the same way. In an older memory, Sadie plays the same drinking game and is outed as having possibly hooked up with another player’s brother. Though she blushes, she does not deny it and even seems to find the revelation amusing. Sadie firmly believes that one should not hide or apologize for who they are or what they have done. That said, it seems odd for Sadie to hide her relationship with Connor.
These chapters also demonstrate Avery’s increasing uncertainty about the truth of the events surrounding Sadie’s death. From the memory of Connor arguing with an unseen person at the Plus-One Party to the questions about the suicide note, Avery is determined to dig deeper and uncover the truth—or at least resolve her doubts in a way that makes sense. Parker, Connor, and Detective Collins demonstrate a straightforwardness similar to that of Avery’s father; the men readily accept the facts before them at face value and have no desire to look beyond the simplest explanation. Avery, like her mother, is determined to move beyond her initial impression and uncover the secret behind it. What causes Avery’s anxiety is not simply what a thing is or appears to be but its potential to be something more—something more dangerous, more tragic. She feels she must make clear what is unclear, a compulsion the men do not share.
This section also emphasizes the significance of storytelling and identity, particularly the way Avery portrays herself in the stories she shares with Sadie. Sadie is most interested in the tales in which Avery is drunk, reckless, or demonstrates some other lapse in judgment. To Sadie, Avery represents a wild side she could never get away with because of her family name. At the same time, Avery’s apparent openness actually maintains a distance between them. Avery might share highly personal stories with Sadie, but Sadie only learns what Avery wants her to know, while Sadie only comments on the exciting nature of Avery’s life instead of reciprocating and sharing stories of her own. The closeness between them is misleading, as Avery does not invite Sadie fully into her grief, and Sadie does not invite Avery fully into her familial problems. This is not to say that the two do not care for one another, but they do not truly know each other as well as they believe.
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By Megan Miranda
