Chapter 26 (Chapter Twenty-Five) Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens in April 2021 as the pandemic drags on. Cora reflects on how people pretend the apocalypse is over while she still feels its weight. She has found work as a deep cleaner for apartment turnovers, a job she finds satisfying and that provides health insurance through a kind owner named Yejide. Cora now lives with Auntie Zeng after her lease ended and she lost her dry-cleaning job when Harvey’s uncle closed the business.

Harvey’s body was found two days after he died. No funeral was held; Cora assumes his uncle cremated him and took the ashes to China. Yifei, who was undocumented and used a false name, became a Jane Doe in the morgue. Cora could not claim her body and imagines it was buried in a communal grave on Hart Island. She did manage to save Yifei’s belongings by pretending to be Yifei and getting a spare key from the landlord. She kept only a box of trinkets and a forked mobile sculpture.

The previous summer, after ghost month, the mayor died in a suspicious fire, and a USB titled BACKUP leaked documents proving NYPD cover-ups. Protests erupted, but Cora does not expect justice. More recently, a white man shot Asian women at a Korean spa in Atlanta. Cora stopped attending church after her aunt dismissed “China virus” as a factual term. She received her first COVID-19 vaccine dose and feels a cautious hope.

Cora and Auntie Zeng now maintain an altar for the dead, holding photos of Officer Wang, Harvey, and Delilah, along with Yifei’s Newton’s cradle and a perpetually burning paper lotus. In the late afternoon, Cora peels an orange, splits it, and offers half to the darkness behind her blinds. A hand emerges, snatches the orange, and devours it. Cora eats the other half herself.

Key Events

Cora starts a new job cleaning apartment turnovers for a woman named Yejide, gaining health insurance.
She learns Harvey’s body was found two days after his death; no proper service occurred.
Yifei’s body goes unclaimed; Cora rescues her possessions by impersonating her to the landlord.
The mayor dies in a house fire; a leaked USB reveals police cover-ups, sparking protests.
A mass shooting at an Atlanta spa targets Asian women.
Cora receives her first vaccine dose and feels a renewed sense of safety.
She stops attending church after Auntie Lois dismisses the term “China virus.”
Cora and Auntie Zeng build a shrine with photos of Officer Wang, Harvey, and Delilah.
In the final scene, Cora offers half an orange to a ghostly hand in the dark and eats the rest.

Character Development

Cora moves from passive survival to active grief processing. She finds dignity in cleaning and chooses to maintain an altar, reconnecting with memories of the dead. Her decision to offer food to a ghost mirrors the spirit offerings from ghost month, but now she does it on her own terms, reclaiming agency. She begins to identify small pleasures—feeding fish, sitting in the park, going to the beach—that may form a foundation for future dreams.

Auntie Zeng provides stability and spiritual guidance, leading evening prayers and sharing her home. Her presence anchors Cora’s daily life.

Harvey and Yifei remain central through Cora’s memories and the objects left behind. Their absence shapes her guilt, especially regarding Yifei’s unclaimed body.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Grief and Memory: The altar and the forked mobile serve as physical anchors for Cora’s grief. She revisits the park where they summoned ghosts, now a site of memory rather than terror.

Cleaning as Healing: Cora’s work scrubbing apartments parallels her emotional processing. The satisfaction of making spaces clean offers a controlled outlet after the chaos of the pandemic and violence.

Light and Darkness: The final scene contrasts the sunlit afternoon with the drawn blinds. Cora deliberately creates darkness to invite the ghost, symbolizing her willingness to face the dead rather than avoid them.

Oranges and Offerings: The orange is a sensory object—sticky, fresh, divided. Sharing it with the ghost mirrors traditional ancestor offerings but also shows Cora feeding what haunts her, integrating fear into daily life.

Vaccination as Hope: The vaccine represents a measurable step toward safety, a contrast to the uncertainty of justice or spiritual protection. Cora’s careful masking and pepper spray show she remains vigilant.

Injustice: The leaked USB and the Atlanta shooting highlight systemic failures. Cora’s cynicism about promised reforms reflects her learned disillusionment.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter marks a quiet turning point. Cora is no longer in crisis mode; she has built a new routine, but the dead remain present. The offering scene transforms ghostly contact from an external horror into a voluntary ritual, showing Cora reclaiming power over her fear. The chapter also ties together the novel’s key losses—Harvey, Yifei, Delilah, Officer Wang—and positions Cora between acknowledging injustice and finding small reasons to continue. It sets up the possibility of a future while honoring the past.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Cora pretend to be Yifei to get the spare key from the landlord?
Cora knows the landlord cannot tell Asian women apart and uses that prejudice to retrieve Yifei’s belongings. She feels no guilt because she needs to preserve Yifei’s memory, and the landlord’s racism made the deception possible.
What does the orange-offering scene suggest about Cora’s relationship with the supernatural?
Cora initiates the offering deliberately—she draws the blinds and speaks to the dark. This shows she now treats ghostly contact as a choice rather than an invasion. Eating the other half signals she is willing to coexist with the dead rather than banish them.
How does the chapter contrast public justice and personal healing?
The leaked USB and protests suggest a chance at accountability, but Cora does not expect justice. Her personal healing comes through small rituals—cleaning, prayer, feeding the fish, and making offerings. The chapter argues that systemic change is slow, while individual acts of remembrance and care can restore meaning.