Chapter Thirty-Eight 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
Daisy and King enter the mansion through the back door and position themselves in the upper-floor hallway, where they can observe the media team's setup in the kitchen below without being spotted. They communicate entirely by text message, even while sitting beside each other, to avoid being overheard by the Tower crew.
Their first exchange concerns Peter. Daisy tells King she spoke with her mother about him, and King reveals he already asked his own mother about the situation once he learned Daisy and Grace would discuss it. King's mother knew Grace was afraid of Peter but couldn't see what happened inside the house, since the house blocked her ability. She tried inviting Grace over for tea to learn more, but Grace refused to come. King's mother was upset to learn the truth later, wishing she could have done something back then. Daisy acknowledges that at least she tried, though she can't blame her mother for not confiding in a stranger.
The media team's day is unremarkable. Grace takes the Jeep into town for groceries and pizzas. The group edits footage, eats, and discusses plans for the next day: mine tours, a hotel with caribou on the property, a spa, and crème brûlée. Ivy doesn't appear, and the house remains calm without her.
That night, Daisy and King take shifts watching the rooms. Daisy hears only soft snores, with one exception: a room filled with heavy moans and breathing, suggesting two team members are more than casually acquainted. King wiggles his eyebrows at the sound, and Daisy texts him to go fuck himself. The calm is comforting to Daisy — the house should be feeding if it could, so its stillness confirms Ivy is the one controlling it. Daisy resolves to end things the next time she sees Ivy.
The following day, the team leaves for their tours. King proves his claim about sleeping hard — Daisy has to kick him awake. He fetches sandwiches from his house, and they pass the time playing phone games. Daisy texts Megan, who is deep in exam prep and wants someone to complain to.
The group returns in the evening, excited about a Chinese restaurant called Cozy Corner, and drinks beer while editing footage. When they head to bed, King insists on staying awake but passes out anyway. Daisy pads down the hallway and finds Ivy squatting with her ear pressed to a door.
Daisy confronts her. Ivy threatens to make the house do worse unless Daisy reveals the identity of the girl she's protecting. Daisy asks about the piano-room victim, and Ivy admits to killing her. The woman was planning to leave her husband — Ivy watched them and insists the husband was nice and happy, and the woman was just going to disappear without saying anything. Daisy suggests the husband might have been abusive, but Ivy rejects that possibility.
Daisy decides she can't risk asking Ivy whether she wants to pass on. She thrusts her hand into Ivy's chest and squeezes her heart. Ivy screams, thrashes, and pleads — she cries that it hurts, that she's sorry, that she's bad. Images flash through Daisy's mind: the house, halls, a cold box, dancing alone, everything too fast. Ivy looks so young and afraid. Daisy hesitates, recognizing her own childhood feelings in Ivy's plea — the sense of being hated, of being pushed away.
That hesitation is enough. Ivy flashes back to corporeal, kicks Daisy hard in the stomach, and throws open the door to the room. A girl with short pixie-blond hair and a tattooed neck screams in surprise. Ivy grabs a heavy iron poker from the empty fireplace and swings it at the girl's head, slicing through her face. Blood splatters across the bedsheets and floor; the hooked tip of the poker catches her nose, and white bone shows through the wound.
The poker clatters to the ground. Ivy grins at Daisy from across the room. The girl can't see Ivy — all she knows is that she was attacked, and Daisy is standing in the doorway with a bloody poker at her feet.
Key Events
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Daisy and King surveil the media team from the upper hallway, texting to avoid detection.
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King reveals his mother knew Grace feared Peter but couldn't act on it.
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Ivy's absence confirms she is the force driving the house's violence.
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Daisy finds Ivy eavesdropping at a bedroom door and confronts her.
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Ivy admits to killing the piano-room victim, who planned to leave her husband.
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Daisy attempts to force Ivy to pass on by squeezing her heart.
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Ivy breaks free, kicks Daisy, and slashes a blond girl's face with a fireplace poker.
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Daisy is left standing over the bloody poker, appearing responsible for the attack.
Character Development
Daisy faces her most personal moral test yet. She has released the dead before — the man in the burned-down gym, the woman in the old apartment — but Ivy is different. Daisy knows her. She's watched Ivy study, attend school, and compete with a memory of Grace to be the house's favorite. Ivy is cruel, but she's also sad and young, and Daisy's empathy for her is visceral. Ivy's plea — Why do you hate me? — burrows into Daisy because it echoes her own childhood feelings toward her mother. That moment of recognition costs Daisy everything: her grip slips, Ivy escapes, and an innocent girl is maimed.
Ivy is revealed as more complex than a simple villain. Her confession about the piano-room victim shows a twisted sense of justice — she killed a woman for planning to abandon a husband Ivy considered kind. But her tears and pleas during Daisy's attempt to release her reveal genuine fear and pain. She's a ghost who never got to live, and her cruelty is rooted in that tragedy. Her final act — grinning at Daisy across the room — is a chilling reminder that she's also a predator who will use Daisy's hesitation against her.
King continues to be Daisy's steadfast partner. He insists on staying up with her, fetches sandwiches, and takes watch shifts. His willingness to miss school — supported by his mother and aunts, who want to stop the mansion's control — underscores the trust between them.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Surveillance and hidden observation. Daisy and King spend the chapter watching the media team from a hidden hallway, communicating by text. The chapter mirrors the house's own surveillance — Ivy is found eavesdropping at a door, and the house itself watches everything. Observation is both a tool for protection and a weapon.
The moral ambiguity of killing. Daisy's attempt to release Ivy is framed as both necessary and horrifying. Ivy's pleas make Daisy hesitate, and that hesitation has catastrophic consequences. The chapter asks whether releasing the dead is ever clean, and whether Daisy's empathy is a strength or a liability.
Youth and tragedy. Ivy is repeatedly described as young — she studies, she dances alone, she never got to live. Her cruelty is inseparable from her tragedy. Daisy's recognition of her own childhood in Ivy's plea complicates the simple good-versus-evil framing.
Framing and false accusation. The chapter ends with Daisy standing over a bloody poker, the only person the victim can see. Ivy's invisibility means Daisy will appear guilty of a crime she didn't commit — a literalization of the false accusations that have haunted her throughout the book.
Partnership and trust. King's presence throughout the chapter — his willingness to miss school, his insistence on staying awake — reinforces that Daisy doesn't have to face the house alone.
Why This Chapter Matters
This is the chapter where Daisy's plan to end Ivy's control goes catastrophically wrong. Her attempt to release Ivy — the most morally complicated act of releasing she's performed — fails because of her empathy, and the consequences are immediate and brutal. The chapter also delivers Ivy's confession about the piano-room victim, confirming the house's violence is directed by Ivy's twisted sense of justice. Most importantly, it sets up the central injustice of the next phase of the story: Daisy is now framed for a violent attack she didn't commit, with no way to prove Ivy's involvement. The chapter transforms Daisy from an investigator into a suspect.
Study Questions
1. Why does Daisy hesitate when she tries to release Ivy, and what does that hesitation cost her?
Daisy hesitates because Ivy's plea — Why do you hate me? — echoes Daisy's own childhood feelings toward her mother. Daisy recognizes her younger self in Ivy's fear and sadness, and that moment of empathy causes her grip to slip. Ivy breaks free, kicks Daisy, and attacks the blond girl with the poker, leaving Daisy framed for the assault.
2. What does Ivy's confession about the piano-room victim reveal about her character?
Ivy killed the woman because she was planning to leave her husband. Ivy watched the couple and concluded the husband was kind and happy, and that the woman was going to disappear without explanation. This reveals Ivy's twisted sense of justice — she punishes what she perceives as betrayal, even when the victim's motives are unknown. It also shows Ivy's isolation: she observes relationships from the outside and makes harsh judgments without understanding the full story.
3. How does the chapter's ending set up the next phase of the story?
The chapter ends with Daisy standing over a bloody poker while the blond girl screams, unable to see Ivy. The girl will believe Daisy attacked her, and Daisy has no way to prove Ivy's involvement. This transforms Daisy from an investigator into a suspect, creating a new obstacle — the media team and possibly the authorities will now see her as a threat, and her ability to continue investigating the house's secrets is compromised.
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