Chapter 36 Summary: Key Events, Themes, 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
In Gerard's locked study, Verity, Viktor, and Julien begin their search for evidence of Gerard's crimes. Viktor snaps his fingers, igniting candelabras and revealing a room of dark wood, botanical paintings, and shelves crowded with books, pressed flowers, and murky specimen jars. The air is thick with formaldehyde and decay.
Julien, recalling a childhood memory of his father hiding absinthe from his mother, finds a hidden compartment in the black walnut desk. Inside are a bottle of green liquor, several leather dossiers, and a thick journal stuffed with loose papers. Viktor immediately pours himself a glass of absinthe, drinking heavily despite Julien's protests about proper preparation. Verity takes a small sip and finds it dark and intoxicating.
As they read, Verity initially mistakes anatomical drawings for botanical illustrations. Julien corrects her: the papers are renderings of the female reproductive system, accompanied by trial notes. The documents list women descended from gods—including Constance Devereux, whose father was Aukera, a son of Vaipany. Gerard injected hydrophytes directly into Constance's womb, and her babies were born with gills. The notes also catalog poisons: salvia, mescaline, hyoscine, betel nuts, and opium poppies. Most disturbingly, Gerard laced candles with oil of Brugmansia, a poisonous trumpet flower. Verity realizes the pink candles in her room, the hallway, and the nursery were the same shade—she has been drugged since her arrival, numbed into complacency.
Viktor, growing restless and drunk, tosses the journal, and Verity retrieves it. Written in Arcannian, which she can read, she finds her own name three times, each paired with a different brother: Alexander and Verity (marked “Advantageous”), Julien and Verity (“Potentially favorable”), and Viktor and Verity (“Too volatile,” crossed out). The journal proves Gerard brought her to Chauntilalie deliberately, choreographing her every moment.
The journal also documents Gerard's experiments on Dauphine during her pregnancy, beginning with teas, then tinctures, salves, and finally injections. Dauphine suffered nausea, blackouts, and sobbing fits, speaking to beings Gerard could not see. Verity slams the diary shut in disgust and tosses it onto a bookshelf—which swings open. It is a false front, hiding a second set of shelves filled with dozens of wet specimen jars.
Inside the jars are preserved, deformed infant bodies. Verity examines one jar containing conjoined triplets: one with a round head, no ears, and a gaping circular mouth lined with serrated teeth; one with a blank face and mottled purple veins; and one with a single engorged eye and flipper-like arms. Viktor and Julien join her, and Viktor finds a jar with frond-like appendages—one of Constance's babies. Verity realizes Gerard killed Constance and the infants, preserving them for study. She guesses the other mothers are buried in the rose mounds in the gardens.
Julien insists they have enough evidence to go to the authorities. Viktor agrees. But Verity demands they tell Alex first, arguing he deserves to hear the truth from them. The brothers exchange a silent look and agree, but only outside the house, wary of eavesdroppers. Julien takes the documents with him. Viktor spits into the absinthe bottle before returning it to the hidden compartment.
As the brothers banter, Verity is struck by longing for her sisters—Mercy, Honor, Annaleigh, and especially Camille. She asks for the letters Gerard claimed to have from them. Julien finds a stack of correspondence, far more than the three RSVPs Gerard mentioned. Every envelope is empty; the letters have been burned. Julien explains that Gerard cut her off from her family to make her feel she had nowhere else to go, and likely intercepted her outgoing mail as well. Verity's anger flares, but Julien tells her to save it for tomorrow.
Key Events
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Julien opens a hidden compartment in Gerard's desk, revealing absinthe, dossiers, and a journal.
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The documents reveal Gerard's experiments on women descended from gods, including Constance Devereux, whose babies were born with gills after hydrophytes were injected into her womb.
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Verity realizes Gerard laced candles with Brugmansia oil, drugging her since her arrival.
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Verity finds her name in Gerard's journal three times, paired with Alexander, Julien, and Viktor.
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The journal documents Gerard's experiments on Dauphine during pregnancy, including teas, tinctures, salves, and injections.
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Verity discovers a false bookshelf hiding jars of preserved, deformed infant specimens.
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Verity concludes Gerard killed Constance and the babies.
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The brothers agree Gerard must face the authorities, but Verity insists they tell Alex first.
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Julien takes the documents; Viktor spits into the absinthe bottle.
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Verity discovers Gerard intercepted and burned letters from her sisters.
Character Development
Verity moves from passive observer to active investigator. She deciphers the journal, uncovers the false bookshelf, and pieces together Gerard's crimes. Her empathy deepens as she imagines Dauphine's suffering and longs for her own sisters. Her insistence on telling Alex first shows her loyalty and moral clarity.
Viktor is volatile and wounded. His heavy drinking and destructive outbursts—burning a page from the journal, shattering a glass—reveal his pain at being cast off by Gerard. His anger is tempered by a rare moment of vulnerability when he seeks comfort from Julien.
Julien is methodical and controlled. He reads the documents with clinical precision, but his disgust is evident. His decision to take the documents and his warning to save Verity's anger for later show his strategic thinking.
Gerard, though absent, is fully characterized through his notes and actions: a cold, calculating experimenter who drugs, manipulates, and murders to achieve his goals.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Control and Isolation: Gerard's drugging of Verity, his interception of letters, and his experiments on Dauphine all demonstrate his need to control others, isolating them from family and reality.
Secrecy and Hidden Truths: The hidden compartment, the false bookshelf, and the jars of specimens symbolize the secrets Gerard keeps buried—both literally and figuratively.
Monstrous Births: The deformed infants in jars represent the physical consequences of Gerard's ambition, blurring the line between scientific pursuit and monstrosity.
The Number Three: Verity's name appears three times, paired with three brothers; the conjoined triplets; the sets of jars. The motif of three recurs, suggesting fate, repetition, and the inescapable pattern of Gerard's schemes.
Divine Bloodlines: The experiments on women descended from gods highlight the theme of hubris—Gerard's attempt to control or communicate with the divine through human vessels.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is the turning point of the novel. The mystery of Chauntilalie is fully revealed: Gerard is not merely eccentric but a murderer and an experimenter who has been drugging Verity since her arrival. The discovery of the journal and the specimen jars provides irrefutable evidence of his crimes, shifting the narrative from suspicion to certainty.
The chapter also deepens the bond between Verity and the brothers, as they unite against their father. Verity's insistence on telling Alex first sets up the next phase of the plot, while the revelation of the burned letters adds a personal betrayal that fuels her resolve. The chapter ends with a promise of confrontation, raising the stakes for the remainder of the story.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Verity insist on telling Alex before going to the authorities?
Verity believes Alex deserves to hear the truth from them first, as he is Gerard's son and has been kept in the dark about his brothers and his father's crimes. She wants to protect him from learning the news from strangers and to give him the chance to process it with family.
2. What does the discovery of the burned letters reveal about Gerard's methods?
The burned letters show that Gerard isolated Verity by cutting off her communication with her sisters, making her feel abandoned and with nowhere else to go. This manipulation kept her dependent on him and less likely to question the strange events at Chauntilalie.
3. How does the motif of the number three appear in this chapter, and what might it signify?
The number three appears in Verity's name written three times, paired with three brothers; the conjoined triplets in the jar; and the sets of jars on the shelves. It may signify the inescapable pattern of Gerard's schemes, the three brothers' shared fate, or the recurring theme of unnatural births and experiments.