Chapter 23 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.
Chapter 23 splits into two parallel threads: Ruth's tense confrontation with Gilly's friends, and the backstory of Joel, the quiet cameraman who wanders away from the game and stumbles onto something horrifying.
Summary
Ruth presses for answers
Ruth approaches Sam, the podcaster, and her two friends to ask whether anyone has heard from Gilly that morning. The group immediately turns hostile, angling their bodies away from Ruth and trying to end the conversation. Sam's expression sours when Ruth presses. Ruth explains that she saw Gilly on the trails near the island's peak the previous night and feared she might have been hurt. The friends dismiss this—the tallest one points out that Gilly hates hiking—and Sam grows defensive, asking whether Ruth is joking.
Sam eventually reveals that Gilly has been texting, but that she's angry. According to Sam, Gilly's boyfriend had been messaging Sam, and when Sam told Gilly about it, Gilly stormed off and refused to come back. Ruth asks to see the phone, and Sam obliges. What Ruth finds is deeply unsettling: Sam's messages are one-sided pleas—just talk to us already—while Gilly's replies are all identical: a single skull emoji, repeated line after line.
Before Ruth can process this, a whistle cuts through the air from the beach. Game over.
Joel's isolation
The chapter then shifts to Joel, who has trailed deep into the jungle, away from the game. Joel is the cameraman for Camping Quest, a video series following three friends who explore unknown locations. He carries the equipment, sets up shots, and does the editing. He was never meant to appear on camera, but viewers noticed him anyway—comments in the evidence show fans obsessing over small moments, calling him a beautiful diamond and worrying whether he got enough to eat.
Joel doesn't understand the attention. He sees himself in the videos as weak, thin, scared, and lost, and wonders whether the adoring comments are actually a joke at his expense. The hosts don't include him off-camera, and he's reminded of his childhood, when his aunt would pinch him repeatedly to force him to speak. Despite all of this, he stays—because the strange, confusing attention is the closest thing to kindness he's felt in a long time.
The sound in the jungle
Joel leaves the flag markers behind, knowing his team will be frustrated when he returns with only three stones. For a moment, being alone is worth it. But then he hears a sound ahead—distant and reedy, human rather than animal. He tries to turn away, but the sound comes again from a different direction: a low, strained nuh-uh, like a warning through a sealed mouth.
The sound follows him, coming from his right, then from directly behind him. He hears a hum like a beehive or a hundred people whispering, and a smell he recognizes from his father's trailer: the smell of death.
Joel stumbles forward, past the last trees, into the humming and the smell. He finds a cliff, sharp and at least two houses tall. At its base, on uneven rocks, lies a dead man. His limbs are spread too far, one arm is missing, and the back of his head is gone—details that mirror Joel's father's death. Insects swarm the body in clouds. Joel opens his mouth, but only a whisper comes out. And then, one final time, right behind his back, the sound comes again: nuh-uh.
Key Events
- Ruth confronts Sam and her friends about Gilly's whereabouts and is met with hostility.
- Sam shows Ruth Gilly's texts: every reply is an identical skull emoji.
- A whistle announces the end of the game.
- Joel's backstory is revealed: he's the quiet cameraman for Camping Quest, an accidental fan favorite who feels alienated from the hosts.
- Joel wanders away from the game into the jungle, seeking solitude.
- He hears a repeated, inhuman warning sound (nuh-uh) from multiple directions.
- He discovers a dead man at the base of a cliff, with injuries that echo his father's death.
- The warning sound returns directly behind him as the chapter ends.
Character Development
Ruth continues to act on her instincts. Despite the group's hostility, she refuses to be pushed away, stepping closer and pressing for answers. Her concern for Gilly is genuine, and her willingness to grab Sam's phone—acknowledging she's being rude but past caring—shows how far she'll go to verify that Gilly is safe. The skull emoji texts confirm her worst fears without her having to say it.
Joel is the chapter's emotional center. His backstory paints a portrait of a man shaped by silence: a childhood of being pinched to force speech, a father whose death left a lasting imprint (the smell, the open mouth, the missing back of his head), and a present in which he's trapped between the hosts who don't want him and viewers whose attention he can't trust. His decision to stay despite the discomfort reveals a deep loneliness—the parasocial attention, however confusing, is the closest thing to kindness he's felt. His discovery of the body, which mirrors his father's death, suggests the island is forcing him to confront his trauma directly.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Silencing and muteness. Joel's entire life has been shaped by the pressure to speak—from his aunt's pinching to the hosts goading him on camera. The nuh-uh sound, a warning through a sealed mouth, inverts this: it's a sound that refuses to become language, a warning that can't be understood or answered.
The skull emoji as death omen. Gilly's identical skull emoji replies transform a mundane texting conversation into something sinister. The repetition suggests either that Gilly is not herself, or that something is speaking through her phone.
Death and decay. The smell of death connects Joel's father's trailer to the body at the cliff. The insects swarming the corpse echo the earlier drone and the humming sound, linking the island's technology to its violence.
Parasocial online fame. Joel's fan comments are a double-edged sword: they give him a sense of belonging while making him feel like a spectacle. He wonders if the adoration is ironic, a joke at his expense.
Game over / end of game. The whistle that ends the game coincides with Ruth's discovery of the skull emojis, and Joel's wanderings take him far from the game's boundaries. The game's end marks the beginning of the real horror.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is a turning point. Ruth's discovery of the skull emoji texts confirms that something is deeply wrong with Gilly, even as the game officially ends. Meanwhile, Joel's storyline introduces a new perspective—someone outside the main group—and delivers the novel's first explicit corpse. The body's injuries, mirroring Joel's father's death, suggest a pattern or a deliberate echo, and the nuh-uh sound establishes a recurring, sinister motif that will likely return. The chapter also deepens the novel's exploration of isolation: Ruth is shut out by Gilly's friends, and Joel is shut out by his own team, yet both are drawn toward the same danger.
Study Questions
1. Why does Ruth insist on seeing Sam's phone, and what does the skull emoji conversation reveal?
Ruth's insistence shows her growing desperation and her refusal to accept the group's evasions. The skull emoji replies reveal that Gilly's texts are not genuine communication—they're a repetitive, automated-seeming response that suggests Gilly is either not in control of her phone or not alive to send them. The one-sided nature of the conversation (Sam pleading, Gilly replying with identical emojis) mirrors the broader theme of silencing.
2. How does Joel's backstory explain his reaction to the dead man at the cliff?
Joel's father died in a trailer, and the details of that death—the open mouth, the missing back of the head, the smell—are echoed almost exactly in the corpse he finds. His reaction is not shock but recognition: he's seen this before. The chapter suggests the island is forcing him to relive his trauma, and his whisper (he wasn't sure he would ever make sounds again) shows how deeply the discovery has shaken him.
3. What is the significance of the nuh-uh sound?
The sound is described as a warning through a sealed mouth—a sound that is almost language but not quite. It comes from multiple directions, suggesting it's not a single person but something pervasive. It functions as a motif of silencing and inescapable threat: Joel tries to move away from it, but it follows him, and it's the last thing he hears before the chapter ends. It also connects to Joel's own muteness—he's a man who struggles to make sounds, and now he's surrounded by a sound he can't escape.
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