The Beaded Necklace Symbol Analysis
Introduction
The beaded necklace in Mary Kubica’s It’s Not Her is a masterfully layered symbol that operates on multiple levels—as a token of adolescent romance, a coded message, an instrument of grooming, and ultimately a trigger for catastrophic violence. What begins as a gift between two young people in a secluded Wisconsin resort becomes the narrative hinge upon which the novel’s darkest revelations turn. This analysis traces the necklace’s physical description, its recurring appearances, its evolving meaning, and its connections to the novel’s central characters and themes.
What the Beaded Necklace Literally Is
The necklace is a gold chain strung with beads, given to seventeen-year-old Reese Crane by Daniel Clarke during one of their secret nighttime meetings. In the darkness on the pier, Daniel instructs Reese to close her eyes and hold out her hand before placing the object in her palm. When she opens her eyes and lifts it to the moonlight, she sees “a gold chain with beads.” The evidence chapter confirms Reese’s reaction: she finds it beautiful, and no one has ever given her something like this before.
The physical details matter. The beads are not randomly arranged; they form a deliberate pattern. Emily Crane, Reese’s stepmother, is the first to notice this. During their morning encounter on the deck, Emily studies the necklace and remarks, “The beads… They form a pattern.” Reese, preoccupied with hiding the necklace’s origin, dismisses the observation. She has not yet recognized that the bead pattern encodes a word in Morse code—the word daughter. This coding is not decorative but deeply purposeful, linking the necklace to Daniel’s past and to the Matthews family tragedy that underpins the novel’s central mystery.
Where the Necklace Appears
The necklace recurs across several pivotal chapters, each appearance deepening its symbolic weight:
Chapter 26 – The Gift: Daniel presents the necklace during a midnight rendezvous on the pier. He fastens it around Reese’s neck himself, his hands brushing her skin. The moment is charged with first-love intensity; Daniel tells Reese he is “kinda obsessed” with her and that he thinks he could fall in love with her. Reese, who has never received this kind of attention from a boy, is overwhelmed. She later lies in bed wondering if the entire encounter was a dream.
Chapter 28 – The Interrogation: The next morning, Emily notices the unfamiliar jewelry. Reese lies, claiming it belongs to her friend Skylar. Emily’s question—“What does it mean?”—foreshadows the encoded message. That night, Reese deliberately puts the necklace on again before attempting to sneak out to meet Daniel. She runs her fingers over the beads, still oblivious to their hidden meaning. But Emily is awake, waiting in the dark cottage, and intercepts her before she can leave.
Later Revelations (implied by narrative context): As the investigation into Emily’s murder unfolds and connections to the long-ago disappearance of Kylie Matthews surface, the necklace’s Morse code message—daughter—becomes a critical piece of evidence. Sam Matthews, Kylie’s father, encounters this detail and it fuels his delusion, with lethal consequences.
The Morse Code Revelation and Its Significance
The necklace’s most chilling dimension is its hidden message. The beads do not merely form an abstract pattern; they spell daughter in Morse code. This revelation connects the necklace directly to Kylie Matthews, the girl who vanished years before the events at the lake resort. Daniel’s choice to give this specific necklace to Reese suggests he is not simply a romantic interest but someone entangled in the unresolved trauma of Kylie’s disappearance.
The narrative context provided by Chapter 27 introduces Joanna and Sam Matthews, whose daughter Kylie went missing. Sam coped by dedicating himself obsessively to finding her, amassing a shoebox of evidence. Joanna suspected Sam’s involvement at one point because he was late on the night Kylie disappeared. The necklace bearing the word daughter thus resonates with Sam’s all-consuming grief. When Sam later learns of the necklace and its encoded message, it triggers a deadly delusion—one that proves catastrophic for the characters involved.
The Morse code detail also raises unsettling questions about Daniel. Did he create the necklace himself? Was it originally meant for Kylie? Has he given it to other girls? These ambiguities are never fully resolved, which makes the symbol all the more haunting. The necklace is tangible proof that Daniel’s interest in Reese is not as straightforward as it seems.
How the Necklace’s Meaning Changes
The necklace undergoes a dramatic transformation in symbolic meaning across the novel:
Phase One: Romantic Token. When Daniel first presents it, the necklace signifies validation. Reese has spent her young life feeling invisible, judged by Emily, abandoned by friends, and convinced that “girls like me don’t get second chances.” The gift makes her feel chosen. She touches it, admires it, and wears it with pride. At this stage, the necklace represents everything Reese craves: attention, affection, and the belief that she is special.
Phase Two: A Secret to Guard. Almost immediately, the necklace becomes something Reese must conceal. She lies to Emily about its origin, attributing it to Skylar. The gift shifts from a source of joy to a source of anxiety. Reese feels Emily is “onto her,” and the necklace marks her as someone with a hidden life. It becomes emblematic of the double existence she leads at the resort—obedient stepdaughter by day, risk-taking romantic by night.
Phase Three: Evidence of Grooming. As the full scope of Daniel’s manipulation emerges, the necklace reveals itself as a grooming tool. Daniel did not choose a random piece of jewelry; he selected an item laden with private meaning connected to a missing girl. His language when giving it—“I’m actually kinda obsessed with you”—takes on a predatory cast in retrospect. The necklace mirrors classic grooming behaviors: isolating the victim, making her feel uniquely understood, and offering gifts that bind her emotionally to the abuser.
Phase Four: Catalyst for Tragedy. In its final symbolic role, the necklace becomes the misinterpreted clue that drives Sam Matthews to deadly action. The word daughter in Morse code convinces Sam of something—the specifics depend on his delusion—that sets the novel’s climactic violence in motion. The necklace thus bridges the past (Kylie’s disappearance) and the present (Emily’s murder), proving that old wounds have not healed.
Character Connections
The necklace binds together several key characters:
Reese Crane receives the necklace and wears it as a badge of being seen and desired. Her attachment to it reflects her vulnerability. As detailed in Chapter 24, Reese scrutinizes her own appearance, wondering what Daniel sees in her. The necklace temporarily answers that question. But Reese’s inability to recognize the danger—her failure to question why a near-stranger would give her such a meaningful gift—underscores her youth and isolation.
Daniel Clarke is the giver. Evidence from Chapter 29 places Daniel at 126 Moon Road, a dilapidated home where Courtney later finds Reese’s bloodied sweatshirt. The necklace links Daniel to Kylie’s disappearance and reveals his calculated nature. Whether he is directly responsible for past crimes or simply fixated on them, the necklace demonstrates that his interactions with Reese are never innocent.
Sam Matthews is the unintended recipient of the necklace’s message. His years of obsessive searching, documented in the shoebox Joanna shows Courtney in Chapter 27, have left him primed to overinterpret any clue. When he learns of the necklace and its Morse code, his fragile sanity shatters.
Emily Crane notices the pattern in the beads before anyone else. Her sharp question—“What does it mean?”—marks her as more perceptive than Reese gives her credit for. Emily’s antagonism toward Reese throughout the novel obscures this moment of genuine concern, but her detection of the pattern is a missed warning sign.
Theme Connections
The beaded necklace intersects with several of the novel’s major themes:
Grooming and Predation: The necklace is a textbook grooming gift—personal, seemingly thoughtful, and designed to accelerate emotional intimacy. Daniel’s accompanying declaration of obsession mimics the intensity that predators use to overwhelm a victim’s judgment. The necklace materializes the power imbalance between an inexperienced teenager and a man with hidden motives.
Deception and Hidden Identities: The necklace is not what it appears to be. To Reese, it is a beautiful gift. To Daniel, it is a coded message. To Sam, it is a revelation. The multiple layers of meaning reflect the novel’s broader preoccupation with characters who are not who they seem—Daniel, Detective Josh Evans, and even Reese herself as she constructs a secret nocturnal life.
The Dangers of Assumptions and Misperceptions: Emily assumes the necklace belongs to Skylar. Reese assumes Daniel is simply a smitten boy. Sam assumes the Morse code confirms his theory. Each assumption proves dangerously wrong. The necklace illustrates how partial information, combined with emotional need, produces catastrophic misinterpretation.
Study Questions and Answers
1. What does the beaded necklace literally look like, and why is its physical design significant?
The necklace consists of a gold chain with beads arranged in a deliberate pattern. Its significance lies in the fact that the bead pattern is not decorative but encodes the word daughter in Morse code. Emily is the first to notice the pattern, asking Reese what it means, though Reese dismisses the observation. The physical design transforms an ordinary piece of jewelry into a coded message that connects the necklace to Kylie Matthews’s disappearance and later triggers Sam’s deadly delusion.
2. How does the necklace function as a grooming tool in Daniel’s manipulation of Reese?
Daniel presents the necklace in a highly romanticized setting—at night, on the pier, under the stars—and pairs it with declarations of obsession and love. He tells Reese he is “kinda obsessed” with her and that he could fall in love with her, language that accelerates emotional intimacy. Reese has never received this kind of attention, making her especially vulnerable. By giving a gift with hidden personal meaning, Daniel creates a secret bond that isolates Reese from her family and makes her feel uniquely chosen, which is a hallmark of predatory grooming behavior.
3. In what way does the necklace connect the novel’s two central mysteries—Kylie’s disappearance and Emily’s murder?
The necklace’s Morse code message, daughter, ties it directly to Kylie Matthews, who disappeared years earlier. Daniel’s possession of such an item implicates him in Kylie’s case, whether as perpetrator or obsessive. When Sam Matthews discovers the necklace and its message, his long-simmering grief and obsession ignite, leading him to act on a delusion. The necklace thus bridges the cold case and the present-day murder, demonstrating that the two mysteries are not separate but causally linked.
4. Trace the evolution of the necklace’s meaning for Reese across the narrative.
Initially, the necklace represents validation and romance. Reese, accustomed to feeling invisible and criticized, is overwhelmed that a boy finds her worthy of such a gift. When Emily questions the necklace the next morning, it shifts into a secret that must be guarded, introducing anxiety into Reese’s experience. By the novel’s end, as Daniel’s true nature becomes evident, the necklace is exposed as a tool of manipulation. What Reese believed was a gesture of love was in fact part of a predatory strategy, making the necklace a symbol of how thoroughly she was deceived.
5. Why is Emily’s reaction to the necklace important, despite her antagonistic relationship with Reese?
Emily immediately notices the bead pattern and asks pointed questions: “What’s that?” and “What does it mean?” This demonstrates that Emily, for all her harshness, is observant and potentially concerned. Her interrogation of Reese later that night—when she waits in the dark cottage and asks, “What are you doing?”—suggests she senses something is wrong. Emily’s detection of the pattern is the novel’s first hint that the necklace is more than it appears, making her death particularly tragic given that this clue went unexplored.