Chapter Thirty-Two 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
Alison sits alone in her studio surrounded by the books on demons and demonic possession she ordered, with her notes spread across the table. She rereads a chapter about ridding oneself of a demon, which advises that the first step is understanding what the entity is and where it came from. The text warns that dark spirits are tricksters and cannot be trusted to tell the truth about themselves. The more one knows about the entity, the better the chances of banishing it.
If her theory is correct—that the demon is connected to the stone—Alison realizes there is only one person alive, besides her mother, who might help her learn more. She searches the internet and quickly finds a phone number for Carter Dixon, Bobbi's son, who now works as a real estate agent in Los Angeles.
Carter answers on the second ring. Alison identifies herself as Mavis Holland's daughter, and Carter remembers her as Ali Alligator and asks about her brother Benji. Alison explains that Ben lives in La Jolla with their cousin, running a restaurant. She tells Carter her mother is quite ill and staying with her family in Vermont, and that her sixteen-year-old daughter is making a video diary of Mavis's life, which has brought up many memories of Bobbi.
Alison then mentions that her mother has Bobbi's stone from the painting and keeps it close. Carter's response is telling: he says better her than me. He admits he always hated the stone, believed it was evil as a child, and blamed it for all the bad things in his life.
Carter reveals that his mother was not the warm TV star she appeared to be. His father left when Carter was four, citing Bobbi's artist's temperament. Bobbi was moody, drank heavily, talked to herself, and—most disturbingly—talked to the stone, begging it for things and arguing with it. Carter describes it as if there were three of them in the house: his mother, himself, and the stone.
He recounts an incident where Bobbi threw the stone away in a rage, then went out in the middle of the night, tipped over trash cans, and ripped open bags to find it. Once she recovered it, she calmed down and went inside, leaving Carter to clean up the mess. He says he sometimes thought the stone was alive.
After Bobbi's death, Mavis asked to take the stone, and Carter and his aunts agreed without hesitation. Carter doesn't know where the stone came from, but he remembers a scrapbook from his mother's round-the-world tour with Mavis—pictures from England, Italy, and Morocco, along with ticket stubs and brochures. He describes the trip as a magical time, and notes that his mother seemed happiest when talking about Mavis.
They share a nostalgic moment, remembering summer visits, camping in the backyard, and nearly setting the tent on fire with bottle rockets. Carter notes that their mothers were always happy when they were together.
Then Carter drops a bombshell: his mother was abusive, and when she wasn't telling him he was worthless, she would carve designs on him with a kitchen knife. When Alison presses for details, he describes shapes and patterns. Alison asks if they were circles and spirals, then asks about a square with an X in it and dots in the triangles. Carter is stunned—he asks how she could possibly know that. Alison stammers that it was a lucky guess, apologizes, and hangs up before he can ask more questions.
Key Events
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Alison studies demonology texts, learning that understanding the entity's origin is the first step to banishing it
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She contacts Carter Dixon, Bobbi's son, now a real estate agent in LA
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Carter reveals he always believed the stone was evil and blamed it for his troubles
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He describes Bobbi's erratic behavior: talking to the stone, begging it for things, throwing it away and retrieving it
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Carter discloses that Bobbi was abusive, carving designs into his skin with a kitchen knife
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Alison identifies the specific geometric symbols—circles, spirals, and a square with an X and dots—before Carter can explain them
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Alison abruptly ends the call when Carter asks how she knows about the symbols
Character Development
Alison takes an active investigative role in this chapter, moving from passive worry to deliberate research. Her decision to contact Carter shows her willingness to pursue the truth about the stone, even at the risk of reopening old wounds. Her reaction to Carter's abuse story—feeling that it is too familiar—reinforces the parallel between Bobbi's behavior and Mavis's current condition, and suggests Alison is beginning to connect the dots about what the stone does to the people who possess it.
Carter emerges as a crucial source of information. His childhood fear of the stone validates Alison's theory, and his description of Bobbi's behavior—talking to the stone, begging it for things, arguing with it—mirrors what Alison is witnessing in her own mother. His admission of abuse adds a tragic dimension to the character who once seemed to have a picture-perfect life. His shock at Alison's knowledge of the symbols confirms that these markings are not random—they are significant, and Alison's awareness of them is deeply unsettling to him.
Bobbi, though deceased, is fleshed out through Carter's memories. The glamorous TV star is revealed to have been a troubled, abusive woman who treated the stone as a living presence. Her behavior—throwing the stone away and then desperately retrieving it—suggests a pattern of trying to escape the stone's influence and failing, which foreshadows what may be happening with Mavis.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The cursed stone as a corrupting presence. Carter's testimony provides the strongest evidence yet that the stone is not merely a keepsake but an active force. His childhood belief that it was evil, his mother's obsessive relationship with it, and the family's relief at giving it away all point to the stone as a source of corruption.
Inherited trauma and abuse. Carter's revelation about his mother's cruelty—carving designs into his skin—connects the stone's influence to physical violence. The geometric symbols he describes match what Alison knows, suggesting a pattern of abuse that may extend across generations.
The unreliability of memory and appearances. Carter's childhood memories of Bobbi as a happy, glamorous figure are shattered by his adult account of her abuse. Similarly, Alison's nostalgic recollections of summer visits are complicated by what she now learns. The chapter emphasizes that the past is not what it seemed.
Research as a form of agency. Alison's study of demonology texts frames her investigation as a deliberate, methodical process. The advice to understand the entity before attempting to banish it gives her a clear goal: learn the stone's origin.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is a turning point in Alison's investigation. Carter's testimony provides the first independent confirmation that the stone is dangerous—not just a family legend or a paranoid theory. His description of Bobbi's behavior closely matches what Alison is seeing in Mavis, strengthening the connection between the stone and the demonic possession. The revelation of the carved symbols—and Alison's inexplicable knowledge of them—raises the stakes dramatically. Alison's abrupt hang-up leaves the reader with a chilling question: how does she know about the square with the X and dots? The chapter also deepens the tragedy of the story by revealing the abuse Bobbi inflicted on her son, suggesting that the stone's influence has been destroying families for decades.
Study Questions
1. Why does Alison decide to contact Carter Dixon, and what does she hope to learn from him?
Alison reads in her demonology books that the first step to banishing a dark spirit is understanding what it is and where it came from. Since she suspects the demon is connected to the stone, she realizes Carter—Bobbi's son—is the only living person besides her mother who might know the stone's origin. She hopes he can provide a clue about where the stone came from and what it is.
2. What does Carter's account of his mother's behavior reveal about the stone's influence?
Carter describes Bobbi talking to the stone, begging it for things, and arguing with it, treating it as a living presence. He recounts an incident where she threw it away and then frantically retrieved it from the trash in the middle of the night. His childhood belief that the stone was evil, and his family's relief at giving it to Mavis after Bobbi's death, all suggest the stone exerts a corrupting influence over its possessor.
3. Why is Alison's knowledge of the geometric symbols so shocking to Carter?
Carter reveals that his mother carved designs into his skin with a kitchen knife—shapes and patterns he describes as Etch A Sketch kind of stuff. When Alison asks about circles, spirals, and a square with an X and dots, Carter is stunned because there is no way she should know about these specific markings. His reaction confirms that the symbols are significant and that Alison's awareness of them is deeply unsettling—she knows something she should not know.
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