Chapter 27 Summary, Themes, and Key Takeaways

⚠️ 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

The chapter opens in the past with the exorcism scheduled for the following weekend. Alex's ex-husband initially agrees to take their daughters, but when she calls to confirm, he claims he never agreed to that weekend and threatens to revisit the custody agreement in court. Alex, furious, hangs up and arranges for the girls to wait on the deck during the ritual, with Ruth's reluctant approval.

The night before, Alex takes her daughters to mass and McDonald's, lets them stay up late, and spoils them with sugary cereal. When she tells them about the planned exorcism, Cici reacts with wild giggles, insisting that no one can make it go away and that it lives there. She locks herself in her room. Alex, still holding the knife she used to cut fruit, stabs the door repeatedly while screaming that she will bleed out whatever is trying to take her daughter. Elle and Dee watch in terror. When Cici emerges, she touches Alex's face with cold hands and whispers that Alex will die in the house.

In the present, Clio throws the book against the wall, disturbed by her mother's account. She tries calling Aunt Helen, who doesn't answer. Clio wrestles with doubt: she insists she never said those words, and she resents her mother's framing of her as possessed or demon-adjacent.

Clio continues reading. On the day of the exorcism, Alex waits on the front steps, smoking cigarettes and drinking vodka from a mug. Roy sits with her, comforts her, and explains that demons are beings of attachment that seek codependence—they learn your triggers and turn your life into a dance. Alex reflects that she doesn't know who she'd be without the demon, that destruction is familiar to her. Roy helps her up and says maybe the right one will find her, a line Clio finds insulting as a romantic subplot.

The ritual begins. Father Bernard places silver crucifixes; Ruth sprinkles baby powder and lines of salt; bells hang on doors; Jed sets up cameras. Roy establishes ground rules: don't engage, don't speak to it, don't look at it. Cici comes inside despite being told to stay out, and the bells begin to ring.

Ruth starts sweating, then appears possessed—her head whips side to side, gibberish pours from her lips. Alex collapses in sobs, then screams, pounding the floor and pulling her own hair. She crawls toward the stairs, crosses the salt line, and is pulled down the stairs, hitting her head on the brick floor. She sees eyes with vertical red slits watching from the dark.

At the top of the stairs, Jed's ears are pouring blood—his headphones snap back whenever he tries to remove them, and his ears are charred and blistered. Ruth bashes her head into the table repeatedly, breaking her nose, then claws at her eyes. Alex calls 911; two ambulances arrive within five minutes. Father Bernard goes to the hospital with Jed and Ruth. Roy stays, cleans the blood and salt, and shows Alex hoofprints in the baby powder.

Elle and Dee lock themselves in their bedroom. Cici sits calmly with her sketchpad, telling Alex that she played stupid games and won stupid prizes, and then that she will die there too. Alex later learns she has a concussion and two bruised ribs.

In the present, Helen calls. Clio insists the exorcism didn't happen that way—that they were locked outside for hours, that there were no ambulances, no bleeding ears or clawed eyes. Helen doesn't argue. She tells Clio that Alex died of a heart attack—technically—after years of drinking, high blood pressure, and stress. She says Alex was ashamed, that their father convinced her the girls would be better off without her. Clio asks why Alex was at Edgewood when she died; Helen suggests asking Roy. When Clio presses for the truth, Helen says Clio wants a version of the truth she can live with. The lights flicker, and Clio feels hot breath on the back of her neck. She hangs up and waits for morning.

Key Events

Alex's ex-husband backs out of taking the girls for the weekend, forcing her to arrange for them to wait on the deck
Cici locks herself in her room; Alex stabs the door with a knife while screaming
Cici whispers that Alex will die in the house
The exorcism begins with crucifixes, salt, bells, and cameras
Ruth appears possessed, bashing her head and clawing at her eyes
Jed's ears bleed profusely; his headphones snap back onto his head
Alex is pulled down the stairs, sustaining a concussion and bruised ribs
Two ambulances take Ruth and Jed away; Father Bernard accompanies them
Roy shows Alex hoofprints in the baby powder
Cici tells Alex she will also die in the house
Helen reveals Alex died of a heart attack and suggests asking Roy why she was at Edgewood

Character Development

Alex reaches her breaking point. Her maternal fury—stabbing the door while screaming that she will bleed out the demon—shows how the house and the possession have eroded her stability. Her admission to Roy that she doesn't know who she'd be without the demon reveals a woman who has made destruction part of her identity. Her collapse during the exorcism, crawling toward the stairs and crossing the salt line, suggests either a loss of control or a subconscious surrender.

Cici is the most unsettling presence. Her calm detachment during the violence, her smug told-you-so expressions, and her repeated death prophecies position her as either genuinely connected to the demon or deeply disturbed by the chaos around her. Her line about dying there too echoes her earlier prophecy about Alex.

Clio moves from curiosity to active doubt in the present-day frame. She rejects her mother's account of the exorcism, insists she never said the words attributed to her, and confronts Helen with anger. Her demand for the truth clashes with Helen's suggestion that she wants a version she can live with—a tension that defines her arc.

Helen emerges as a reluctant truth-teller. She confirms Alex's death was a heart attack, acknowledges the drinking and stress, and deflects Clio's questions about why Alex was at Edgewood. Her accusation that Clio wants a palatable version of the truth is the chapter's sharpest challenge.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Unreliable narration is the chapter's central theme. Clio's direct contradiction of her mother's account forces the reader to question everything in the memoir. The book itself becomes an artifact of contested memory.

The house as trap is reinforced throughout. Cici insists the presence lives there and that no one can make it go away. Alex is literally pulled down the stairs, dragged out of her own house. The house is not just haunted; it's a prison that claims its inhabitants.

Maternal protection and fury are intertwined. Alex's knife-stabbing is both a mother's desperate defense of her child and an act of terrifying violence. Her daughters' fear of her—Elle and Dee screaming and running—shows how the demon has corrupted even her maternal role.

Demonic codependence is articulated by Roy: demons seek attachment, learn your triggers, and turn your life into a dance. Alex's admission that she feels at home in the destruction suggests the demon isn't the only thing feeding on her—she's feeding on it too.

Blame and truth drive the present-day frame. Clio blames her mother; Helen blames the father; Alex blamed the demon. No one can give Clio the unvarnished truth, and Helen's accusation that Clio wants a version she can live with cuts deep.

Addiction and self-destruction are woven through both timelines. Alex drinks vodka from a mug before the exorcism; Helen describes years of drinking, sobriety, and relapse. Clio's own vices—vaping, wishing for cigarettes—mirror her mother's patterns.

Why This Chapter Matters

This is the climax of the past narrative and the turning point of the present one. The exorcism sequence delivers the book's most visceral horror—Ruth's self-mutilation, Jed's bleeding ears, the hoofprints in baby powder—while simultaneously undermining its credibility through Clio's flat denial. The revelation that Alex died of a heart attack, not demonic possession, reframes the entire memoir as a story about addiction, shame, and family estrangement rather than the supernatural. Helen's suggestion to ask Roy opens a new thread for the investigation, and the final image of hot breath on Clio's neck reminds us that whatever is in the house is still present.

Study Questions

1. Why does Clio insist the exorcism didn't happen the way her mother described it, and what does this reveal about the memoir's reliability?

Clio claims she and her sisters were locked outside for hours, that there were no ambulances, and that no one bled from their ears or clawed at their eyes. Her flat denial directly contradicts the vivid, detailed account Alex wrote. This forces the reader to consider that the memoir may be a distorted or embellished version of events, possibly shaped by Alex's alcoholism, her need for a narrative, or her desire to blame the demon rather than herself. The chapter deliberately leaves the truth ambiguous.

2. What does Cici's behavior during the exorcism suggest about her connection to the demon?

Cici is the only character who remains calm throughout the violence. She comes inside despite being told to stay out, she sings a taunting invitation, and she watches Ruth's self-mutilation without emotion. Her repeated prophecies—that Alex will die in the house, that she will die there too—and her smug told-you-so expressions suggest either genuine demonic attachment or a child who has internalized the chaos around her. Roy's earlier claim that the demon has attached itself to Cici gives her behavior a supernatural weight, but the chapter never confirms it.

3. What does Helen's accusation that Clio wants a version of the truth she can live with reveal about Clio's search?

Helen suggests that Clio isn't actually seeking objective truth but rather a narrative that lets her off the hook—one that blames her mother, or the demon, or her father, without implicating Clio herself. This is a pointed challenge to Clio's self-image as a truth-seeker. It also mirrors the book's larger theme: everyone in the family has their own version of events, and the truth may be less important than the stories people tell to survive.