Chapter 28 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 with Clio in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, pushing Hannah's baby, Morpheus, in a stroller. The baby cries whenever Clio approaches, and the two women pause for a photo shoot near the mausoleums—content creation that lets Clio present her life as haunted in a glamorous, aspirational way rather than the depressing reality she's living. Clio has been staying with friends in New York for two nights, first Veronica and then Hannah, while apartment-hunting and working in the city. She's decided to stay through the weekend for a planned lunch with her sisters.

Clio reflects on her avoidance strategy—it's worked for the house, the book, and the demon, but not for Austin. She misses him but refuses to see him, afraid that if she opens up, she can't undo it. Hannah asks if she's all right, and Clio admits she's heartbroken, though she deflects with jokes about the baby.

The sisters meet at an upscale gastropub in Hell's Kitchen that Daphne chose. Clio arrives in a designer dress and heels, feeling composed, though she acknowledges the ugliness lurking beneath the surface of her beautiful life. Daphne and Leda are already seated on the same side of the booth, which feels like an ambush to Clio.

After ordering drinks and starters, Daphne mentions a date with a pastry chef named Daisy, who has two cats. Leda defends the relationship, while Clio makes dismissive jokes. The conversation turns to Clio's relationship with Austin, and Leda accuses her of hating love and being unable to commit. When Clio deflects, Leda escalates, saying Clio is not normal and suggesting she might have antisocial personality disorder—a diagnosis Leda claims to have researched with her husband Tom's psychology background.

Clio is wounded, and the conversation shifts to the past. She asks directly whether their mother really burned her. Daphne and Leda reveal the truth: Clio, at seven, burned herself with a pink lighter while talking to herself and giggling, influenced by their mother's talk of a demon. They and their father concealed this to get everyone out of the house. They describe the exorcism differently than Clio's book does—no bleeding ears, no ambulances, just yelling and Alexandra throwing herself down the stairs.

Clio is shaken. She insists the house is haunted and that something communicates with her, drawing messages in her mother's book. Leda dismisses her as just like their mother. Clio leaves, saying she's going home.

Key Events

Clio spends time with Hannah and Morpheus in Green-Wood Cemetery, participating in a photo shoot for social media content.
Clio reveals she's been staying with friends while apartment-hunting and avoiding Austin.
The sisters meet for lunch in Hell's Kitchen; Daphne shares news about her date with Daisy.
Leda accuses Clio of lacking empathy and suggests she may have antisocial personality disorder.
Clio asks about the burning incident; her sisters reveal she burned herself with a pink lighter at age seven, influenced by their mother.
The sisters describe the exorcism as mundane dramatics, contradicting Clio's book.
Clio insists the house is haunted; Leda dismisses her as being like their mother.
Clio leaves the restaurant.

Character Development

Clio faces her most direct challenge to her self-narrative. She has built her identity around being the victim of her mother's violence, but her sisters' account reframes her as a traumatized child who harmed herself under their mother's influence. Her memory is unreliable—she doesn't remember the incident—and she's forced to confront the possibility that her core belief about her mother is wrong. Her insistence on the haunted house, despite her sisters' dismissal, suggests she's clinging to the supernatural explanation because the alternative—that her mother's influence was psychological rather than physical—is harder to accept.

Leda emerges as the harshest of the sisters, delivering the accusation of antisocial personality disorder and the revelation about the burning. She frames their father's decision to leave as protective, not deceptive. Her final dismissal of Clio as just like their mother reveals the depth of her fear that their mother's legacy lives on in Clio.

Daphne continues her role as mediator, trying to soften Leda's blows and suggesting family therapy. But she confirms the sisters' version of events, and her inability to meet Clio's eyes during the revelation suggests her own guilt about the long-held secret.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Family secrets and lies: The chapter's central revelation is that Clio's sisters and father concealed the truth about the burning incident for decades. The sisters frame it as protection, but Clio experiences it as betrayal.

Trauma and unreliable memory: Clio's inability to remember the burning incident—and her sisters' different account of the exorcism—raises questions about whose version of the past is true. The chapter suggests that trauma can reshape memory in ways that serve survival but not truth.

Avoidance: Clio's strategy of avoidance extends from the house and the book to Austin. She's afraid that opening up will be irreversible—no putting the toothpaste back in the tube.

The haunted house: Clio's insistence that the house is haunted, despite her sisters' dismissal, becomes a point of contention. Whether the supernatural presence is real or a psychological manifestation of her trauma is left ambiguous.

Self-image vs. reality: Clio's carefully curated appearance—the designer dress, the blowout, the manicure—contrasts with the ugliness she acknowledges beneath the surface.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter delivers a major revelation that reframes Clio's entire understanding of her childhood. The truth about the burning incident—that she harmed herself rather than being burned by her mother—undermines the victim narrative that has shaped her identity. The sisters' conflicting account of the exorcism further destabilizes Clio's version of events, raising the question of whether her memories of Edgewood are reliable at all.

The chapter also escalates the central conflict between Clio and her sisters. Leda's accusation of antisocial personality disorder and her dismissal of Clio as just like their mother suggest that the sisters see Clio as dangerously similar to Alexandra. Clio's insistence on the haunted house, in the face of their disbelief, positions her as isolated and potentially unstable—or as the only one willing to acknowledge a truth they've all been avoiding.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the revelation about the burning incident change Clio's understanding of her childhood and her mother?

Clio has spent her life believing her mother burned her, a belief that justified her anger and distance from Alexandra. The revelation that she burned herself, influenced by her mother's talk of a demon, reframes the incident as psychological manipulation rather than physical violence. This complicates Clio's victim narrative and forces her to question whether her mother was truly the monster she believed—or whether her own actions, shaped by her mother's influence, were part of the story she's been telling herself.

2. Why does Clio insist the house is haunted despite her sisters' dismissal?

Clio's insistence on the haunted house serves multiple purposes. It provides a supernatural explanation for the events at Edgewood that her sisters' mundane account can't explain. It also gives her a sense of connection to her mother—if the demon is real, then her mother's world was real, and Clio's experiences are validated. Finally, it's a way of asserting her own version of reality against her sisters' narrative, a refusal to accept their framing of the past.

3. How does Leda's accusation of antisocial personality disorder affect the sisters' dynamic?

Leda's accusation is a turning point in the chapter. It's the first time a sister has explicitly pathologized Clio's behavior, and it reveals the depth of Leda's frustration and fear. The accusation also creates a new dynamic: Clio is no longer just the difficult sister but potentially someone with a diagnosable condition. Daphne's attempt to mediate and suggest family therapy shows her trying to hold the family together, but the damage is done—Clio leaves, and the sisters' relationship is more fractured than ever.