“Without darkness, ‘light’ just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you’ve ever stood and waited in the florescent glare of the Goldblatt’s basement while your mom and a ton of other ladies tear through stuff like dented coffee pots and misspelled day-of-the-week panty sets (Twosday, Wendsday) then you’ve seen firsthand the way ‘light’ just shows how sweaty and messed up human life really is…”

Karen has an affinity for monsters, horror, and all things night. She develops this passion in part due to her brother’s influence, but also because she feels that the monster’s way of life, amidst the shadows, is preferrable. Karen believes that light exposes disturbing truths about people and the state of society. She sees the desperation in poor families like her own, and how people in her position are there by no choice. Instead, they are victims of systemic oppression and injustice. Light and dark are one of many juxtapositions that Karen uses to illustrate her worldview.

“I now can’t get it out of my head that there was someone with Anka…a shadow… […] She reminded me of this freaky painting in the museum. Not that Anka looked or acted like the Magdalene holding a skull in her lap…No…It was something about the darkness…The shadows that hung heavy above them both.”

Karen uses her knowledge of art, religion, and mythology throughout the story to try to solve Anka’s murder. The first painting she thinks about is the Magdalene, in which she sits looking solemn, holding a skull in her lap. The painting symbolizes one’s mortality and forces the onlooker to confront their own. This woman reminds Karen of Anka, because behind the Magdalene in the shadows lurks an evil-looking face. Karen knew Anka to be lonely, depressed, and off-kilter. Karen thinks that Anka may have had a demon or ghost haunting her, which resulted in her death.