“Two weeks in the hospital without a journal left me starving for words.”

Ryan frequently resorts to hyperbole and metaphor when describing his writing habits. His desire to write is expressed as hunger, expressing his creative desire as a physical need. This moment characterizes Ryan as a compulsive writer and hints at his stylistic awareness.

“There’s something to it. A name like that has to come from somewhere.”

Sarah’s question about the name of the town, Skeleton Creek, suggests that it carries symbolism for the main characters to explore. This question highlights the book’s detective genre by introducing a mystery the teens seek to solve.

“But Gladys Morgan had given us a beginning, a thread to grab hold of. It would lead us to trouble of a kind we hadn’t anticipated.”

An example of the visual language and metaphor that Ryan uses throughout the novel, this passage compares the clues they find to a thread. This suggests an association between the mystery and a tapestry that can be woven and slowly unraveled.