Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the novel’s misrepresentation of mental health conditions and its depiction of mental health crises, psychological manipulation, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide.

“She’s the girl in the car.

The man behind the wheel is a killer.

And Charlie understands, with the certainty of someone who’s seen this kind of movie a hundred times before, that only one of them will live to see the dawn.”

As the narrator establishes that Charlie suspects the driver in the car of being a killer, the novel introduces the theme of Trust Versus Paranoia. Charlie does not trust the driver to the point that she believes one of them will have to kill the other. The passage uses ambiguity to create suspense and anticipation for the audience. The passage also establishes that the events of the story will occur all in one night.

“She grabs her coat. Well, Maddy’s coat. A hand-me-down from her grandmother accidentally left behind when the rest of her belongings were carted away. Charlie found it under Maddy’s bed and claimed it as her own.”

The quote establishes Maddy’s coat as an ongoing symbol for Charlie’s love for Maddy and her cherished memories of her. The coat will appear multiple times throughout the novel, reminding the reader of The Devastation of Grief and the difficulty of processing that devastation when it is compounded by guilt. Charlie clings to this one article of clothing that belonged to her friend much as she clings to her guilt after losing Maddy so brutally.

“‘You’re still special, Charlie,’ Robbie says, ‘I need you to know that.’”

Robbie’s insistence that Charlie is special foreshadows his use of specialness as an indicator of a person’s worth, especially a woman’s worth. The quote, thus, foreshadows Robbie’s reveal as the Campus Killer and his murders of women he deems as “not special.