Content warning: This section of the guide discusses addiction, domestic violence, and torture.

The Victorian house that Margaret and Hal purchase symbolizes their family’s abuse and trauma. As such, it represents The Cycle of Domestic Abuse. The house is haunted by a wide cast of “pranksters” as well as more malevolent spirits and one helpful, ghostly housekeeper. The house was the site of multiple mysterious deaths and was also, as Margaret later finds out, inhabited by a family whose relationships were violent and abusive. The worst of the house’s past events occurred in September, which is why the hauntings increase dramatically each year during September. The nightly moans and screams, the bleeding walls, and the presence of so many ghosts create an eerie atmosphere for Margaret and Hal, but they are also one of the primary ways that this novel uses horror tropes and imagery to discuss psychological distress and trauma.

Much of what Margaret sees is ultimately revealed as part of her complex emotional response to trauma, violence, and domestic abuse. The screams and blood that the house produces represent Margaret’s own many nights of physical mistreatment at Hal’s hands.