The Likeness

“Lexie Madison developed out of nothing like a Polaroid, she curled off the page and hung in the air like incense smoke, a girl with my face and a life from a half-forgotten dream.”

The author employs the use of figurative language in two similes to convey the idea Lexie was like a real person. A Polaroid is a type of photography where the image develops slowly on the paper after the camera shot. Incense is a sweet-smelling aromatherapeutic believed by some to clear the air of negative energy. Both images are haunting and mysterious and make Lexie feel ghost-like.

“Some people are little Chernobyls, shimmering with silent, spreading poison: get anywhere near them and every breath you take will wreck you from the inside out.”

In explicating the epic failure and stigmatizing effect of Operation Vestal, the author alludes to the historic meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986 that devastated the city of Pripyat in Ukraine and surrounding areas. The fallout from the radioactive material is still detectable today, and the village uninhabitable.

“I found out early that you can throw yourself away, missing what you’ve lost.”

Cassie pretends the loss of her parents has not left any lasting wounds, but she deals with the trauma by burying the past. In doing so, she is discarding a part of herself. Repression of traumatic events and memories can have profound effects on an individual later in life and bubble to the surface when they least expect it.

“It seemed like the corridors had an Escher look, the walls all tilting in subtle, seasick ways, but I couldn’t focus my eyes enough to figure out exactly how.”

As Cassie reenters the Dublin Murder squad headquarters for the first time after her traumatic stabbing, a wave of nostalgia hits her along with disorienting vertigo. Repressed trauma can cause panic attacks, which can have physical symptoms like dizziness and disassociation. The author alludes to the Dutch artist M. C. Escher, whose paintings and lithographs explore themes of infinity, symmetry, and reflections in optical illusions-like images. This passage also uses alliteration to emphasize the feelings Cassie is experiencing.

“Lexie in dim gold light on the screen was a dark lake I could high-dive into, she was a thin-ice river I could skate away on, she was a long-distance flight leaving now.”

As Cassie ponders the choice to accept going undercover as the murder victim, the danger lures her to offer herself for the mission. The author uses a string of metaphors to describe the allure of the darkness and potential disaster of the assignment. More than anything, the opportunity feels like a chance to escape her current life where she has been stuck for six months after the tragedy.

“It isn’t easy, after all, wearing someone else against your skin for months on end; I should know.”

Cassie describes the intimacy she feels for the false identity of Lexie. The passage uses imagery making it feel as if Lexie drapes over Cassie like a piece of clothing. The closeness to it, however, leaves her with an uneasy feeling. It may be harder to shed the false identity this time.

“This time Lexie had called them all for me and I didn’t have a choice; I had to follow her rules to the letter, listen hard and nonstop like she was on a faint crackly earpiece and let her run me.”

Though Cassie has done undercover work before, this case is different. The Lexie Frank and she created was a completely new creation, and Cassie was free to interpret the character as she wished. Playing the part of Lexie the murder victim is different. Cassie is held hostage to the character the girl herself was playing as she lived among the roommates. The passage describes the ghost of the dead woman manipulating Cassie like a puppet.

“The cottage had a century and a half of its own stillness stored up, she had taken only an eyeblink; it had already absorbed her and closed over the place where she had been.”

The first time Cassie entered the cottage at the murder scene, the inside felt full of the presence of the dead woman. Now, it feels empty again without any trace of the crime that occurred there. The author personifies the house by giving it human-like character traits to add to the haunting mood of the narrative.

“I think he said somewhere behind me, or maybe it was ‘thyme,’ I’ve never been sure. ‘Time works so hard for us, if only we can let it.’”

When Cassie and Daniel speak on the porch, he describes the aromatic plants and herbs growing in the garden. He is hopeful they will reach their peak of beauty the next season. Layered meanings saturate the conversation as Daniel appears to be relaying a coded message to Cassie. The author uses the play on words in thyme versus time. Just as the plants need time to mature and flourish, Daniel feels humans must also submit to the discipline of patience and time.

“It’s amazing how cheaply you can ditch your life and get a new one, if you don’t ask for much and you’re willing to do any work that’s going.”

As Cassie receives more details about the murder victim’s actions, she begins to understand her better. The young girl was afraid of commitment and tethering herself to any one place or person for too long. She had a dangerous type of wanderlust that compelled her to make rash and often dangerous decisions. Cassie feels the same compulsion to escape her life but for other reasons. She is trying to escape her past and her pain.

“’I think you’re bloody insane,’ Rafe said, ‘but then, I’ve though that for a while now. And anyway, it doesn’t really matter what I think, does it? You’re going to do exactly what you want to, either way.’”

The tensions continue to rise in the house, particularly between Rafe and Daniel. Rafe has languished under Daniel’s strange house rules for long enough. Through the devolution of the relationships in the house, the author explores the potential pitfalls of a carefully curated social circle and the false promise of a utopia. Humans are too flawed for these idyllic communes to work long term.

“It was the future he was obsessed with, his home’s future, seeping away like water. The past was the dark conjoined twin wrapped round that future, steering it, shaping it.”

As Cassie listens to John Naylor explain the origins of Glenskehy, she understands more of his fury toward Whitethorn and its residents. The author uses figurative language to describe the complicated ways the past is tied to the present. The motif of doubling in the twin imagery is used throughout the narrative to describe how characters are tied to their past. Here the author uses it to explain how an entire town is affected by the choices of one family.

“I had already noticed that the house was their safe zone; whenever things got tense, one of them would steer the conversation onto something that needed fixing or rearranging, and everyone would settle down again.”

Whitethorn House is a place where the housemates find their identity and feel most like themselves. The house is a refuge for the group in many ways. They do not fit in to regular society with their eccentric personalities and unusual interests. When they are home, they are protected from the judgmental stares of outsiders. Restoring the house together gives them a sense of communal purpose and makes them feel like they are repairing the past.

“The four big Ls of motive: lust, lucre, loathing, and love.”

Cassie is using her skills as a profiler to determine how Lexie was involved with Ned. She outlines the four most common motives of murder. This line of thinking gives the reader insight into how detectives work a case. It also outlines a universal theme for how human nature works and what motivates individuals to commit violent crimes.

“Now it was back, ticking savagely and getting louder every minute, speeding towards some huge shadowy zero hour.”

Since Cassie blew her cover to Daniel, she knows her time at Whitethorn is short. The author uses the metaphor of a clock ticking loudly to symbolize the minutes slipping away and the fast approach of Cassie’s reckoning with the murderer. She will also have to deal with her own grief in losing the illusion of a perfect life lived at Whitethorn.

“’Stevenson,’ Justin said, softly and very sadly. ‘Remember? Jekyll and Hyde. Daniel was going on about them; something to do with reason and instinct.’”

The author eludes here to the Victorian novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the novella, the character of Dr. Jekyll experiments with a potion that allows him to tap into his darker side, a personality called Mr. Hyde. The experiments end in disastrous consequences for all involved. Stevenson explores through his character the idea of the doppelgänger or shadow self. It is ironic Daniel would be discussing this novel on the night they all realize Lexie has been hiding part of herself from them.

“[…] we let Daniel call all the shots; we had to sit here having the Mad Hatter’s tea party”

As Rafe describes the elaborate way Daniel set out to cover up Lexie’s stabbing, he alludes to a scene in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In Carroll’s novel, the character of Alice is lost and helpless in an unknown land. She stumbles into a tea party where all the attendees seem oblivious to the chaos swirling around them. Rafe feels a similar sense of uneasiness as they go about business as usual in the wake of the accident.

“’I never told you, but back when we first me, back in first year—'

‘Shut up,’ Abby snapped viciously, whirling on him.”

The author manipulates the storyline in dialogue often not by what characters say but what is withheld. Justin is emotionally falling apart as Abby reveals the truth of Lexie’s stabbing and Daniel’s coverup. He begins to reveal another detail about Daniel’s peculiar and potentially dangerous character when Abby cuts him off from finishing. Abby’s reaction reveals she is hiding something about Daniel.

“It terrified me, the thought that if someday a suspect got a knife to my throat, if my life shrank to one split second, there might be nothing left inside me to say, no one to call.”

In the standoff with Daniel, Cassie thinks about the last moments before someone dies. Usually, they think of their family or loved ones. Since her parents are gone and she lost her best friend Rob, Cassie feels alone in the world and does not fear death but fears dying alone.

“At the clear fountain, going for a walk, I found the water so beautiful that I bathed in it"

Cassie remembers a song her mother used to sing to her in French. The English translation tells of walking near a fountain, searching for something. These song lyrics symbolize what Cassie was searching for at Whitethorn and throughout her life. She needed to belong somewhere. All the friends living at Whitethorn sought a place to belong.

“The truth is more intricate and less attainable than I used to understand, a bright illusive place reached by twisting back roads as often as by straight avenues”

Police work has changed Cassie and made her more jaded about true justice. One would think police officers would desire absolute, irrefutable truth, but Cassie has learned truth is hard to find in the messiness of life. The author uses the metaphor of traveling a twisting, disorienting path as opposed to a straightforward journey in pursuit of the truth.

“’That’s my girl.’”

Frank is the first to use this phrase in the narrative. He says this to Cassie when she is following his orders and doing her job well. Cassie can hear the words in her mind when she is homing in on the murderer at Whitethorn. Grace’s father speaks the words here as he asks Cassie how Grace’s life turned out, and Cassie confirms she lived a good life. The author uses this phrase to link Cassie and Lexie/Grace one final time.

“[…] every now and then there was one that couldn’t be broken, one wild to the bone. Those horses fought the bridle and the fence till they were ripped up and streaming blood, till they smashed their legs or their necks to splinters, till they died of fighting to run.”

Albert’s description of wild, unbroken horses mirrors the character of his daughter Grace. She could not be tamed and longed for freedom. The price for living completely untethered was high, and in the end it cost her life.