Layla

“‘She was a terrible dancer,’ I say to the man. ‘It’s the first thing I noticed about her.’”

This is the first thing that Leeds tells UndercoverInc in their first interview segment. It is a vivid memory that both Leeds and Layla have from the night they met. Leeds thinks Layla’s inability to remember important things is due to memory loss, but eventually, he realizes that it's because Sable’s spirit is in her body. At the end of the novel, Layla puts on music and dances, and Leeds is happy to see her dance terribly again.

“Every show eats away at my soul. A nibble here, a nibble there. I’m afraid if I keep doing this much longer, there won’t be anything left of me but a body.”

This quote from the first chapter is about how Leeds hates the band that he plays with. The idea that his soul could disintegrate and leave just his body ties in with the idea that souls and bodies are separate entities; bodies are vessels for souls. Hoover continues to explore this idea by having souls enter new bodies and live apart from bodies.

“‘Think of it like this,’ she says. ‘The womb is one existence. As a fetus, we don’t remember life before the womb, and we had no idea if there would be life after the womb…But then we were born…and came into our current realm of existence…There could be realms of existence we’ve never even entertained the idea of. They could be endless. I don’t think we ever really die.’”

On the night that Leeds and Layla meet, they have a conversation about heaven and the afterlife. Layla states her belief in “realms,” which are different modes of existence in which one could be, and one might not remember a previous one. This is a strong piece of foreshadowing, because after she is shot, Layla’s spirit inhabits a different realm, and she has difficulty untangling memories of previous lives when she slips into her body.