The Cliffs

Content Warning: This section of the source text and the guide refers to alcohol use disorder, suicide, child loss, abuse, abduction, and anti-Indigenous racism and violence. In addition, the source text uses outdated and offensive terms for Indigenous people, which the guide replicates only in direct quotes.

Jane Flanagan is 17 and works as a tour guide on a lobster boat in Awadapquit, Maine, when she first sees the house. She immediately senses that it has “stories to tell” (7).

Three months later, Jane has the opportunity to take a summer class as a high school senior. Her mother, Shirley, thinks it’s a scam, but her best friend, Allison Crowley, celebrates with her. The two have been friends since their freshman year. Allison has lived in Awadapquit all her life, while Jane, Shirley, and her sister (Holly) moved there only recently, living in Jane’s grandmother’s house after she died. Shirley runs a resale business. The things she can’t sell clutter up the house. Shirley has an alcohol use disorder, and Jane prefers spending time at Allison’s house.

For a month, Jane attends the class she chose at Bates College: Early Women Writers. She’s entranced by the idea that women become a part of history by documenting their stories.