The Overnight Guest

“At first, twelve-year-old Josie Doyle and her best friend, Becky Allen, ran toward the loud bangs. It only made sense to go to the house—that’s where her mother and father and Ethan were. But by the time Josie and Becky discovered their mistake, it was too late.”

Josie and Becky are quickly established as main characters and victims of a crime, although the full details of that crime are kept ambiguous. The danger the girls are in heightens the tension and creates suspense, both necessary facets of the thriller genre. This quote is also the one that Wylie reads at the novel’s conclusion, revealing that these book chapters from the August 2000 timeline are excerpts from her final book. The novel beginning and ending with this quote gives a circular quality to the narrative and encourages the reader to reflect on everything the two women have survived.

“‘It’s okay,’ her mother said gently. ‘You can eat it. It’s from the Easter Bunny, not your dad.’”

This moment marks the first clear inkling that something disturbing is happening in the little girl’s narrative. The strange moments prior to this one could be contributed to weather or poverty, but this comment by the mother makes a clear distinction between what is “okay” and what is not, aligning wrongness with the girl’s father. This comment thereby establishes the alliances at work in the basement and identifies the father figure as someone malicious, foreshadowing his later cruelties.