Most of the characters in the novel behave in morally ambiguous ways, and for many of them, the legacy of family trauma forms the root of their insecurity. That insecurity and self-doubt in turn give rise to cruelty. Through Charleigh’s experiences and the characters’ fraught interpersonal dynamics, the novel reveals the lasting impacts of familial trauma.

Charleigh remains haunted by a childhood growing up in poverty: Even the sight of the rural, ramshackle neighborhood where she once lived is enough to provoke “brutal memories” (56). The main problems with Charleigh’s childhood were substance abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect at the hands of her parents, but she conflates these with poverty. As a result of her traumatic childhood, Charleigh is obsessed with wealth and social standing. She often feels alienated from her husband because his lifelong privilege leaves him unable to understand her sense of social and financial instability: “[S]he also damn well knows how fast and far one can fall. How precarious everything is” (156). Charleigh’s need to cement her own social standing leaves her jealous and competitive: For example, she quickly feels threatened by Abigail Swift.

Most damagingly, Charleigh’s experience of family trauma drives how she rears her own daughter. Charleigh is convinced that Nellie should never want for anything, so she spoils her daughter and rarely imposes any boundaries or consequences. Since Nellie is socially awkward and struggles to fit in, Charleigh repeatedly meddles and intervenes in Nellie’s social life. Jackson often “stifles the urge to tell his friend to relax, to quit being so up in her kid’s business” (28). Charleigh wants to ensure her daughter has the emotional safety she never got to experience, but she ends up creating a cloying and claustrophobic atmosphere within their dynamic. This simmering resentment eventually boils over when Charleigh admits to bribing Luke to go on a date with Nellie. Charleigh’s murder at Nellie’s hands represents the ultimate toxic embodiment of a long legacy of family trauma.

While Charleigh and Nellie’s dynamic is central to the conflict, other characters experience the legacy of family trauma as well. Jackson feels trapped in Longview because he does not have the money to finance running a business in a larger urban center. His mother withholds funds from him until he “find[s] a nice wife to marry, settle down with” (80). Jackson’s mother manipulates her son, undermining his desire to live an authentic life as a gay man. This manipulation leaves Jackson lonely, isolated, and doubting his own self-worth. As a result, he is vulnerable to men like Ethan who exploit his loneliness.

Jane also suffers emotional abuse at the hands of Abigail, feeling isolated and unloved in her family because Abigail punishes her for being the daughter of another woman. Histories of family trauma are thus shown to leave individuals insecure, with the characters ending up prone to either being cruel to others or enduring cruelty themselves.