Beautiful Venom

When Dahlia Thorne was six years old, her parents died in a car crash. The recurring images and scenes of the crash throughout the novel act as a motif that represents Dahlia’s lingering childhood trauma. At times, Dahlia has nightmares about the crash, and in some of the nightmares, her parents blame her for killing them, even calling her a murderer.

These nightmares convey Dahlia’s guilt and remorse. She blames herself for her parents’ deaths and is haunted by shame. In other dreams, the true nature of the incident is further twisted as Dahlia’s foster sister Violet dies in the car crash along with her parents. This shift conveys Dahlia’s fear that she will lose the only family she has left, illustrating her still-pervasive fear of abandonment. At other times, Kane Davenport and the Vencor members play footage of the car crash in front of Dahlia to psychologically torment her, and the footage disturbs her because it stirs up her trauma and stunts her healing journey. The recurring images of and references to the crash underscore the intensity of Dahlia’s emotional and psychological trauma, underscoring the novel’s emphasis on the importance of