51 pages • 1-hour read
Diavola
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Chapters 20-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, cursing, graphic violence, illness, substance use, death, emotional abuse, gender discrimination, and child death.
Chapter 20 Summary: “That’s It, We’re Dead”
The group enjoys dinner in Florence; at the end of the meal, Nicole confides that she doesn’t want to go back to the villa. Benny blurts out, “[T]here’s something fucking haunted about it, and that thing is a ghost” (133). Anna agrees, but the others express varying degrees of skepticism, with Christopher in particular mocking the idea of the soul’s survival.
As the group walks to the train station, Nicole tells a story from their adolescence: Anna attended Nicole’s senior prom because she was on a date with an older boy. Nicole’s boyfriend was not present when Nicole was crowned prom queen, and there have always been rumors that he and Anna were hooking up. Anna once again denies that there’s any truth to the story, which she finds frustrating and hurtful.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Twin Complex”
Back at the villa, Anna joins Benny and Christopher for a drink while Nicole and Justin go to bed. Christopher is much drunker than she expected and immediately becomes combative and aggressive toward her. Christopher accuses Anna of being manipulative and jealous and claims that Benny left New York to get away from Anna. Anna is hurt because Benny initially asked her to leave New York with him, and she declined. Benny eventually demands that Christopher apologize to Anna, which he does, though insincerely. Anna leaves, still hurt and upset. Later that night, she sees the blonde Florentine ghost in the bathroom and even feels the spirit lick her neck.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Thursday”
Anna has a vivid dream in which she follows the handsome Italian boy through the villa, which is the site of a chaotic party. Anna has visions of her family members engaging in strange and destructive acts; Christopher is lying on the floor as Benny stomps on him. When she tries to ask the Italian boy what is happening, his mouth is again dripping with blood.
Chapter 23 Summary: “The Anna Test”
When Anna comes downstairs the next morning, she learns that Christopher has abruptly left. Confused, she finds a note that he left for Benny; Christopher claims to be leaving because Benny sided with her over him and because he didn’t meet with Anna’s approval. However, something about the note bothers Anna. Meanwhile, Anna and Nicole are both confused to realize that it’s Friday; they remember going to Florence on Wednesday but have no memories of the previous day.
Anna is alarmed enough that she looks up the villa on the internet. She finds an old travel blog in which a blogger describes her visit to the villa, including references to it being haunted. In her final post, the blogger mentions that she is going to explore the tower room; Anna learns that she died shortly after this post. Apparently, the villa is known to be haunted by a ghost known as La Dama Bianca, and many of the people who visit the villa seem to die mysteriously. Anna sits outside, trying to gather her thoughts, and sees three children nearby. She assumes that they are the friends Mia and Waverly mentioned, but then the children begin to bleed in a way similar to the man who keeps appearing in her dreams. When Benny approaches, the children vanish.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Spreading Stain”
Anna numbly continues with the day’s planned activities (tours to the local area). As the group debates whether to have dinner at the villa, Anna finally states that she thinks the family should leave: “[I]t’s not right, that villa. It’s not a place we should be” (162). Anna’s parents are insulted since they think that she is implying that the villa isn’t nice enough. When Anna explicitly mentions a ghost, Nicole becomes extremely agitated. As the family begins arguing, Anna has a sudden memory of seeing Christopher bleeding on the villa floor.
Chapter 25 Summary: “You See How Nice It Is”
On the drive back to the villa, Anna panics and begs to be dropped off in the village. Her father refuses, accusing Anna of trying to ruin the vacation. Just before they reach the villa, Anna manages to get out of the car and begins running toward the village. The driver who brought her to the villa sees her and stops to give her a ride. Anna asks if he knows about the ghost. He confirms that the entire town believes the villa is haunted, although he has never seen the ghost himself. Nevertheless, he says the villa is “important” to the townsfolk, obliquely referencing tourists. The driver, Pietro, ultimately suggests that Anna talk to Gianni, the handsome waiter who flirted with Anna and who is the nephew of the villa’s caretaker. As soon as she gets to town, Anna rushes to Gianni.
Chapter 26 Summary: “The Sacrament of Penance”
Gianni takes Anna to his uncle’s home. The older man gives a long explanation in Italian, which Anna struggles to follow, though he seems to return repeatedly to the idea of “feeding.” After he finishes speaking, he asks for forgiveness, to Anna’s confusion. She slowly walks back to the villa, recalling the words she understood.
Chapter 27 Summary: “When You’re Around”
As Anna approaches the villa, she sees men putting up signs that close off the road to the villa in both directions. They rush away before she can confront them. She is alarmed to see Christopher’s suitcase near the side of the road: She finds broken wine bottles inside and guesses that he abandoned the suitcase after breaking the bottles, which he purchased earlier in the trip. Back at the villa, Anna writes down as much as she understood from what the caretaker told her. She surmises that the ghost was a wealthy Florentine woman who became obsessed with a member of the family that owned the villa and vineyard—possibly the young man from her dreams. There were crop failures and ultimately mass deaths resulting from poison, though Anna isn’t sure the noblewoman was responsible; she died in the villa as well, and the deaths continued afterward. The ghosts appear to be trapped in the villa, which the villagers fear; if the house is not “fed,” its evil spreads, killing crops and people.
Anna shows the transcript to Benny and begs him to support her in making the case for moving out of the villa. Benny refuses to help and retorts that “this place only feels haunted when [Anna is] around” (178). Anna is frustrated by his denial, not least because she suspects he wrote “Christopher’s” note himself. She considers simply leaving but is worried about her family. She decides to stay one more night, make a case for her family to move out of the villa in the morning, and then return to America regardless of what they decide. Anna awakens in the middle of the night, noticing that the pages have been torn from her sketchbook and scattered around.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Finale”
Anna hears groans, footsteps, and voices speaking Latin and Italian; she leaves her room with the strong sense that the ghost is following her. She finds her nieces in the living room, and the girls begin to vomit what looks like blood. Nicole’s parents awaken, and everyone begins to panic. Anna realizes that her nieces are actually vomiting red wine. She urges the family to leave the villa immediately, but her parents become inexplicably trapped in their bedroom; her father demands that Anna “stop” whatever she’s doing, and Benny injures his hand while freeing them.
Anna, who has been seeing various ghosts throughout the ordeal, sends Benny, Justin, Nicole, and their daughters off to the local hospital. She rushes her parents through packing up and then goes searching for Mia’s stuffed toy; as Anna retrieves it from under the bed, La Dama Bianca’s ghost grabs her ankle and licks her foot. Anna kicks herself free but notices the tower key is in her bag as she exits the villa; she tosses it at the tower as she leaves, and everyone drives away.
Chapters 20-28 Analysis
The family’s preoccupation with Anna’s sexual behavior continues with the discussion of the prom story. More than a decade after these events took place, Nicole remains obsessed with the possibility that her younger sister “stole” her date; these insecurities and jealousies mirror the hints of sexual tension between Anna and Nicole’s husband, Justin. The juxtaposition of the two sisters reflects a form of the “Madonna-whore” dichotomy (referring to the societal tendency to conceptualize women as either chaste and maternal or as intensely sexual). Nicole is a married mother who puts the needs of her children first and doesn’t display any desire, whereas Anna remains single, chooses to live without children, and displays strong sexual charisma and appetite. However, where Western literature has traditionally idealized the “Madonna” figure, Diavola problematizes it. Nicole’s repeated shaming of Anna for her independence and sexual agency, as well as Nicole’s sense of Anna as a threat, reflects internalized misogyny and shows how women police the agency of other women. This further develops the theme of Mistrust of Feminine Agency and Desire.
As the rising action continues, events at the villa become increasingly chaotic and confusing. Anna grows uncertain about her ability to distinguish reality and keep track of time, revealing the destabilizing effects of the villa’s supernatural atmosphere. Many traditional Gothic novels end up revealing mundane explanations for frightening and seemingly supernatural events, and Thorne provides possible explanations for why the Pace family could be confused about what is happening around them: Nicole has a concussion, and the entire family is regularly consuming large quantities of alcohol. Likewise, Christopher’s strange disappearance seems to have a straightforward explanation: He was hurt and angry after the confrontation with Benny and Anna and stormed off. However, Anna finds herself having strange memories or visions of “[a] red stain, a dreamed one […] [and Christopher] gasping like a banked fish” (163). Dreams are a motif throughout the novel, including a key way in which Caterina’s ghost reveals information about the past to Anna, and this one points quite literally to the truth of Christopher’s murder. Nevertheless, the group rationalizes Christopher’s disappearance, developing the theme of Imprisonment in Denial and Repression: Because the Pace family won’t recognize the truth, they remain stuck in the villa just as they are stuck in decades-old conflicts.
Anna’s access to information that the rest of the family denies and ignores reflects her role as the outsider. Throughout the novel, Anna functions as a “Cassandra” figure: someone who accurately foresees impending threat or disaster but is ignored. Indeed, Anna becomes increasingly alienated from her family as she grows more vocal about the need to leave the villa. Anna’s father becomes angry and performs a darkly comic parody of a father rebuking a child when he tells her, “So you’re going to sit back, you’re going to engage yourself, and you are going to keep your mouth shut for the rest of the week. That is final” (164). Anna’s father talks to an adult woman as if she were a small child, revealing how the patriarchal structures of nuclear family units can create unhealthy power dynamics that linger into adulthood. Where Anna is comfortable acknowledging the unpleasant truth (that the villa is haunted and dangerous), her family prefers to live in ignorance and fixate on the lie that everyone is having a good time.
As in many Gothic works, the supernatural thus becomes a vehicle for exploring the psychological—in this case, the interpersonal dysfunction that the family similarly refuses to acknowledge, beyond their scapegoating of Anna. The villa is a domestic space and was once a family home, yet it can also be a source of threat rather than a space of safety. Anna’s awareness of this danger reflects her willingness to look objectively at her own family dynamics and foreshadows her eventual decision to cut ties with her family.
Anna’s access to information that her family lacks also develops the theme of The Empty Performance of Social Elitism. Anna alone knows some Italian and thus can speak with the elderly man who works as the villa’s caretaker and understand at least parts of his story, which provides important context about the history of the villa and the ghost’s identity. Anna’s ability to speak a language that her family does not reflects the fact that she is more humble, empathetic, and curious; while the rest of the family assumes that the world revolves around them, Anna understands her responsibility to see things from different perspectives, which ends up aiding her as well.
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