Hidden Nature

“It’s all so clear, Joel. How can that be so absolutely clear, and everything else not? I was going to let go. I felt so light, and it would’ve been so easy to just let go. But you were crying a little, and I remembered you’d told me I had to fight. Not to give up, but fight. So I did.”

Sloan’s out-of-body experience as she experiences clinical death is the inciting incident and a key moment in the novel, not only for what it means for her own character arc, but also because of the way this experience ties her to the killers who emerge later. Clara is looking for patients’ stories, and here, Sloan gives hers. The contrast between the wish to “let go” and the need to solace grieving loved ones is conventional when describing near-death experiences. Joel’s reminder of Sloan’s fighting spirit—a quality with which she identifies—also helps to outline her character in this early moment.

“She knew the beauty of nature—and its dangers, its capriciousness. And she’d felt, always, a strong need to protect and preserve it.”

Her observation of the scenery when she’s released from the hospital illustrates how Sloan is savoring life now that she’s been given another chance to live. The backdrop of Heron’s Rest, along with the seasons, mirrors Sloan’s recovery and character growth. Her attraction to the natural setting and her wish to preserve it also reflect Sloan’s motivations for choosing her occupation, reflecting The Joys of a Calling.

“Like the chest wound, the one on her forehead would leave a scar. But they’d remind her she’d survived. That made her a survivor.”

Sloan’s scars hold ambivalence for her as they are marks of her injuries and remind her of her weakness, especially early in the story when she is struggling to recuperate.