No Place Left to Hide

“I could have had my answer months ago, but I missed the deadline because of…the incident. Yet another thing I lost because of her.”

Brooke refers to the death of Claire Heck at her lake house party six months earlier. Brooke’s wording here betrays a deep negativity in her relationship with the yet-unnamed “her,” even without exposing what the conflict between them was. This additionally shows how the pressure Brooke feels to succeed drives her to view her ambitions as more important than Claire’s actual life, dismissing Claire’s death (which has not yet been revealed in the narrative) as a mere interruption in her application plans. This also foreshadows the way in which Brooke will continue to blame her failures on Claire’s actions.

“I take a breath. Goodwins don’t show stress either. We’re always composed.”

This is the first hint at the theme of Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets. Brooke is subject to the expectations of her parents, who have prominent jobs that would suffer if Brooke got into trouble. As a result, she must remind herself of her family name any time she feels nervous or threatened, using it as an anchor to help decide what she should do or how she should think. Their appearance is more important than anything. This mindset will determine Brooke’s character arc throughout the novel.

“Waldorf prepared us for Ivy League lives, but it’s on us if we don’t get the answer we want.”

This short line betrays a deep sense of personal shame in Brooke. She not only wants to impress her parents; she sees it as her responsibility to accomplish everything they request and more, and she’s at fault if she fails. She doesn’t allow others or herself any flexibility if their efforts aren’t enough, regardless of their circumstances. This implies that the students at Waldorf and the Goodwins both perpetuate a narrative that teenagers have control over everything in their lives, which is untrue. Nonetheless, the idea makes every potential “mistake” a reflection of poor character or incapability in Brooke’s eyes.

“Felix and Jena only know about the time someone printed ‘BROOKE GOODWIN IS A MONSTER’ on hundreds of pieces of pink paper and taped them all over the school. But that was months ago, and they’re both under the impression it was an isolated incident.”

Brooke doesn’t broadcast that she is being harassed because the lake house party and Claire’s death brought too much attention to the family. Thus, any other conflict—even if she’s the victim—wouldn’t be good for the Goodwin’s image and could bring undue suspicion that may threaten Mr. Goodwin’s bid for circuit judge. She even keeps the harassment a secret from her best friend. However, her motivations for this appear differently after the discovery that Brooke killed Claire; by refusing to publicize her harassment, she’s protecting herself from further investigation into her past actions. Being called a “monster,” whether accurately or not, is the first hint that Brooke has a more active role in the central conflict than she claims.

“They want me to carry the weight of what happened in September for every minute of the rest of my life—I mean, how dare I even think about having a life or moving on.

No Caller ID wants me to suffer, and I don’t know how to make it stop.

Or how much further they’re willing to take this.”

Brooke remains callous about Claire’s drowning, but at this point in the novel, it hasn’t been revealed that she’s the murderer. In this scene, her worry about how far her harasser will take their campaign presents Brooke as an innocent victim being unfairly hounded by an anonymous antagonist. It shows her Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets, which Brooke does throughout the novel.

“My mom would kill me if she found out [I went to Beau’s party]. My instructions have been very clear since September. I’m to do absolutely nothing that could get me in trouble, or talked about, ever again. If there’s even a chance my behavior might shine a negative spotlight on the family, it’s a flat no—”

This claim makes clear how strict the standards are in Brooke’s household. Not only must she avoid trouble, she must also avoid any notability that isn’t entirely positive, something that isn’t totally within her control. Her father’s professional goals and her mother’s place as Waldorf principal are more important than anything happening for Brooke.

“‘You got into Yale?’

I climb to my feet, smooth my uniform, and nod. For the first time in six months, my mom smiles at me. Her eyes are alight with happiness that I created, and she wraps me in what’s possibly the tightest hug of my life.

I finally fixed it. Yale fixed it.”

Building on the previous quotes, Mrs. Goodwin exposes here how her and her husband’s relationship with Brooke is based on their daughter’s strict adherence to their standards. Their affection and approval is conditional; until Brooke achieved this result, she was undeserving of affection. This dynamic forces Brooke to view her ambitions as crucial to receiving love, as failure could leave her punished and abandoned.

“‘Brooke?’ [My father] examines me like I’m evidence in one of his trials.

‘I got into Yale.’

My entire body braces for the smile, for the praise, for the acceptance.

‘I assumed as much when I saw you standing out here on decision day.’

I blink at him. That’s it? No smile? No hug? No…nothing?

‘Right, of course. Sorry to ruin the surprise.’”

In contrast to his wife, Mr. Goodwin isn’t even happy that Brooke got into Yale. From his perspective, it’s not an accomplishment; it’s a completed task. Unlike Brooke’s mother’s affection, which she can secure through doing as she’s told, her father’s affection is unwinnable. Her drive to get it, doing whatever she has to do to preserve their family name as he expects, is what shapes her character throughout the events of the novel, past and present.

“I lift myself back onto the counter and sigh. I love it here. Both being at the lake house and at the top of the Waldorf food chain. I’m so excited for senior year I can hardly stand it. It’s going to be this every day: The smiles, the adoration, the friends, the attention. The perfect Goodwin daughter having her perfect senior year.”

Despite there being only six months between the present-day narrative and the past one, Brooke appears noticeably more relaxed in the past. She’s still nervous about her parents’ expectations and cautious about how people view her, but she lacks the sense of dread that follows her in the present. Here, at the beginning of her lake house party, she believes that she has everything she needs: her best-friend-turned-enemy, Claire, is gone, and Brooke is the top achiever. She has her parents’ approval and can truly enjoy herself. But having reached “the top” at Waldorf foreshadows that the only way for Brooke to go is down.

“Two months later, her dad lost his job, her family sold their house, and Claire was yanked from Waldorf and sent to public school. She lost everything, but she held on to Dylan by the skin of her teeth. For a few more months at least.

Just to spite me, I’m sure.”

Brooke views Claire’s suffering through the lens of what she wants. Brooke earnestly believes Claire only dated Dylan because Brooke liked him, so naturally, Claire only would’ve continued dating him to spite Brooke after losing everything else. This is a shallow and one-sided perspective, hinting further at Brooke’s self-absorption and the theme of Ambition Versus Morality.

“I’ve been so laser focused on getting into Yale, I haven’t come remotely close to deciding what I’ll do once I’m there. I spent almost all last summer researching Yale’s best majors and the jobs associated with them. But it seems like accomplishment is my only actual interest.”

This interaction emphasizes how Brooke’s laser focus on accomplishment and impressing her parents comes at the sacrifice of any personal identity. She doesn’t know what she likes or what she wants to do for the rest of her life. Now that she’s facing adulthood and freedom from her parents, she has no direction. Her entire childhood has been spent preparing for acceptance into Yale, and the ambiguity and anxiety left without this driving goal makes her feel untethered.

“My mom talks a lot of shit about Jena ‘settling’ for culinary school, but at least she knows what she wants. […] Jena found her passion and she gets to follow it and do what makes her happy. What’s that like?”

Brooke rebukes her mother’s classist remarks about culinary school, remarking on Jena’s decision in a positive way. Despite this, her perspective remains classist, as she believes that pursuing culinary arts is a choice one could only make if they weren’t trying to impress anyone. Brooke sees it as a lesser goal than her own, even though Brooke acknowledges that her perspective is flawed. These allusions to her parents attitudes helps explain her classism and why she views her high class as a burden instead of a privilege.

“Everyone should know by now that if there’s one person unwelcome at a Brooke Goodwin party, it’s Claire Heck.”

When Claire arrives at the party, Jena advocates throwing her out, even if it makes them look unkind. Jena describes how Claire blamed Brooke for her misdeeds, stole from her, humiliated her, and manipulated her, but Brooke can only consider how it will harm their image to reject Claire. Just as she thinks about how “everyone” should know her business here, her focus is on public perception rather than what’s actually best for her or anyone else at the party. She places her image above her own personal comfort, which aligns with the theme of Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets.

“If anyone back home gets wind of Brandon and me having an ‘altercation’ at the beach, they’ll have a field day with it, and any bad press right now could very well cost my dad his promotion […] Until my father gets that job, I haven’t finished making up for September, and tonight could have cost us everything.

When am I going to stop making stupid mistakes?”

Once again, Brooke worries about her father’s job before anything else, including her own safety. Brandon was aggressive at the beach, holding Brooke responsible for some of the suffering the Hecks experienced. It’s not her fault that he showed up, yet she considers the confrontation her own “stupid mistake” merely for being at the party in the first place. This reinforces her feelings of shame in the wake of her parents’ exacting standards and how unimportant she feels in her parents’ eyes.

“As long as I’m stuck in Oregon, I’ll always be the one who threw that party, and Claire will always be the eternal victim. The golden ray of light who never did anything wrong in her whole life—because nobody wants to tell the truth once someone’s gone.

And the truth is, Claire Heck was a colossal bitch and what happened was her own fault.

Whether Brandon Heck wants to accept it or not.”

In Brooke’s narration, she claims that people hold her responsible for throwing the party at which Claire died—which is not a crime. This mindset presents her as the victim, an idea emphasized by the assertion that Claire was a “bitch.” This demonstrates how Brooke’s unreliable narration is endemic to her priorities and internal conflict regarding Ambition Versus Morality. She sees the public narrative about Claire as a threat to her ambitions: impressing her parents, attending Yale, and upholding the family name.

“It’s not fair. She can waltz in and destroy relationships and reputations, start fights, and then…leave with no consequences because she’s already lost everything worth losing. We’re all at her mercy and there’s nothing I can do to stop her because she never actually gets her hands dirty. She’s fucking diabolical.”

This passage demonstrates what Brooke has learned to place importance on in her life: school, money, prestige, and her love life. Claire has lost her place at Waldorf, her class status, and her relationship with Dylan, and Brooke views those as the only things worth having. She also sees the restrictions around how upper-class people must behave as more consequential than those for lower-class people, as she thinks that her life and the trouble she could face for messing up is more important than anything Claire could be dealing with. This obsessive perspective leads her to fix her frustrations on Claire, as her ex-friend represents everything about her life that feels wrong.

“‘If you heard I was trying to get anything, you suddenly wanted it too. And if there happened to only be one spot available, you made sure it went to you every damn time.’

‘You mean I earned what you felt entitled to.’”

This conversation marks the turning point for Brooke’s status as a victimized character. Instead of being insulted, manipulated, and embarrassed by Claire unfairly, Brooke is making clear how much of her negative opinion of Claire is rooted in entitlement and self-absorption. Claire is still an antagonist, but she also achieved some things because she had the same goals as Brooke. Brooke’s issue isn’t actually with Claire wanting the same things; it’s with Claire being better at them than her, which makes her fall short of the standard set by her parents and feel ashamed of herself.

“‘Sucks to suck but it’s time you faced facts: you were always destined for the gutter, Claire.’ I take a step closer. ‘It’s where you belong.’

Her elbow snaps back, and I don’t try to stop her.

The glass door slides open; music spills out onto the patio.

And Claire Heck punches me in the face.”

At the end of their argument, in which both girls are presented as morally flawed and equally responsible for their conflict, Brooke decides to goad Claire into punching her. This allows her to insult Claire without facing consequence; classmates will see Claire punch her, throw Claire out, and view Brooke as the victim. This scene presents the theme of Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets, as it shows how manipulative Brooke can be.

“‘Brooke, I mean it. That was all rumors and nonsense, but [driving the boat] is actually dangerous. Someone could get really hurt.’ Her eyes flicker toward the open expanse of water at my back with a fear I’m not used to seeing her eyes.”

This scene shows how unfamiliar Brooke is with facing real-world consequences for her actions. Brooke fears getting in trouble, not being accepted into Yale, and disappointing her parents—but these are not life-threatening issues. Claire now knows what it’s like to lose things that were important to her, and she’s more grounded and thoughtful than Brooke, who is willing to risk both her own life and Jena’s to prove a point. This exchange touches on the theme of How Class and Privilege Determine Consequences, as it demonstrates that Brooke can’t see how her actions could cause real-world dangerous trouble.

“I can feel myself closing off, shutting down. It’s not even worth responding, but I honestly don’t know what I would say. Jena is supposed to be my best friend in the entire world. I don’t even know the person sitting beside me right now. […]

It’s like you have no conscience at all.”

After Brooke discovers the extent of Jena’s betrayal, she struggles between the two sides of her internal conflict: Ambition Versus Morality. The only person that has held Brooke back, causing her to consider others rather than herself, is Jena. In the past, leaving Jena at the scene of the crime was her only moment of doubt, nearly making her disobey her father because she knew it was wrong. In the narrative present, she led the attackers away from Jena in the woods to protect her. Having felt emotionally alienated from everyone else in the story, Jena was Brooke’s last connection to any moral center. Without that, Brooke’s immorality returns.

“The lake goes eerily silent. I kick her further down and float at the surface for a second, letting the weightlessness of this moment sink into my very bones.

I’m finally free.”

In a moment of rage and panic, Brooke decides to kill Claire. By this point, she feels so out of control and so weighed down by the memory of how inferior Claire makes her feel that she can’t imagine any other option. All of her perceived shortcomings she blames on Claire, so she naturally feels “free” from these once Claire is gone. The irony, however, will come later, when she slowly realizes that her actions here have only burdened her further and forever attached Claire’s name to hers.

“‘[Jena] could die out there while we wait for someone else to find her.’

‘Okay then, one less witness to manage.’

He can’t be serious…

‘Pull it together, Brooke,’ he says after a beat of silence. ‘You’re a Goodwin. You don’t get to fall apart. We will not let anyone stand in our way, not even a friend. Now are you or are you not prepared to do what’s best for this family?’”

Here, Mr. Goodwin isn’t acting out of empathy, trying to spare Brooke the suffering of being arrested and imprisoned; he’s protecting his family name, ensuring that Brooke’s crime doesn’t stand in the way of him achieving his goals. In the novel’s conflict of Ambition Versus Morality, the biggest catalyst toward villainy is Brooke’s father, and it is his expectations that drive her toward violence.

“That girl isn’t my friend. She’s another person determined to see me fail, just like Claire. Somehow, even from the grave, Claire’s sunk her claws into Jena and turned her against me. And Jena’s no better than the rest of them, trying to take me and my entire family down, and for what? To avenge that scab of a human being, Claire Heck?”

By the end of the narrative, betrayed and isolated by everyone she knows, Brooke sees no other response than to demonize anyone not on her side. Jena has faked being her friend for six months while secretly sabotaging her, an experience that reminds Brooke of Claire, who often undermined and humiliated Brooke while claiming to be her friend. Naturally, Brooke imagines that Claire has somehow polluted Jena, returning to her fixation that Claire is the source of all the evils in her life. This traces back to Brooke’s internal shame and inability to take responsibility for her own actions.