One of the Girls

“They each had their own role. Lexi was the face of the group, wild, untamable and untethered by her parents. Bella was the voice, loud and deliciously outspoken, often honking with infectious laughter. Robyn was their collective conscience, loyal and thoughtful, ready to steer them right.”

This character delineation uses metaphor to show how the three old friends’ identities are defined by social archetypes and expectations of women. The repetition and parallel structure emphasize the performative nature of these roles, which become traps, dictating rather than describing the women’s behavior. This passage hints at The Power and Precarity of Female Friendship, as Lexi’s emotions in many ways dictate the emotional state of the group.

“Bella’s tone was friendly enough, but Ana understood the point she was making: Ana was the newcomer here and she’d do well to remember it.”

The contrast between Bella’s friendliness and the underlying tone of her question emphasizes the social tension between Bella and Ana. The phrase “do well to remember” emphasizes the unspoken hierarchy in the group and reiterates Ana’s outsider status. The quote captures Bella’s manipulation, emphasizing The Power and Precarity of Female Friendship.

“There was a loud bark of laughter from the terrace. Eleanor’s head snapped up. She knew which woman the sound had erupted from. She watched the way she laughed with her head tipped back, drink in hand, like the world was there for the taking. She felt the slow uncoiling of the snake in her gut. Poisonous and deadly.”

Vivid auditory imagery sets the tone, while Eleanor’s emotional experience is compared to a venomous snake, a metaphor for the emotionally toxic feelings rising within her. The shift from communal joy to sudden dread shows how superficial groups can fracture quickly, especially when someone feels excluded or threatened.

“It wasn’t just any dancer. The detailing was clear, the expression sculpted with skill and precision.

It was Lexi.”

The sculpture turns Lexi from a person into a symbol preserved in bronze. The sculpture becomes a recurring symbol, taking on additional emotional weight as a sign of the group’s idealization of Lexi. The sculpture communicates Eleanor’s feelings toward Lexi: admiration combined with a strange unease whose sources Eleanor has yet to reveal.

“The bronze was cool beneath her fingertips as she traced her enraptured mouth. Sometimes she still craved the applause of an audience, the glitter of a stage outfit, the party afterwards, the effervescence of adrenaline sparkling.”

This quote reflects Lexi’s complex relationship with her past identity as a dancer and the emotional sacrifices she’s making in the present to be with Ed and have a baby. The sculpture acts as a tribute and a tie to the life she is leaving behind. The tactile imagery and visual detail emphasize the sensual and performative world Lexi once inhabited. She felt alive in that former life, contrasting with the uncertainty and constraint she now feels as she prepares for marriage and motherhood.

“Those whisperings felt like the fourth wall of the holiday being removed. We could no longer suspend our disbelief that all was sun-kissed and easy and light.”

The shift in tone from lighthearted to suspicious indicates that the lies are crumbling. The quote communicates Secrets as Bond and Solvent and how secrets unsettle the group dynamic and awaken trauma.

“Her gaze trailed to Fen. She looked clean and fresh from the shower. Bella wanted to run her fingers along the shorn sides of her hair, feel her palms kiss her neck. She wore a blue short-sleeved shirt buttoned to the collar, a fabric badge stitched to the breast reading: Nevertheless, she persisted.

This woman.”

Bella’s admiration of Fen has become one-sided. The quoted slogan on Fen’s shirt alludes to a phrase used by in 2017 by then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren. The phrase quickly became a feminist slogan, but here, Bella reads it as an indictment of her own persistence in trying to preserve a romantic relationship that Fen no longer wants.

“The interesting thing about a spark, Eleanor thought as she looked at Ana, was that it either burns out, or begins to smolder—and then flame.”

The metaphor of a spark fully communicates the beginnings of a friendship between Eleanor and Ana, who have similar personalities but are ultimately unlikely friends. Eleanor’s internal thought speaks to her emotional awareness, and hints at shifting dynamics within the group.

“Eleanor let her shoulders sway to the yawing of the yacht as it turned on its anchor. She briefly closed her eyes behind her sunglasses and breathed. The air tasted clean and salt-bright, the faint fragrance of herbs drifting from the land.”

Alliteration creates a sensory experience and expresses a calming tone. The imagery of the sea air contrasts with Eleanor’s emotional weariness and jadedness. It’s a moment of sensory immersion and grounding amid psychological unrest.

“She wished she were enjoying this—savoring the experience of snorkeling in the Aegean Sea, giddy on sun-drunk holiday pleasures—but instead, a voice in her head whispered coolly: You shouldn’t be here.”

The juxtaposition between the ostensibly beautiful setting and Eleanor’s inner anxiety highlights the isolation she experiences around other women and her feeling of never belonging or being able to meet the expectations placed on her. Her internal voice remembers judgment and harbors shame. The contrast between Eleanor’s emotions and her surroundings emphasizes emotional dislocation amid idyllic surroundings.

“We were the architects of her rise.

And her fall.”

The shift from collective agency to collective guilt in this moment foreshadows the downfall of Lexi’s dream life. The word “architects” suggests deliberate design, while the idea of falling communicates a possible tragedy. It places responsibility for what happens to Lexi on the group, raising questions about responsibility, manipulation, and The Power and Precarity of Female Friendship.

“She tried to picture their home in London, with its huge sash windows and sparkling granite surfaces, filled with baby paraphernalia. She added Ed into the scene, placed him kneeling on a rug, smiling over their baby, who’d be cooing on a play mat. The image felt faint, too distant to reach. She tried to zoom in, see Ed’s expression. But she couldn’t make it out. Was he happy Bored? Impatient?”

Lexi’s fantasy of affluent domesticity is clouded by her suspicions of Ed and her gut knowledge that things will not work out as she plans. Lexi’s inability to discern Ed’s emotion foreshadows this change. The imagery foretells the unraveling of their future.

“Her expression was steely, a fixed groove in her brow. Her feet were planted wide, head jutting forwards, tendons in her neck exposed.”

The use of hard consonants evokes a sense of control, tension, and physical readiness after years of withholding her anger and pain. The image captures emotional armor and long-overdue confrontation. It also speaks to Robyn’s close observations of Fen and her admiration of Fen’s strength.

“She lifted a watermelon from the fruit bowl. Steadying it between her hands, she felt the perfect curve, the dense weight as heavy as a human head. Finding a knife, she pressed its cool tip into the skin, pushing deeper, feeling the moment of give when the knife slid easily into the flesh, splitting it open like a red wound, juices leaking. She made a second incision, removing the wedge, which looked like a grinning, bloody smile.”

The graphic, visceral detail of slicing resembles a violent act, transforming food imagery into a metaphor for violence, anger, and even death. The watermelon evokes flesh and blood, foreshadowing the dark turn of Eleanor and Ed’s sibling relationship, as Eleanor does end up killing Ed, though not intentionally.

“Bella felt the sting of tears as her vision began to blur. Images flashed across her thoughts: the squeak of plimsolls along a corridor; the shrill ring of a ward alarm; wide, panicked eyes; mottled lips; a hand clutching a throat.”

Fragments of sensory detail evoke intense flashbacks and emotional collapse as Bella has no choice but to face her past. The auditory detail creates visceral identification with trauma and a defining moment in Bella’s growth. It also reveals that Bella is not a murderer and harbors immense guilt for her mistake, reframing Bella’s suffering.

“Strange how that same boat now evokes different memories. The sound of frantic splashing and the panicked scratch of fingernails clawing at the hull. The hot-eyed sting of tears, oars gripped in fists. The scrape of wood against pebbles as two pairs of hands dragged it up the beach in the dark.”

The phrasal structure is repeated to create tension and a haunting tone as this interlude reflects on the symbolism of the rowboat. The dark tone foreshadows the possibility of a murder or other nefarious act, but in truth, it relates to the moment that Eleanor saves Bella and demonstrates ultimate forgiveness.

“The cove was lit by the glow of the beach fire, orange spark quivering. The surrounding cliffs shouldered together, eerie in the light-leached shadows.”

The visual imagery in this passage contrasts the warmth of the fire with the ominous presence of the cliffs. The personification of the cliffs “shouldering together” creates a sense of looming tension and confinement. Light and shadow imagery reinforces the duality between surface-level beauty and underlying threat, a recurring motif in the novel.

“She lay in the boat, feeling it rock beneath her, knowing there was a bottle of vodka to drink, a thousand memories to lose herself in. The warm glow of the beach fire had slipped from view altogether, so now it was only her and the sea.”

The haptic description of Eleanor feeling the boat rocking focuses the narrative on her immediate sensory experience, which heightens the sense of her isolation in this passage from the world around her. This is reinforced by the image of her as one person amid the wider sea.

“The whole world fizzed. Kissing Fen was like sinking beneath the surface of the sea, but instead of it being airless and dark, it was lit with phosphorescence so luminous that she knew she’d never see the world the same way again.”

This simile connects emotional intimacy with the natural imagery of the sea, portraying the kiss as transformative. The word “phosphorescence” introduces a glowing, unexpected beauty to an act of vulnerability. The sensory language marks a turning point in the Robyn’s identity and relationships.

“Memories of Sam were swimming close, then pulling away, like the tug of waves—blanketing her, then exposing her. She only wanted the warm memories, yet a current of other images was dragging her towards a dark place.”

The metaphor of the ocean equates memory to waves, showing how grief is unpredictable and invasive in Eleanor’s life. The contrast between “warm” and “dark” memories highlights her internal conflict. The metaphorical “current” implies a loss of control, reflecting the character’s psychological state.

“Out of all the words she could have responded with, Eleanor chose only two: ‘Thank you.’”

This quote uses understatement to reveal Eleanor’s emotional growth. The brevity of her response, coupled with the reference to “all the words she could have responded with,” suggests that unspoken conflicts remain, despite Eleanor’s choice to respond with gratitude.

“A guttural, raw cry.

Dropping like a stone.

Red material swirling.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Then the dull, hard blow of a body against rock.

Silence.

Nothing more.

The sea stilled.

The sky blinking stars.

Fen was rooted to the spot, blood hot in her throat.

Then, from the terrace, she heard someone scream.”

The structure mimics free verse, using isolated sentence fragments to emphasize the shock of this incident. Sensory details like “blood hot in her throat” ground the abstract terror in bodily reality. The stars are personified, suggesting they bore witness to the night just as the characters did.

“She drew air into her lungs.

Continued to stare down, down.

There. The pale shadow of his white shirt. A darkening on the rocks. Moonlight catching against something silver. A watch?

Ed.

Unmoving.

She knew it. Felt it in her body.

Dead.”

As in the above quote, the short, clipped lines mirror Lexi’s shock and slow realization. The use of visual cues like “white shirt” and “silver” emphasizes stillness and finality. The declarative “Dead” ends the sequence with a note of finality.