Play Nice

Alexandra is the mother of Clio and her sisters and James’s ex-wife. When Alexandra fought against her husband, holding him accountable for his infidelity, he insisted that she was “crazy.” He weaponized her dependence on alcohol and emotional vulnerability in the wake of their separation to depict her as an unfit mother and gain full custody of their daughters. She acted out of love, but was often exhausted by James’s spite, his social power, and her own substance dependency and emotional overwhelm.

Likewise, when she tried to oppose the demon, it resulted in James developing more ammunition to use against her in court, often by presenting her as emotionally and mentally unstable. In short, fighting the demon got her nowhere. At some point, she must have realized this, as she settled for keeping the demon’s activity “dormant” rather than eradicating it from her and her daughters’ lives. Nonetheless, the stress took a toll on her, leading to recurring alcohol abuse and physiological symptoms such as a weakened heart.

Alexandra was a feminist, though she never used that word. She played her young daughters the music of female musicians so they would know that they could become rock stars, or whatever else they wanted. She talked to them about female “selfishness” and how society paints it as a bad thing when a woman wants to be something other than a wife and mother. She even tried to protect them from the demon, though she knew it would give James more information to use against her. Ultimately, Alexandra’s refusal to pacify James—a stand-in for patriarchal society’s expectations of women in general—as well as her refusal to give the demon whatever it wants (constant access to her, continued access to her children, and more entertainment in the form of their pain), teaches Clio how to navigate similarly treacherous relationships.

After escaping the demon, Clio says, “I will not fight against [the demon] or try to appease it. Those efforts are futile. My mother taught me that. I accept that it exists” (317). Clio and James have exchanged apologies by the novel’s end, but she will no longer adapt her behavior to make him feel important or needed. Neither will she continue to soothe the demon; she gave it her necklace to escape, but she will not “play nice” either with it or her father anymore. Alexandra died “playing nice,” which took strength and sacrifice on her part, and this example gives Clio the insight she needs to make a different choice.

Daphne is the middle Barnes sister, the mediator and peacekeeper, and a lesbian in full awareness of her father’s unspoken disapproval. Clio describes her as “a shape-shifter, a side effect of being the middle child. She adapts to the circumstances, fits into whatever space she’s allotted; the queen of appeasing” (5). When Clio admits that she broke her promise not to read Alexandra’s book, it is Daphne who openly expresses her disappointment. In fact, Daphne is the only one of the sisters to keep that promise.

Daphne longs for James’s approval, especially because she’s aware of his disappointment that she’s not straight, but she also longs to live authentically and be true to herself. In other words, she struggles between being the socially acceptable, likeable woman, and a fully liberated, socially threatening woman. This dynamic is captured by Clio’s statement, “Daphne thinks she’s the most progressive in the family, but she got awfully judgmental when I told her I was considering starting an OnlyFans” (12). Daphne is torn between her two sides, made ambivalent by the example her parents set.

Daphne learned from her mother that loud, difficult women can be unpleasant and are often punished by society for their failure to embody an ideal. Life with Alexandra was usually uncomfortable, difficult, and scary for Daphne. Life with James was more stable and predictable, but only if she and her sisters acted like Amy rather than Alex. Neither one was fully emotionally satisfying.

Later, when her sisters recapitulate this dynamic—Leda taking on the expected role of wife, one who dislikes other women for behaving “selfishly,” and Clio acting as a dangerous woman who stands up to male authority—Daphne admits to loving and hating them both. She hates that her mother “messed [her] up” and that “Dad cheated on Mom with Amy” (302, 303); she hates that Alexandra never got better, never chose differently, and that James “hates that [she’s] gay but will never admit it” (303). At the same time, she loves all of them. Her paradoxical feelings illustrate the dangers of a society that insists on a female (heteronormative) ideal; there is literally no identity that Daphne can embody and feel comfortable in at the same time.

Leda is the controlling oldest sister, the one who remembers Alexandra the best, who experienced the most verbal abuse and criticism from her mother, and the only other person to be aware that the demon was real because she saw it. Clio describes her as “a chronic overachiever with an iron will [who] could probably stop the earth on its axis if she put her mind to it” (13). Leda is deeply insecure, in part as a result of Alexandra’s abusive comments, and in part because Clio is the sister who always seems to get all the attention. Leda even admits that, when the demon couldn’t wake Clio when they were children, it would come to Leda and Daphne’s room. Leda tried to treat the monster as a bully, ignoring it until it went away. However, once it stopped coming to her bedside, she missed the attention it gave her.

Leda is the reliable one, the one with a stable relationship and life, the sister who can be depended on in a crisis. She is prepared to take the lead on the house before Clio claims it. She is the one Aunt Helen called to break the news of Alexandra’s death. As Clio says, “Leda and Helen are cut from the same glorious rigid bitch cloth” (13). While she isn’t particularly likable as a person, she has—at least—followed the path that James believes is most conducive to happiness, and this makes her likable enough in his eyes. She does love her husband; they all do. Her unlikable qualities are offset by Tommy’s overwhelming Likability, balancing them out.

However, this dynamic also provides evidence of how she was impacted by their parents’ choices. Leda doesn’t want to be like Alexandra, but she is deeply bitter and angry, which adds to her unlikability nonetheless. It is notable, however, that Clio credits both her sisters with “saving” her when James would’ve allowed her to go down the same path Alex did.