“I stood there for a long time, listening carefully, but heard only the eerie howls of the wind. As it rushed and seeped through a million branches, it occasionally formed the sounds of a human voice.”

Felix’s personification of the wind makes it seem more portentous and threatening, giving it the ability and intention to rush through trees and sound human. The hyperbole—his reference to the “million branches”—makes the woods seem vaster and the cabin more solitary, as though it were caged or cut off from others by these branches.

“But he didn’t feel like a person. He felt empty. Like he didn’t have a soul […] I think he wanted to eat me […] I could feel this terrible hunger that he had. Like he was hungry for a thousand years.”

When Faye describes the man in her dreams, who turns out to be the Impostor, she describes his “hunger” and longing to take consume her, along with all her experiences. This foreshadows the revelation that this is precisely what “hollow ones” do to fill the voids inside them. Her hyperbole—that it feels as though it has been “hungry for a thousand years”—emphasizes what is true: That the Impostor’s “hunger” for her feels insatiable, desperate, and overwhelming.

“At long last, just as the sky darkened to thrust another terrifying night upon us, I went out to check on the car.”

Here, Felix personifies the sky, giving it the human ability to “thrust” a night “upon” him and Faye, as though the night is a weapon or threat, and because that’s the time when people usually sleep. The Impostor typically appears during the night. A physical setting that Felix once characterized as idyllic and tranquil has become a hostile one, something with the intention of threatening and endangering them.

“I had not at all learned to cope with my anxiety in a healthy way. I had simply learned to bury it deeper, and now, all of those demons came rushing up to the surface.”

Felix’s concern that he only learned to bury his anxiety mirrors what Faye did with her grief over the loss of Christopher, though neither of them knows that yet. The reason Faye cannot recall the meaning of the number “5” is that she buried her grief so deeply in her unconscious that she cannot access it. Thus, Felix’s description of himself foreshadows what is eventually revealed about Faye.

“The icy wood of the deck seared my bare feet.”

Felix’s paradoxical description of the tactile sensation combines his perceptions of freezing cold and blistering heat to create a mood of painful extremes. It is as though his senses are attacked in a way that defies logic, in a way that should not be possible. This is similar to how his and Faye’s psyches are attacked by something indefinable and impossible, yet so painful.

“I chalked it up to her lack of appetite while she was sick, but I’d never seen her eat like this. She was absolutely ravenous, like a pregnant woman—or a wolf.”

Felix compares Faye to a wolf many times after the creature begins to intrude upon her dreams with regularity. This simile focuses on her appetite and her ability to consume quantities of food that Felix has never witnessed her do before. His description hearkens back to her dream of the man who seemed like he’d been “hungry for a thousand years” (30), suggesting that this “man” has begun to possess her.

“Nothing human remained in her gaze now; I was staring into the eyes of a wolf, and they looked up at me with terrifying glee.”

Again, Felix compares Faye to a wolf, this time with a metaphor that describes her eyes. She looks at him with such menace that he uses a more forceful figure of speech than he did the last time he compared her to a wolf. Metaphors are stronger than similes because they say one thing is another rather than describing one thing as being like another. Felix’s choice to use a metaphor rather than another simile shows Faye’s decline. Before, she was like a wolf; now, she is one because the creature is consuming more and more of her.

“The lecture I was writing turned into gibberish. A warm fuzziness spread around the back of my head and weighed down my eyelids. Sleep dragged me downward into its narcotic abyss, and the last thing I heard was that wicked song […] It seemed to come from outside.”

Felix’s description speaks to The Impacts of Isolation and Sleep Deprivation. He is so sleep-deprived that his tiredness overwhelms him quickly when the Impostor sings. The Impostor is easily able to manipulate Felix in the stage between wakefulness and sleep and, from there, access Felix’s mind.

“The surge of masculinity that compelled me vanished as quickly as it had struck.”

Felix references his “masculine” urge to protect Faye a few times throughout the novel, reflecting The Complications of Love and Intimacy. This is not something he ever explores beyond brief mentions like this one, but protectiveness is certainly not the domain of men alone. Becca is every bit as protective of Caleb as Felix is of Faye, and Tíwé claims that Faye is protecting Felix as much as he is protecting her. Felix’s constant desire to be the protector strains the intimacy that protects them instead of bolstering it.

“His last words to me were, ‘but don’t get so caught up in protecting her that you forget—she’s protecting you too.’”

Although Felix ascribes his desire to protect Faye to his “masculinity,” Tíwé’s claim ascribes a similar strength to Faye, implying that it has nothing to do with one’s sex or gender, furthering the novel’s exploration of the complications of love and intimacy. Faye tries to avoid answering the Impostor’s questions, though she sometimes gets tricked. Perhaps if she withdrew her protection from Felix, he would bear more of the brunt of the Impostor’s attacks.

“He wants to know things, but he wants me to forget that he asked […] And he wants to know all about you. So many questions.”

Faye tells Felix that the mysterious man pesters her with lots of intrusive questions. Even more concerning to Felix is that the man seems to want information about him as well. This highlights the impacts of isolation and sleep deprivation, as the man’s questions feel violating and threatening, and they only come when Faye is asleep or nearly so.

“There’s been some debate over how we should identify ourselves. Until recently it was considered taboo to call us ‘Indians,’ since the Europeans who called us that thought they were in India. But some communities embrace this name. Others prefer the term ‘Native’ for obvious reasons. I’m fine with either. The term ‘Indigenous’ is used in universities, [and] the Natives of Canada are sometimes called ‘First People.’”

Angela explains some of the issues facing Indigenous communities, highlighting the fact that groups are distinct from one another and contain distinctions and differences within groups as well. Indigenous communities, like other cultural groups, may share similarities—such as geographical location or certain folkloric elements—but this does not mean that they should be perceived as one body of people. The novel itself, however, sometimes plays to the same stereotypes Angela calls out here.

“Our beliefs are a very private thing […] but given your circumstances, I think Tíwé wants me to make an exception—and I agree with him.”

The privacy of some Indigenous groups can add to the problem of explaining the supernatural through appropriated folklore. Angela and Tíwé both reiterate how culturally personal their beliefs are, such that discussion of them is typically restricted to others within the same group. Felix is grateful that Tíwé and Angela are willing to share as much as they do. Their willingness to share their culture’s stories makes him feel trusted.

“There are a lot of magical beings in our oldest stories. Most are manifestations of the Earth, or the spirits of ancestors and those who have passed on before us. But what you are both telling me reminds me of another creature […] You could call these creatures the hollow ones. They’re jealous of living things, and the joy of this world. Jealous of its sunlight. They have none of it.”

Angela explains some of the lore behind the creature’s identity. These details seem quite magical to Felix, someone who does not believe in a spiritual world that exists alongside the physical one. The mystical nature of such stories adds to the problem of explaining the supernatural through appropriated folklore.

“It was madness, and it pulled me ever downward to a place where I couldn’t trust my own reason anymore.”

After Angela’s visit, Felix is haunted by her claim that the guest room is where Faye lets the creature in. He is unable to sleep as his imagination creates horrible fictions, and he stays awake all night, plagued by waking nightmares. As he grows more exhausted, he begins to feel as though he’s descending into mental illness, highlighting the impacts of isolation and sleep deprivation.

“I longed to see that Faye again, the wild-eyed lioness with a mane of fire.”

Felix combines two more metaphors to describe Faye as she was prior to the monster’s intrusion into their lives. He compares her to a lioness, a creature associated with nobility and pride, as opposed to the wolf, which he characterizes as ruthlessly rabid and threatening. He also describes her uncommon hair color, comparing it to fire, another symbol of strength, passion, and wildness.

“This creature is one of the first beings […] Not many of our people believe in skin-walkers. Those come from the Navajo.”

Tíwé explains the origins of the creatures he’ll call the Impostors, differentiating his culture—which is not named in the text—from others, like the Navajo. When Felix tries to understand the creatures Tíwé describes, he asks if they’re like skin-walkers, figures that make up part of the Navajo folklore and worldview. This shows the tendency of outsiders to lump Indigenous groups together, despite their differences, and provides evidence of the problem of explaining the supernatural through appropriated folklore.

“We don’t believe in good and evil spirits. At least not like the big religions do. In our tradition, there is no Heaven or Hell, no duality. It’s more complicated.”

Just as the dominant culture perpetuates the dual images of Indigenous peoples—“good” Indigenous tribes who commune with nature while smoking peace pipes and warlike Indigenous who attack and scalp victims—so do those familiar with the “big religions” often try to simplify Indigenous religious and spiritual beliefs. Having a limited cultural understanding of another group makes it easier to oversimplify that group’s belief systems, however complex they are. This tendency to oversimplify and feel that one possesses understanding helps to explain the problem of explaining the supernatural through appropriated folklore.

“A man can only stare at the shadows for so long before they drive him insane.”

Again, Felix’s description of his declining mental state demonstrates the impacts of isolation and sleep deprivation. Once Faye begins spewing the horrible black vomit and talking about yet another nocturnal visitor—a woman this time—who lives in the attic, Felix finds it impossible to sleep. This deprivation adds to a “heavy feeling of doom” that weighs him down and makes everything feel impossible (223).

“Unlike the [Impostor], I could not always remain vigilant. I had to work. I had to sleep. The Impostor was intelligent enough to know this […] Perhaps he had taken interest in baby Caleb—or perhaps he had merely discovered a new way to drain my energy for yet another night.”

Felix’s emetophobia and tendency toward insomnia highlight his human fragility. The Impostor has limitless reserves of energy, as it does not need to sleep because it needn’t maintain a working, human body. Evidence of Felix’s vulnerability and weakness reflects the impacts of isolation and sleep deprivation. Humans are not infinite and have energy in limited supply.

“But now, he appeared to infiltrate Faye’s mind only while she was unconscious, taking advantage of her sleep disorder and commandeering her body.”

Felix believes that possessing Faye’s ring gave the Impostor access to her body, at least temporarily, while she is awake, and this is what causes her to act strangely. However, when he takes the ring back—destroying the death totem into which it is woven—it relegates the Impostor back to her sleeping self, emphasizing the special circumstances that highlight the complications of love and intimacy. Faye’s waking mind is too strong to permit intrusion, without an item of special meaning to her to serve as a link.

“Son of a bitch learns about his kills through their nightmares,’ I said. ‘That’s why he’s always standing outside the windows. He’s not watching us sleep. He’s listening.’”

Felix realizes that the Impostor needs to learn a person’s nightmares in order to intrude upon their minds. Without this access, the creature cannot know what questions to ask or what other nightmares and hallucinations to prompt to gain deeper access.

“Thoughts of surrender and death swirled in my mind. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Felix’s suicidal ideation is persistent. The longer he goes without restorative sleep, and as he and Faye become more emotionally estranged from one another (as her erratic behavior increases), the worse it gets. This demonstrates the impacts of isolation and sleep deprivation because Felix never experienced this type of ideation before now.