67 pages • 2-hour read
Taming 7
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Prologue-Chapter 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of rape, sexual violence, child abuse, child sexual abuse, death by suicide, self-harm, substance and alcohol use, substance dependency, sexual content, and cursing.
Prologue Summary: “Don’t Take the Girl—Claire: May 1995”
Five-year-old Claire Biggs sits in the church for a funeral. The boy she considers her best friend, Gerard “Gibsie” Gibson, lost his father and his sister, who drowned while his family was out with Claire’s on a boat. Gibsie only survived because Claire’s father, Pete, jumped into the water to save him.
Claire and Gibsie walk to the grave together holding hands. Overwhelmed by the sight of the holes, Gibsie runs away. Claire finds him, and the two sit together and talk. Gibsie is angry that he now has to live with his mother, Sadhbh; her boyfriend, Keith; and his son, Mark. However, Claire reminds him how happy she is that he survived.
When Sadhbh comes to find Gibsie, he insists that he does not want to go home and be around everyone. Gibsie then has a panic attack, scaring Claire when he says that he is “drowning.”
Later that night, Claire and Gibsie hold hands while sleeping in Claire’s brother Hugh’s bed. Gibsie wakes up and tells Claire that he had a bad dream. He is afraid to live with Keith and Mark, feeling as though he is “all alone” now. However, Claire insists that he will always have her. She promises to hold his hand “forever” (15).
Chapter 1 Summary: “Back with a Vengeance—Gibsie: 10 Years Later”
In the middle of the night, Gibsie has a panic attack. He relives the day his father and sister drowned. Part of him begs Pete not to save him. When he wakes up, he finds that he is in Claire’s bedroom.
Claire lives across the street from Gibsie. For years, they continued to sleep in the same bed every night. Recently, he tried to start sleeping on his own, trying to hide his renewed panic attacks from her, but he still sleepwalks into her room nearly every night.
Gibsie thinks of how he has always loved Claire. He refuses to have a relationship with her because he is afraid that he will ruin things with her and that he isn’t good enough for her. They kissed once, years ago, but he promises himself it will never happen again.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Sleepwalking Sweethearts and Bonehead Brothers—Claire”
The next morning, Claire tries to get Gibsie to wake up, as he was supposed to go to training with Johnny. Gibsie pulls her back into bed, insisting that he needs more time to cuddle with her. As he does so, she thinks of how much she loves him. Although they’ve been friends for years, it feels different the last few months, as she’s grown physically attracted to him as well.
Hugh bursts into Claire’s room. He starts yelling at Gibsie for sleeping in Claire’s bed. Gibsie makes jokes to disarm Hugh. Claire considers how the person she knows—“Gerard”—is so much different than the one that “Gibsie” shows to other people, hiding his nightmares and panic attacks.
In the end, Hugh forces Gibsie to leave. He then warns Claire to be careful, but Claire insists that she has never done anything physical or romantic with Gibsie, as they are just friends. Hugh warns her that Gibsie has had sex with a handful of girls and will try to do the same with her. He is worried about the mess that will be left behind if that happens. Secretly, Claire is afraid that he is right.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Calls from Cap—Gibsie”
When Gibsie gets home, he struggles to calm down. He decides to call Johnny, the captain of his rugby team. He considers Johnny his “savior,” as he has always been his best friend. Nevertheless, he refuses to tell Johnny anything about his past or what he is struggling with, feeling as though it would be too much of a burden for him.
Johnny tells Gibsie that he has a meeting with the Academy for Ireland’s professional rugby team later that afternoon. After, they are going to meet at the beach, then go camping overnight. To Gibsie’s immense relief, Johnny decided to forego professional rugby for another year so that he can return to Tommen.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Jagged Little Scars—Claire”
At the local club where Hugh works, Claire finishes an interview for a lifeguarding job. Although Claire was intimidated by Kim, Hugh’s boss, he insists that making it through the interview is a good sign.
Lizzie joins them by the pool. She is one of Claire’s best friends and Hugh’s ex-girlfriend from years ago. No one in their friend group knows why they broke up after years together, and it is an unwritten rule that they don’t talk about it.
Claire immediately notices a cut on Lizzie’s thigh. She asks her about it, but Lizzie tells them that she cut herself on a barbed-wire fence. Noting the healing scars on her wrists from years ago when Lizzie’s sister, Caoimhe, died by suicide, Claire is concerned that Lizzie has started slipping into depression again.
Claire asks Lizzie if she is going to the beach later. Since Gibsie is going, Lizzie tells her that she won’t go. There were rumors that Gibsie’s stepbrother, Mark, sexually abused Caoimhe, although nothing was ever proven. Regardless, Lizzie still partially blames Mark—and by extension, Gibsie—for Caoimhe’s death. When Lizzie gets into the pool, Claire asks Hugh if Lizzie is alright. Hugh insists that he is not close with her anymore. Claire begs him to look into it.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Evil Cats and Helicopter Mothers—Gibsie”
Gibsie prepares to go to the beach. Looking in the mirror, he tries to convince himself that he is going to go into the ocean—something he hasn’t done since his father and sister died. However, he knows that he won’t be able to.
Shannon and Claire arrive to ride with him to the beach. In the car, Claire puts her hand in his lap, immediately calming his nerves. She warns him that Hugh is in a bad mood, as he tried to talk to Lizzie and it didn’t go well.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Boys, Beaches, and Besties—Claire”
Sitting on the beach, Claire and Shannon talk about Lizzie. Claire thinks back to the death of Shannon’s parents at the beginning of the summer. Shannon’s father had been physically abusing Shannon for years, yet Claire never picked up on it. She still blames herself for not figuring it out sooner. Her father set fire to their home, killing Shannon’s mother; Shannon’s three younger brothers only survived because Johnny got them out at the last minute. Now, the three boys and Shannon live with Johnny’s parents, while Shannon’s older brother, Joey, is in a rehabilitation facility for his substance dependency.
In her mind, Claire believes that she failed Shannon. She compares the situation to Lizzie, promising herself that she will help her with her self-harm, even if it involves betraying her trust and talking to Lizzie’s parents. After Claire explains that she believes the new scar was self-inflicted, Shannon promises that they will do whatever they need to do to help Lizzie.
To their surprise, Lizzie then shows up at the beach with her boyfriend, Pierce. Claire sees Johnny lecturing Gibsie about “behaving” now that Lizzie is there. Gibsie promises him that he will. Spotting Claire, he picks her up and playfully carries her down the beach, insisting that they need to go for a night walk.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Lord of the Dance Beach—Gibsie”
A few hours later, Gibsie has drank a lot of alcohol. He is care-free and happy, dancing by the fire with Claire. For years, they entered dance competitions together as children, with Gibsie still remembering the traditional Irish steps. As they finish, he dips Claire, then kisses her on the end of her nose, ignoring Hugh’s yells of protest.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Shits, Giggles, and Shaking Tents—Claire”
Claire and Gibsie go into a tent together. As she lies by his side, she thinks of how easy it would be to kiss him. However, she knows that her “heart couldn’t take” it (79), as he could never give her the “commitment” she needs with all the emotion he keeps hidden—even from her.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Fry-Ups and Flying off the Handle—Claire”
The next morning, the group eats breakfast together. Things escalate when Katie, Hugh’s new girlfriend, tries to make conversation with Lizzie by joking about her breakfast. Lizzie is rude to her, causing Hugh to get involved, then Pierce interjects. As an argument breaks out, Claire and Shannon cast sympathetic glances at each other.
On the drive home, Gibsie and Johnny complain about Lizzie. Shannon insists that she is just “hurt” and struggling, but Johnny points out that they can’t continue to excuse her behavior because of it.
Prologue-Chapter 9 Analysis
Walsh introduces the friends-to-lovers trope typical of romance fiction through the characters of Claire and Gibsie, introducing the theme of The Evolution of Friendship into Romance. The Prologue establishes their friendship, as Claire is there to support him on the day that he buries his father and sister. While they are too young to understand romance, they understand that their physical touch—holding hands, hugging, and sleeping in the same bed—provides them with comfort and support when they need it most. Ten years later, when the first chapter begins, they have continued on the same path, but there is now a growing physical attraction between them that complicates their dynamic.
With Claire and Gibsie now in their teenage years, they both face the same internal conflict over how to deal with their feelings for each other. The first-person point of view, which shifts between these two characters, gives the reader insight into their feelings while they mask them from each other. As Gibsie explains in his opening chapter, “Claire Biggs had a lot of things. My back. My attention. My heart. My soul. Yeah, she had all of me and that wasn’t an exaggeration” (21). Similarly, Claire explains that, “Everything between us was starting to feel a whole lot different lately. More intense. More grown-up. Even though he was the same boy I’d spent most of my life adoring, he certainly didn’t look like that boy anymore” (31). Over 10 years, they have built a foundation of emotional intimacy, supporting and understanding each other in a way that no one else does; now, as they mature, they will begin to explore this connection on a romantic level.
These chapters also introduce Gibsie’s central internal conflict over the loss of his father and sister and The Lasting Impact of Trauma. After their deaths, he continues to have nightmares nearly every night, vividly reliving the moment when they died. It has been 10 years and Gibsie still struggles with the loss—and guilt—over what happened to them. Similarly, Lizzie appears as one of the novel’s antagonists, yet she too struggles with her own trauma. She is rude and dismissive toward Gibsie every time she sees him, refusing to even entertain the idea of being his friend. However, Shannon lends insight into her character, noting how “she’s not a bad person […] She’s a hurt person. A hurt but very redeemable person” (85). After the death of her sister, Caoimhe, Lizzie engaged in self-harm while also lashing out at those around her. She has been unable to receive any closure over Caoimhe’s death, as the person she blames—Mark—was never prosecuted, and the truth of her death by suicide is shrouded in mystery. While Gibsie hides his trauma from everyone but Claire, Lizzie lashes out—presenting two different reactions to lasting trauma.
Despite the serious issues that the characters in Taming 7 face, they find comfort and support in each other, reflecting The Importance of Love and Personal Connection. As Claire thinks while they are at the beach, “with age came hormones and trauma that severed ties and fractured friendship. I suppose it was a testament to our friendship group to manage to hold the line when such trials and tribulations attacked our core” (78). With everything that these characters have been through, they have stuck together, relying on each other to survive the difficulties they face.
The small-town setting of Ballylaggin emphasizes the closeness but also the drama found within this group of friends. Several of them are rugby players, while they all attend the private school of Tommen College. As a result, they have grown up together, learning to accept each other’s flaws and work through their difficulties. Unlike if the novel took place in a city or large public school, the small town will both create and emphasize the conflicts that they face, while also reaffirming their commitment to each other as friends.
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