There Are No Saints

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, sexual violence, child abuse, emotional abuse, sexual content, and cursing.

“The sculpture is exquisite. My best work yet. 

I show it at Oasis, where I know Shaw will likewise display his latest work. 

None of the bones are recognizable as a rib, a mandible, a femur. I filed them down, dipped them in gold, and mounted them in an entirely new arrangement. Still, their linear, organic shape remains. The sculpture lives in a way it never could have had it been constructed of gilded metal or stone.”

This passage reveals Cole’s transformation of Danvers’s human remains into art, physically manifesting the theme of Art as Creation and Destruction. The technical language (“filed,” “dipped,” “mounted”) creates distance between the horrific source material and the aesthetic result, reflecting Cole’s detached perspective. The final sentence employs paradox—the sculpture “lives” precisely because it contains death—to highlight Cole’s artistic philosophy that true beauty requires violence.

“I lie on the ground, my entire body throbbing. Some of the hurts flare up—my jaw is particularly painful from its collision with the ground. The rest of me feels so heavy that I might as well be trapped inside a cement suit. I’m weighed down, compressed. For the first time, I understand why it might be a relief to allow the soul to slip from the body.”

The sensory-rich language describing Mara’s kidnapping evokes the visceral experience of trauma through specific physical details and metaphor (“cement suit”). The contrast between acute pain (“flare up”) and overwhelming heaviness illustrates two distinct but simultaneous bodily responses to extreme trauma. The final sentence employs a euphemism for death that highlights Mara’s temporary acceptance of mortality, creating tension with her later determination to survive.

“His almond-shaped eyes, the straight slashes of his brows, the line of his nose, the high cheekbones and razor-fine jaw, all relieved by the flawless curve of his lips—I’ve never seen such perfect balance. 

It’s so surreal, I think I must be hallucinating. 

Especially once he stops and stands over me. 

I’ve never seen such coldness on a human face.”

Mara’s artist’s eye catalogs Cole’s features through precise descriptive phrases that emphasize geometric qualities but also suggest violence (“straight slashes,” “line,” “razor-fine”), reflecting the motif of predator and prey. The juxtaposition between physical perfection and emotional emptiness establishes the central contradiction in Cole’s character—aesthetic perfection masking moral emptiness—as seen through Mara’s traumatized