Thief River Falls

“So began the chain of events that would pick apart Lisa’s whole world, like loose threads unraveling. The Dark Star.”

After Lisa’s mother died tragically in a car accident, the deaths of her father and three youngest brothers followed. Lisa thinks of this period of time in her life as The Dark Star. Lisa struggles to cope with the grief of losing her family throughout the novel.

“I don’t know. I won’t know until I write the book. But all my life, those are the things I’ve seen wherever I go. I don’t look at the world the way other people do. I live somewhere else. To me, every place turns into stories and crimes and characters and mysteries.” 

Here, Lisa describes the way she experiences the world as a writer. Lisa can look at a landscape and imagine characters taking actions in those spaces. This quote becomes significant later on, as Lisa struggles to separate reality from the fictional world she’s created in her head.

“Purdue scrambled across the seat and hugged her around the neck. It was an unexpected gesture, but she liked how it made her feel. Needed. Wanted. Loved. And more than anything, not alone anymore.” 

Helping Purdue gives Lisa a sense of purpose and makes her feel loved. A need for love, companionship, and purpose can help explain why Lisa imagined Purdue into existence. This quote also demonstrates the powerful love between a mother and her child.

“She felt like a different person. A changed person. Hiding in the elderberries, watching that man hunting for Purdue, she’d realized something frightening about herself. She was capable of violence. She was capable of killing, just like the people she wrote about in her books.” 

Lisa realizes she will do anything, even resort to violence, to save Purdue. Since Purdue isn’t real, this quote really demonstrates the love Lisa had for her son Harlan, and her sadness at not being able to protect him from cancer. This moment also shows that Lisa is capable of turning to violence, which becomes significant when she threatens others with guns later on in the novel.

“She knew it was wrong to blame the town for everything that had happened to her, but she did. Every house, shop, trail, and intersection was a reminder of what she’d lost.” 

As Lisa returns to her hometown of Thief River Falls, she is reminded of all of the tragedies she’s experienced there. It’s hard for Lisa not to associate the town with the tragic deaths she’s experienced in her life.

“It was one thing to live with his own grief, but he’d had to deal with hers, too. When she felt the pain, so did he. When she cried, so did he. The combination had been too much, like a weight on his chest so heavy that he couldn’t even breathe.” 

Noah remembers why he ran away and abandoned Lisa in Thief River Falls. Noah believes he and Lisa share a psychological connection as twins, and that they can feel each other’s pain. Here, Noah describes how Lisa’s grief, combined with his own, became unbearable. 

“‘It’s just a feeling I have,’ the boy said. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever leave Thief River Falls.’” 

Here, Purdue tells Lisa he believes he’ll die in Thief River Falls. This becomes significant at the end of the novel, when it is revealed that Purdue isn’t real. In reality, Lisa’s real son, Harlan, won’t ever leave Thief River Falls in a sense because he has recently died and Lisa has buried him in the town cemetery.

“Lisa knew she was alone. Truly alone. She shouldn’t have been surprised, because her life had been leading here for the past two years, taking away everyone she loved, one by one.” 

At this point in the novel, Lisa believes Laurel is also trying to take Purdue away from her. Lisa is scared and saddened thinking she has lost her best friend. This quote also reflects how Lisa has lost so many of her loved ones in her life.

“Noah had always believed in the special power of twins. She wasn’t so sure. Yes, there were times when words and emotions would pop int her head out of nowhere, and sometimes she wondered if that was her twin brother. Or maybe it was just her imagination. She’d felt that odd presence a lot lately, and whenever she did, she found herself thinking, Go away, Noah.” 

Lisa and her twin brother Noah have always been close. Noah believes he and Lisa can sense each other’s thoughts and emotions. At this point in the novel, Lisa resents Noah for abandoning her after the deaths of their family members. However, Noah’s ability to sense Lisa’s emotions becomes important later on in the novel. Noah can tell Lisa is in trouble and he eventually shows up to help her.

“He recited the story with that odd detachment he often had in his voice, as if the events had happened to someone else. Maybe that was the only way he could face it, like a character in a novel.” 

As they sit together in Lisa’s house, Purdue tells Lisa the story of how he ended up in Thief River Falls. This quote becomes significant once it is revealed that Purdue is a character from Lisa’s novel whom she’s imagined into existence. Lisa is imagining the events of her novel coming to life as a way of coping with her own pain.

“‘Because everybody wants to wake up in the middle of a thriller,’ the girl replied.” 

Lisa speaks to Willow, a local high schooler, who is also a big fan of Lisa’s work. Willow believes everyone secretly wants to live in a thriller. This quote reflects Lisa’s reality, in which she has brought her own thriller to life in her head.

“I heard more than once that nice girls should write nice things. That wasn’t me. Nothing I wrote was very nice, and it still isn’t. People die in my books. They kill. They betray the people who trust them. They lose the people they life. It’s not pretty. But you know what? That’s life. Writing is a mirror. If someone doesn’t like what you write, maybe it’s because they don’t like what they see in the mirror.” 

Lisa explains to Willow why she writes such dark and scary books. Lisa knows that real life isn’t always nice and easy, and her books reflect that reality. This quote also foreshadows how Lisa has imagined her book coming to life through Purdue.

“Brief reactive psychosis, that was what the shrinks called it. Lisa had researched the syndrome for her first novel and built it into the book’s plot. In the face of severe trauma, the brain could conjure entire worlds that didn’t exist as a way of blocking out reality. Hallucinations of people and places. Delusions that the mind refused to give up.” 

Here, Lisa wonders if Willow imagined some of the disturbing imagines she claims to have seen in the local cemetery. However, this quote actually foreshadows the twist at the end, in which it is revealed that Lisa has imagined characters and events in her head.

“Even so, she felt sorry for him. Deep down, he was a sad old man caught up in his grief, and she of all people knew that grief could change someone. Turn them into someone new, twist around their minds until they didn’t even recognize themselves. It didn’t excuse what he’d done, but she wouldn’t have wanted to walk in his shoes.” 

Here, Lisa believes Denis Farrell is grieving the death of his daughter, Fiona. In reality, Denis doesn’t have a daughter named Fiona. However, Denis did lose his son, Danny, and recently lost his grandson, Harlan. Lisa is right to observe that Denis is grieving. Even though Lisa and Denis haven’t always gotten along, Lisa knows how difficult grief can be.

“You may not understand this, but I needed you every bit as much as you needed me. Sometimes things happen for a reason. I really believe that. It’s not an accident that we found each other.” 

Even though Lisa believes she is helping Purdue, Purdue is actually providing her with much-needed love and a sense of purpose. However, Lisa’s observation that it was no accident they found each other takes on a double meaning when it is revealed that Purdue isn’t real, and she imagined him into existence as a way of coping with the loss of her son.

“She felt strange. She’d expected the ghosts to be happy with her decision. She’d expected to see their arms wide open, welcoming her, smiling, laughing, everyone together again. A dance of the dead. Instead, all she could see were shadows where their faces should be and hear them calling like the whistle of the wind through the old windows. Nooooooooooo. That was what they said. That was what the wind said.” 

Overcome with grief, Lisa considers suicide. However, Lisa imagines her deceased family members telling her No, encouraging her not to go through with the act. This moment demonstrates the extent to which Lisa has been affected by the tragedies in her life. Nevertheless, she finds the persistence to continue forward.

“From where she was, she saw no lights or movement inside, but she knew Purdue was here. It was like a mother’s sixth sense, part of the connection between them.” 

Lisa’s love for Purdue is akin to a mother’s love for their child. This is especially significant, since Purdue resembles Harlan, Lisa’s recently deceased son, in Lisa’s mind. 

“She looked at the boy sitting next to her. She felt an urge to reach out and straighten his long blond hair, which kept falling across his eyes. Those eyes. So smart, so blue, so curious. She realized how much he reminded her of Danny. It was amazing that she’d never noticed it before. The pictures she’d seen of Danny as a ten-year-old child could have been pictures of Purdue. Danny’s hair, Danny’s eyes, even some of Danny’s expressions when he looked at her.” 

This quote foreshadows the twist at the end of the novel, that Lisa had a son with Danny named Harlan who died recently of cancer. The physical features she imagines on Purdue are actually the ones belonging to Harlan.

“I know what you’re saying, Denis, but you need to think about what Lisa has been through. Not only is she not some nobody, she’s also a woman who’s just gone through the worst kind of loss that a human being can experience. We need to keep that in mind.”

Here, the mayor reminds Denis that they need to use tact when addressing the situation with Lisa, who is currently hiding out in the church. The mayor points out that Lisa is both a local celebrity, due to the success of her books, and a woman who has just lost her son.

“Laurel felt helpless. She hadn’t felt that way often in her career. She told herself that she’d guided a lot of patients through terrible loss, but she’d failed Lisa. She had never imagined the possibility of a crisis like the one Lisa was experiencing. She’d tried to contain it; she’d hoped she could reach Lisa before grief carried her across a line from which she’d never return.” 

In this chapter, it is revealed that Laurel is actually Lisa’s psychiatrist. Laurel reflects on how badly Lisa’s grief has gotten, and how it has caused Lisa to threaten people with guns, use violence, and imagine characters from her novel into existence. This quote emphasizes just how strongly a person can be affected mentally by grief.

“Canada is so pretty. It’s wide open, and there are mountains and lakes and waterfalls and forests. It’s like heaven. You’ll see. It’s just like heaven.” 

Here, Lisa encourages Purdue to jump on a train and escape to Canada. At this point in the novel, it is evident that Purdue isn’t real, and that Lisa is coping with the death of her son, Harlan. When Lisa tells Purdue that Canada is just like heaven, it is as if Lisa is reassuring herself that her son, Harlan, is in a happy place.

“Harlan was gone. She was alone. She’d been alone for two days. ‘No,’ she wailed, drawing out the word in all its finality. The book was done. Purdue was back inside its pages.” 

Finally, Lisa is forced to accept that Purdue never existed, and that her son, Harlan, is dead. Lisa had imagined Purdue, the character from her book, into existence, as a means of coping with her own loneliness and loss.

“There was a hole in her heart that would never be filled, but she had learned something in these days that she’d never understood before. She wasn’t alone.” 

A week after Harlan’s death, Lisa recovers in the hospital. Lisa realizes she will never stop missing the people she has lost, but she realizes she still has others looking out for her, including Laurel and Noah.