Tunnel of Bones

As the second book of the Cassidy Blake series, Tunnel of Bones’s exposition includes a brief summary of the events that take place in the first book, City of Ghosts. Cassidy explains that she can cross into the Veil because she’s “crossed the line between the living and the dead, and made it back” (8). She recaps the main conflict of City of Ghosts in an explanation of her parents’ warning not to wander off: “I’m still winning back their trust after the whole getting-trapped-in-the-Veil-by-a-ghost-and-having-to-fight-to-steal-my-life-back-by-hiding-in-an-open-grave” (23). This recap draws attention to the balancing act of carrying out her new role as a ghost hunter while keeping it secret from her family. It also imbues her narrative voice with a playful quality.

The setting is central to both the plot and the writing style in Tunnel of Bones. The Blakes are in Paris because they consider it one of the world’s most haunted cities. Their involvement with paranormal research and lore is serendipitous in that it gives Cassidy ideal opportunities to use her new gift where it’s most needed. Schwab weaves aspects of Parisian culture, history, and geography into the events of the novel and the ghost stories that inspire Mrs. Blake. Mr. Blake’s expertise as a historian, and the charismatic way he tells Cassidy about Paris’s most famous sites and landmarks, allows one to learn about the city and its culture through her. Cassidy’s paranormal experiences help bring factual details to life, like when her father talks about how the original palace burned down in 1871, and shortly thereafter, Cassidy sees it burning for herself in the Veil. The ghost of this Veil, still restless and bound to earth so long after his death, introduces the theme of History’s Enduring Presence in Places and People, as Cassidy must grapple with the past’s influence on her and other characters’ present lives while in Paris. 

The setting also contributes to the mood and atmosphere. The Catacombs are dark, cramped, deep underground, and inextricably linked to their morbid history and ghostly lore. Upon first entering, Cassidy notes, “The tunnels below seem to exhale, sending up a draft of cool, stale air, along with a wave of anger, and fear, and restless loss, […] This is a bad place, and we can both feel it” (34). This personification is characteristic of the author’s use of figurative language to create ominous, even sinister atmospheres. The mood—which refers to the emotions that a story evokes in connection with its atmosphere—is suspenseful, eliciting a sense of the fear Cassidy is experiencing. She enters the Catacombs despite her fear, knowing that she has a purpose and a job to do. The author exemplifies Cassidy’s thematic portrayal of Overcoming Fear and Embodying Bravery to Address Challenges through a motif that she introduces in this scene: a phrase she learned from her father, “the only way out is through” (37). For Cassidy, it means that she must face the things she fears or else they’ll continue to haunt her.

The Veil is a unique part of the setting in this trilogy. It’s not a time or place in the traditional sense but rather a sort of layer or dimension of existence that is invisible and intangible to the living. As a speculative element, the Veil relies on world building—the creation and description of a fictional setting consistent within the context of the story. Like the real world, the Veil must have rules that define how it operates. This includes the reasons why some spirits remain on earth as ghosts, which Cassidy attributes to something traumatic about their deaths that won’t let them move on. A separate Veil exists for each ghost, like “a stage where spirits act out their final hours” (25). For the most part, Schwab limits world building to the practical elements of how Cassidy interacts with the Veil and with ghosts, rather than attempting to answer universal questions about death and the afterlife. Since the story is told from Cassidy’s point of view, it only needs to reveal her understanding of its paranormal aspects, which is limited.

The setting influences the story’s conflicts as well. The hotel clerk’s disdain for the Blakes, and her claim that they’re unlikely to find paranormal activity in Paris because it’s “a place of art, and culture, and history” (13), hints at the kind of societal judgment that the Blakes come into conflict with because of their chosen occupation. This conflict remains in the background for most of the narrative. It informs a larger conflict between belief and skepticism and also influences how Cassidy navigates the theme of Fulfilling One’s True Purpose While Navigating Difficult Choices. The setting also reveals how attitudes related to belief and skepticism can be a product of place. Cassidy compares Paris to Scotland, where people viewed ghosts as “out of place, sure, but undeniably there” (13). Cassidy doesn’t delve into the implications of this connection, however, which establishes the narrative voice of a young girl who makes observations of her world without attaching bias or value to them.