We Are All Guilty Here

The novel’s North Falls setting toys with the closed circle of suspects and locked room thriller tropes to explore how small-town living can create interpersonal tension and drama. The entirety of We Are All Guilty Here takes place “within the 190-acre city limits of North Falls” (16). The town is located “in the south-western part of Georgia” and is the smallest town in Clifton County (16). As Emmy struggles to solve the Broken Angels Case, her investigation exposes the fragile veneer of small-town life. 

The town’s insular setting creates conflict. While all of the North Falls townspeople are intimate with each other and don’t easily trust outsiders, their closeness also creates corruption. Since the North Falls community members are loyal to each other, they keep one another’s secrets—even when these secrets surround violence, exploitation, abuse, and murder. When Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker go missing, the North Falls townspeople initially bond together to find the disappeared teenagers. Over time, however, they begin to turn on each other. Even Hannah—Emmy Clifton’s best friend—turns on Emmy and blames her and her father for failing to save Madison. Meanwhile, the perpetrators cover one another’s tracks or frame their family and friends to get away with their heinous crimes.