Opening
A childhood memory collides with a present-day tragedy as Blythe Connor confronts what she fears is true about her daughter Violet Connor. Across these chapters, validation from the outside world arrives, a child dies, and denial hardens—turning private dread into a public, life-altering crisis.
What Happens
Chapter 26: Roses are red, Violets are blue
At nine, Blythe prepares a Mother’s Day tea craft for her mother, Cecilia, but hides the invitation, bracing for disappointment. Cecilia arrives anyway—peach suit, nervous hands, a softness Blythe rarely sees—and Blythe swells with pride when classmates call her mother beautiful. For a fleeting moment, they almost feel like other mothers and daughters.
When Blythe reads her poem—“You’re the best mom there is... and I love you.”—Cecilia shuts down. She sets the bouquet aside and leaves abruptly. That night, when Blythe’s father asks to see the craft, Cecilia pretends not to know where it is; pressed, she erupts, hurling a wet dishcloth and shouting, “I went, didn’t I? To the fucking tea? ... What more do you want from me?” The connection collapses, exposing Cecilia’s inability to receive love or perform motherhood, and leaving Blythe to absorb the shame and confusion.
Chapter 27: Nothing of major concern
Years later, Blythe and Fox Connor meet with Violet’s preschool teacher. The teacher praises Violet’s intelligence, then lists chilling incidents: twisting a boy’s fingers, stabbing a girl with a pencil, stones shoved into a child’s underwear. Blythe burns with embarrassment and dread; the methodical quality of the acts matches the quiet, calculating edge she has sensed at home. For the first time, someone else names what Blythe fears.
Fox counters immediately. He calls it normal boundary-testing, blames the school’s lack of stimulation, and casts Violet as a “bright” child being misunderstood. When Blythe says the behavior feels cruel, Fox asks, “Do you?”—a crack that reveals years of doubt about whether she loves Violet and a moment that embodies Marital Breakdown and Betrayal. That night, lying in Violet’s bed, Blythe feels a sharp, guilty vindication: someone else finally sees it.
Chapter 28: Fishing for whales
Blythe’s anxiety spirals. She wanders an art exhibit of children who committed violent crimes, asking herself, “Where does it begin? When do we know? ... Who is to blame?” At home, Violet announces she plans to hurt a classmate, Noah. The next day, Blythe finds a clump of Noah’s blond curls in Violet’s dress pocket—cold, physical evidence that makes her stomach turn.
That evening, Fox returns with a promotion and a gift: a delicate gold necklace with a “V” pendant. Meant as love, it feels like a chain to the version of Violet he insists on. Overwhelmed, Blythe has sex with Fox and then flushes the hair—erasing proof and muting her instincts. Later, Violet provides a plausible story: she “helped” Noah after he cut his hair. At school, Blythe spots Noah’s buzzed head and his cowering glance at Violet. Back home, Violet “fishes for whales” in a pickle jar, radiant and imaginative—an image that makes the duality of her innocence and menace almost impossible to reconcile.
Chapter 29: The accident, I called it
At a playground, Blythe watches a boy, Elijah, reach the top of a high slide near Violet. Exhausted and unsure, she believes she sees Violet lift her leg and trip him as he runs past. Elijah’s body hits gravel with a hard thud. Sirens, screaming, strangers pressing in—while Violet’s face stays blank. She asks if they can get a treat, as if testing whether her mother will name what just happened.
Blythe’s mind fractures under the possibility. In a pivotal moment of Perception, Reality, and Gaslighting, she tells herself, “That did not happen,” and labels it a tragic accident. When Elijah dies, Blythe repeats the lie to Fox and the police: they saw nothing. Fox accepts it, determined to protect Violet. He later finds and throws away a drawing Violet made—one smiling child, one crying, a red scribble on the chest—another act of willful erasure.
Chapter 30: We are not supposed to make bad people
Unable to rest, Blythe drives to the pediatric ICU where Elijah died and waits in the hallway for four hours, watching other families’ anguish as a form of penance. She thinks about the rules of motherhood—children should not suffer, should not die—and the unspoken terror that mothers should not make “bad” people.
Outside a closed door, she faces her most forbidden thought: she wanted it to be Violet who fell. The horror of it pushes her back into denial; to survive, she decides she must believe in Violet’s innocence. At home, she recoils from Fox’s touch. Silence settles between them, widening the distance that now feels impossible to cross.
Character Development
Blythe’s fears move from the private to the public, then into denial as a coping strategy, while Violet’s behavior sharpens from petty cruelty to potentially fatal action. Fox chooses his version of the family over the truth, and Cecilia’s old wound keeps shaping Blythe’s sense of herself as a mother.
- Blythe Connor: Receives external confirmation of her fears; experiences deepening isolation when she’s not believed; erases evidence and lies to police; seeks punishment at the hospital; edges toward a psychological breaking point.
- Violet Connor: Displays intelligence and manipulative control; targets peers (Noah, Elijah); shows flat affect after violence; appears to test her mother’s perception and loyalty.
- Fox Connor: Doubles down on denial; reframes cruelty as giftedness; gifts the “V” necklace; discards Violet’s drawing; aligns with an idealized family narrative over his wife’s reality.
- Cecilia: In the flashback, cannot accept love or perform maternal warmth; her volatility imprints Blythe’s fear of inherited “badness.”
Themes & Symbols
Two anxieties intertwine: Nature vs. Nurture and Generational Trauma and The Dark Side of Motherhood. Cecilia’s failure to mother casts a long shadow over Blythe’s sense of legacy—has she passed something on, or is Violet innately beyond her shaping? Blythe’s taboo thought at the hospital forces the novel’s most unsettling question into view: what happens when maternal love is corroded by fear?
Perception fractures under pressure. Gaslighting—both interpersonal and internal—turns uncertainty into policy: Blythe teaches herself to unsee, while Fox enforces a version of reality that protects Violet and their image. The marriage buckles under this pressure, transforming conflict into betrayal and secrecy.
Symbols:
- The “V” Necklace: Fox’s devotion to Violet and the family image; for Blythe, a gilded constraint she cannot take off.
- Noah’s Hair: Hard proof of harm; flushing it away enacts Blythe’s self-erasure and complicity.
- The Pickle Jar: A child’s game that looks like wonder; its charm sits next to menace, embodying Violet’s duality.
Key Quotes
“You’re the best mom there is... and I love you.” Cecilia’s inability to receive this love collapses the tea party’s fragile peace. The line exposes the gap between Blythe’s longing for a normal mother and the reality of generational harm.
“I went, didn’t I? To the fucking tea? ... What more do you want from me?” Cecilia reframes bare-minimum presence as sacrifice, revealing her resentment and incapacity for care. It’s a formative script Blythe later fears she’s repeating.
“Do you?” Fox’s pointed question about whether Blythe loves Violet weaponizes doubt. It marks a turn from disagreement to betrayal, isolating Blythe inside her own marriage.
“That did not happen.” Blythe’s mantra manufactures safety by denying perception. It’s the hinge between possible truth and chosen narrative in the wake of Elijah’s death.
“Mothers aren’t supposed to have children who suffer... We are not supposed to make bad people.” Blythe articulates the social contract of motherhood and the shame attached to breaking it. The line captures the crushing weight of blame she places on herself.
“There was a moment outside that door when I wanted Violet to be the one who was pushed off the top of the slide.” This taboo confession reveals how terror can curdle maternal love. Its horror forces Blythe back into denial, the only place she can still function.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from uneasy suspicion to catastrophic consequence. A child’s death drags Blythe’s private fear into public stakes, while her lie to the police binds her to a version of events she barely believes. The marriage’s fault lines become a canyon: Fox’s denial and Blythe’s silence feed each other, ensuring isolation.
By pairing the childhood flashback with Violet’s escalation, the narrative cements the cycle of trauma and the limits of nurture. Blythe’s choice to unsee—backed by Fox’s insistence—sets the course for further unraveling, making these chapters the story’s crucial turning point.