Genre
Young Adult / Mystery / Thriller / Horror
Setting and Context
Present-day Henry Island in Washington
Narrator and Point of View
The novel is narrated in third-person.
Tone and Mood
Tense, Horrific, Eerie
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is Meg, and the antagonist is the mysterious killer killing off the group one by one.
Major Conflict
Ten teenagers on an isolated island plan to have a fun-filled party through the weekend but a killer among them has other plans. Vengeance is the primary goal of the killer as he holds the group accountable for the death of his sister.
Climax
The climax occurs when Tom torches the boat and a fight ensues between him, Meg, and T.J.
Foreshadowing
The raging storm that cuts them off foreshadows the sinister events that are about to take place on the island.
Understatement
When the group finds that Lori has apparently committed suicide, Kenny suggests not touching the body in case of any evidence of which Kumiko retorts in an understated style “Calm down, CSI.”
Allusions
The novel refers to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None replicating the narrative involving a group of people on an isolated island with a killer amongst them.
Imagery
“It was a rough, weather-beaten construction that jutted fifty yards out from the beach. Broken planks of moldering wood dotted the path to shore like little landmines, and the swells of water, even in the protected bay, seemed dangerously close to swamping the decaying pier. Onshore, a forest of Douglas firs towered above the beach, silhouetted against the gray clouds that crowded the darkening sky.”
The imagery of the island.
Paradox
The paradox is in the revelation of the killer’s identity.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Alone time was Minnie’s nemesis. Her kryptonite. Her Achilles’ heel.”
Personification
“The storm was fierce, unrelenting”
