Genre
Novel
Setting and Context
The story is about twin sisters living in St. Louis who have the intuition of predicting the future.
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: First-person narrator
Point of view: The twin sisters' point of view
Tone and Mood
Depressive, cynical and frightening
Protagonist and Antagonist
Kate is the main protagonist
Major Conflict
The major conflict arises when Kate realizes that her twin sister, Violet, is a lesbian dating a fellow girl called Stephanie.
Climax
The climax occurs when the earthquake prediction by Violet fails to take place on the anticipated date. Therefore, Violet’s prediction goes wrong, and her powers are doubted after that.
Foreshadowing
Kate’s displeasure of her twin sister’s premonitions foreshadows the possible backfire of Violet’s earthquake prediction. Nevertheless, Kate offers to support Violet in her quest to warn people about the possible earthquake. However, the earthquake fails to take place as predicted by Violet.
Understatement
Violet’s wrong prediction about the earthquake is underestimated when it fails to occur on a material day. However, days after her prediction, a series of earthquakes occur, and people start realizing that Violet had a valid point when warning them.
Allusions
The guardian spirit is indirectly referenced to represent Violet’s power to predict unseen events such as earthquakes.
Imagery
The images of sexuality, catastrophe, urban life and suburbia are all over the book to depict the sense of sight to readers.
Paradox
Failures of Violet’s prophesy to take place as predicted is the biggest paradox in the entire book.
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
The guardian spirit is personified as having human abilities to help an individual see invisible events.
