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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Destructiveness of Deception
Throughout the text, Lucy and Stephen lie, keep secrets, and deny reality—actions that have a corrosive effect on them and their relationships. Lucy deceives herself in her relationship with Stephen, refusing to see his flaws and thus suffering repeated betrayals to the detriment of her mental and physical health. Her need to protect her constructed reality, in which she and Stephen are special and her mother is a villain, leads her to deceive and alienate her friends and family.
Likewise, Stephen lies casually and continuously in order to deceive and manipulate Lucy and others into believing he’s the person he projects. He also deceives himself, holding Officer Gonzales accountable for his DUI conviction rather than taking responsibility himself. Further, he constructs a false narrative for Macy’s death to assuage his conscience and evade consequences. The story’s conclusion suggests that the only way characters can grow is to lift the veil of deception and see people and their actions as they are. Lucy confronts her reality by making amends with CJ and realizing her mother isn’t the villain she constructed in her mind. She also finally sees Stephen’s toxic behavioral patterns with clarity and rejects him when he tries to come on to her at Bree’s wedding. In contrast, Stephen remains blind to his harmful deceptive behaviors, as evidenced by his pursuit of Lucy at Bree’s wedding despite being engaged to Jillian, the woman he cheated on Lucy with.
The Illusion of Control
Characters in the novel, particularly Lucy and Stephen, find themselves drawn to the idea of control. Throughout the novel, Lucy’s reckless obsession with Stephen is juxtaposed with her dangerous attempts to control her weight through extreme diet and exercise. At the beginning of the book, Lucy uses scheduled exercise classes to counter the lack of control she feels in her unfulfilling career and her disappointment in her underwhelming boyfriend. While at Baird, Lucy maintains the illusion of control over her tumultuous relationship with Stephen by restricting food to the point of anorexia. Stephen attempts to exert control over his life and future by manipulating how the people around him behave and think. Lack of control enrages Stephen: when he’s rejected from his top law schools, he directs his anger toward Officer Gonzales, who arrested him for a DUI, and toward his dad, who failed to fix the taillight that got Stephen pulled over. He controls the narrative by telling Lucy and others he’s choosing to work for a year and then go to law school, instead of telling them the truth and taking responsibility for his own actions. Likewise, after causing Macy’s death, he controls his fate by lying about what happened. Just as Lucy’s need for control distorts her physical body, Stephen’s desire for control turns him into an abusive, toxic, and destructive monster.
The Importance of Trust
Lucy’s relationships with Stephen and her mother reveal that genuine love cannot exist without trust. When Lucy starts dating Stephen, she trusts him on principle. Stephen is aware of how important trust is in relationships, and though he continually proves himself untrustworthy, he is adept at convincing Lucy and others to believe him. Ultimately, after a final betrayal shatters Lucy’s trust in Stephen, she is able to sever their bond. Contrastingly, healing broken trust can also be restorative. Throughout the first half of the book, Lucy obsesses over the secret of the Unforgivable Thing, and it’s later revealed that when Lucy was fourteen, she saw her mother, CJ, sleeping with her crush, Gabe. Her resulting sense of betrayal destroys the unwavering trust that Lucy once held in her mother. Despite CJ’s continuous care for Lucy in the years that follow, Lucy resists rebuilding their relationship until she learns that CJ confessed her indiscretion to her husband and actively rebuilt trust within her marriage. The realization that CJ understands the importance of trust allows Lucy to put her faith in her mother again and to repair their broken bond.
