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Summary
Sections 61-64
61
Demon spends a year in rehab, followed by time in a halfway house. At the halfway house, he makes three friends—Viking, Gizmo, and Chartrain—each of whom show him that there is always more to lose. Chartrain, a former basketball star, lost his legs in Afghanistan, Gizmo is haunted by a car accident that killed four people, and Viking lost his hearing from Oxy. Together, they navigate city life, which unnerves them all except for Chartrain, who was born in Knoxville and explains that people in cities only avoid eye contact because they’re conserving their energy for their loved ones.
Demon sees doctors who tell him he’ll be a good candidate for knee replacement when he eventually has insurance. He follows in his mother’s footsteps by working at a Walmart Supercenter. Through conversations with Tommy, who has begun researching the history of Appalachia, Demon gains a deeper understanding of the differences between rural and urban economies. Tommy explains that Appalachia operates on a land-based economy, where people can trade goods, make things, or rely on their land even if they don’t have money. In contrast, city life is tied to a money-based economy, where everything costs something, and land means nothing unless you can sell it.
62
Demon spends much of his time at the library, where he befriends a librarian whom he develops a crush on. Despite their mutual connection, Demon avoids dating her, knowing he needs to be on solid ground with his sobriety before starting a relationship. They bond over books, and she helps him prepare for his GED. She also introduces him to digital platforms, showing him how to upload his drawings so he can continue Red Neck.
Tommy’s boss offers to renew Red Neck for another year, but both Demon and Tommy decline, feeling they’ve outgrown it. Tommy is getting married and starting a family, and Demon has shifted his focus to more mature storytelling. Inspired by Tommy, Demon begins creating work that blends local history with creative narratives, drawing on his signature skeleton motifs. One of his projects, The Incapables, is a webcomic about two addicts trying to maintain a household, which gains a small but loyal following and earns him modest income. Maggot, who has been released from juvie after two years, is a fan of The Incapables. He is now in a stable relationship with a boyfriend who works at a pet store.
One day, Tommy calls with a bold idea: a graphic novel about the history of Appalachia, exploring how the region became the butt of national jokes and the government’s push for a money-based economy. Tommy suggests the title Hillbilly Wars, but Demon argues it sends the wrong message and proposes High Ground instead. He begins releasing chapters on his website, which catch the attention of a New York publisher. Annie, now pregnant, offers to help him navigate potential book deals.
As Demon works on High Ground, his therapist encourages him to confront his lingering fears of returning to Lee County. She suggests journaling as a tool to reclaim his narrative, mirroring the storytelling he’s already doing with his comics. The first line of his therapy journal mirrors the first line of the novel.
63
Annie’s baby is breech, so she calls Demon, asking him to come quickly since she’s already on maternity leave. When he arrives in her town, he learns that Annie and Mr. Armstrong are already at the hospital.
With Annie at the hospital, Demon feels uneasy staying at her house alone, surrounded by triggers. He calls June, who invites him to stay at her place until she gets home from work. He wanders the area and finds himself at the trail to Devil’s Bathtub. The sight stirs memories of the traumatic event he’s been through, and he realizes his mother went through something very similar, but with the person she loved at the bottom of the waterfall.
The next morning, June and Demon have breakfast and June tells Demon that Dr. Watts is facing charges, and some of the drugs fueling the crisis are finally being taken off the market. However, she acknowledges that the effects of the epidemic will last for generations. She shares updates about Emmy, who has moved to Asheville and is living with other women in recovery. June laments that Emmy can never come back to live in Lee County but is hopeful about her new start.
After breakfast, Demon drives to Murder Valley to visit his grandmother and Mr. Dick. He helps them fix a few things around the house and talks with them about Angus, whom he hasn’t seen since she started college. He’s hesitant, worried she might have changed. His grandmother tells him that Angus is excelling in school and plans to attend graduate school for psychology. When he asks if she has a boyfriend, Miss Betsy hints she might have her eye on someone, though she won’t say more. Demon feels a swirl of complicated emotions but resolves to be happy for her, even imagining himself as the best man at her wedding, no matter who she chooses.
64
Demon decides to visit Coach one last time. Demon apologizes for missing their team party the night before, explaining he didn’t go because it would have reminded him of the people who weren’t there—like Big Bear, who died by suicide. They don’t mention U-Haul, who avoided jail time with fines and probation but left town in disgrace. Demon thanks Coach implicitly for taking him in and being the first person to see his potential.
Later, Demon drives to the mansion, where Angus is packing up the last of their things before selling the house. He feels unexpectedly nervous. When he arrives, they reminisce about their first meeting, when Demon mistook Angus for a boy, and she admits she thought it would be easier for them to get along as brothers because being a girl in that house always felt like a disappointment.
As they talk about their futures, Demon impulsively tells Angus that she’s a god—then corrects himself to say goddess. It’s the first time they’ve touched each other, and he draws a heart on her right hand. When he asks her plans for Christmas, she says the magic of the holiday disappeared when he left. For his Christmas present, Angus offers to take him to see the ocean. They start driving, planning to stay at a motel along the way. As they travel, Angus makes a flirtatious comment about oysters tasting like kissing the ocean, and Demon happily realizes he’s the one she’s had her eye on.
During the trip, Demon puts his arm around the back of her seat, feeling a sense of calm and happiness he hasn’t felt in years. He reflects that this journey, with Angus at his side, is the best part of his life so far—before they even reach the ocean. The ocean, he thinks, is the one big thing that won’t swallow him alive.
Analysis
Storytelling plays a transformative role in Demon’s journey, functioning as both a means of reclaiming his narrative and a mechanism for understanding the broader forces that shaped his life. Throughout the novel, Demon grapples with feeling powerless in the face of systemic injustices and personal tragedies. His work as a storyteller, first with Red Neck and later with High Ground, allows him to reframe his experiences—not as isolated moments of suffering, but as part of a larger tapestry of Appalachian life, shaped by history, culture, and community. This act of reclamation is crucial to Demon’s character arc, as it signifies his transition from victimhood to agency.
Red Neck, with its skeletal imagery and intimate connections to local rituals like leaving tobacco flowers at graves, begins as a deeply personal project. It resonates because it distills the shared pain and resilience of his community, offering a lens through which others can see themselves. This success not only gives Demon a sense of purpose but also plants the seeds for a deeper understanding of how storytelling can challenge dominant narratives. The evolution of Red Neck into High Ground reflects this shift. While Red Neck captures the emotional and symbolic weight of Appalachian life, High Ground aims to confront the historical and political forces that reduced Appalachia to a stereotype. By exploring how economic exploitation and cultural erasure shaped his region, Demon reclaims the dignity of his community and repositions it as a site of resistance rather than victimhood.
For Demon personally, storytelling becomes a way to process his trauma and reshape his identity. Throughout his life, he has been defined by others—by stereotypes about Appalachia, by the expectations of people like Coach and June, and by the cycles of addiction and poverty that seemed inescapable. Through storytelling, Demon asserts his own voice, breaking free from these imposed narratives. His signature use of skeletons, initially a haunting reminder of loss and mortality, transforms into a motif of endurance and connection, tying his personal grief to a collective history.
This reclamation of narrative is particularly important to Demon’s character arc because it mirrors his internal journey toward self-worth. Early in the novel, Demon sees himself as a passive participant in his own life, shaped by forces beyond his control. By creating stories, he gains the power to reinterpret these forces, finding meaning in even the most painful moments. The act of storytelling allows him to reconcile the contradictions of his life—the love and the loss, the hope and the despair—and to imagine a future where these complexities coexist. It is through this process that Demon begins to heal, finding not just a sense of purpose but also the courage to envision a life that is his own.
Water continues to serve as a significant motif, culminating in Demon’s confrontation with the trail to Devil’s Bathtub. This site, once a place of tragedy and terror, becomes a space for reflection and healing. Demon recognizes the parallels between his trauma and his mother’s, as both were shaped by the same cruel forces of loss and love. This moment marks a key shift in his narrative: from avoidance to reclamation, as he begins to face his memories rather than run from them.
Demon’s relationships evolve alongside his recovery. His deepening bond with Angus reflects a mature and mutual partnership that stands in contrast to the chaotic dependencies of his past. Their road trip to the ocean is not just a physical journey but a symbolic one, representing a long-awaited moment of peace and connection. For Demon, the ocean—a recurring dream throughout his life—transforms from an unattainable ideal to a shared aspiration, approached with someone who truly understands him. Angus’s flirtatious comment about oysters tasting like “kissing the ocean” ties together themes of intimacy and fulfillment, suggesting that for the first time, Demon feels worthy of love and capable of giving it without being destroyed by his fears.
