“A glassed-in building clung to the edge of the cliff a few hundred yards up to Ellery’s left, shimmering with light and shadowed with the shapes of people moving around.”

Condie’s description of The Resort at Broken Point’s art gallery reflects the latent darkness at the heart of the novel, reinforcing its suspenseful narrative tone. Ellery feels disturbed by the precarity of the building’s position on the cliffs, and the use of the word “shadowed” reflects Ellery’s belief that everyone holds a dark secret in their shadow.

“Was she that transparent? Could strangers see how sad she was? How nothing felt right, ever? She straightened her spine. She was not going to give these elegant people her sob story.”

From the moment Ellery enters The Resort at Broken Point, Condie positions her as an outsider. Ellery worries that strangers—in this instance, Ravi and Nina—can sense her depression and loneliness immediately. Ellery’s anxiety about being an outsider informs all her interactions with the other guests and establishes the starting point of her character arc over the course of the narrative.

“There are far too many hard things in this world, she thought. Even beautiful people who married other beautiful people in startlingly beautiful places couldn’t escape them.”

Disillusioned by her divorce, Ellery believes that everyone she meets hides a dark secret inside them. Although the beauty of Big Sur and The Resort at Broken Point often distracts her, she maintains a pessimistic belief that nothing good can last in the world—a perspective that reflects the grief and loneliness she feels as the novel opens.