“Looking at it backward it was obvious all along. But back then, when she knew nothing about anything, she had not seen it coming. She had walked straight into it with her eyes open.”

Ellie reflects on the many warning signs she should have recognized that might have prevented her disappearance and death. This quote reflects the way Jewell will tell the story and foreshadows the events to come. Jewell creates obvious warning signs for the reader, yet only gradually fills in the details surrounding the mystery of what happened to Ellie, managing to sustain suspense until the end of the novel.

“That was how she’d once viewed her perfect life: as a series of bad smells and unfulfilled duties, petty worries and late bills. And then one morning, her girl, her golden girl, her lastborn, her baby, her soul mate, her pride and joy, had left the house and not come back.”

Laurel has always been a pessimist. Even before Ellie disappeared, she always saw the negative side of things. She hadn’t appreciated her “perfect life,” before it was taken away from her. Without Ellie, her favorite child, Laurel’s life falls apart. This quote characterizes Laurel’s negative personality and view of Ellie as her golden child, and it shows how Ellie’s disappearance devastated her life. 

“For years, though, she’d stayed close to home, in case Ellie came back again. For years she’d sniff the air every time she returned home from her brief sojourns beyond her front door, looking for the smell of her lost daughter. It was during those years that she finally lost touch with her remaining children. She had nothing left to give them and they grew tired of waiting.”

Ironically, Laurel’s loss of Ellie led to the loss of her other two children. Based on her conviction that Ellie burgled the house, Laurel holds out hope that Ellie might return. She’s so consumed by the “gaping hole” in her life that she loses sight of the family relationships that remain (37).