Daisy Darker

62 pages • 2 hours read

Daisy Darker

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Frontmatter-Chapter 10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-40

Chapters 41-50

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 21-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 21 Summary: “31 October 2:25 a.m.: Less than four hours until low tide”

In the hallway, Poppins scratches at the locked cupboard under the stairs. Lily bangs on the door and calls out to Trixie, but there is no answer. Rose realizes that the cupboard key is attached to Poppins’ collar. Propped up inside the cupboard are the bodies of Nana and Frank.

Daisy thinks about 1983, when she first lied about “dying.” Frank had a series of girlfriends from his orchestra. All were alike, apart from Rebecca, who was kind to the Darker sisters and encouraged Frank to spend more time with them. One night Frank was due to conduct at the Royal Albert Hall. Before the performance, he and Rebecca announced their engagement. Seeing the devastation on her mother’s face, Daisy became distressed and fainted. Nancy thought her daughter’s heart had stopped and took her to the hospital. Soon afterward, Rebecca broke up with Frank for prioritizing the concert over his sick daughter. Daisy never admitted that her heart had not stopped.

Lily’s scream brings Daisy back to the present. She sees Trixie at the back of the cupboard, pale and inert.

Trixie

A poem describes Trixie as “precocious” and “kind.” Her father’s identity is unknown. She is killed by someone jealous of her inheritance.

Chapter 22 Summary: “31 October 2:30 a.m.: Less than four hours until low tide”

Rose examines Trixie, noticing there is blood between her toes. She tests her niece’s blood and confirms she has been injected with insulin. After receiving Glucagon from Rose’s veterinary bag, Trixie regains consciousness but has no memory of what happened. Nancy is missing, and the group concludes she is either dead or the killer. They barricade themselves in the living room. When the power returns, Trixie notices the gun in Rose’s bag.

Chapter 23 Summary: “31 October 2:40 a.m.: Less than four hours until low tide”

Lily is reluctant to believe her mother is the murderer. She suggests that someone else could have been hiding in the house when they arrived. Daisy looks at the photograph above the fireplace. The picture, taken in 1983, shows Nana, Nancy, and the three Darker sisters. For once, all the sisters wear matching dresses. Daisy remembers lying to her mother on the day she bought the outfits.

Chapter 24 Summary: “SEAGLASS – 1983”

Nancy took Daisy shopping and chose two matching velvet dresses for Rose and Lily. She then went to look at the womenswear. In the changing rooms, Nancy became upset when the dresses she chose were too small. Crying, she claimed childbirth had ruined her figure but would not consider a bigger size. To make her mother happy, Daisy secretly swapped the hanger tags so the dresses appeared to be a size smaller. Nancy was so delighted she bought a velvet dress for Daisy to match those of her sisters.

On the way home, Nancy and Daisy saw Conor limping along the coastal path with a black eye. Nancy questioned him, but he would not reveal who had hurt him. Telling Conor to get in the car, Nancy drove to the Kennedys’ cottage. Conor’s father revealed that he now had a steady gardening job and was not responsible for his son’s injuries. Nancy and Daisy learned that Conor fought with an older boy who was spreading rumors about Rose and Lily. Eleven-year-old Lily had gained a reputation for allowing boys a glimpse inside her underwear in exchange for Easter eggs.

Charmed by Conor’s father, Nancy asked for his advice on her garden and invited him for Sunday lunch. The picture of the Darker sisters in their matching dresses was taken by Conor with his Polaroid camera.

Chapter 25 Summary: “31 October 2:45 a.m.: Less than four hours until low tide”

Lily suggests searching for Nancy, but Rose believes the group should stay together. Conor agrees with Rose. Meanwhile, Daisy recalls her fourth death in the spring of 1984.

Daisy and her mother were in the garden, pressing flowers between the pages of the wildflower book. Daisy assumed Nancy was thinking about her sisters as she held her locket between her fingers. Watching her mother cut dead daisies from the grass, she felt a sudden conviction that her mother did not love her. Feeling she was a “disappointment,” Daisy experienced the sensation in her chest that always preceded a “death.” Her heart stopped for three minutes before the ambulance arrived. Nana was her only regular visitor in the hospital.

Chapter 26 Summary: “31 October 2:50 a.m.: Less than four hours until low tide”

The adults do not tell Trixie about finding her in the cupboard, believing they should shelter her from what happened. Meanwhile, another VHS tape is found with the message “NOTICE ME.” Lily does not want to watch the video but is outvoted. Daisy notices Conor and Rose whispering to each other. Overhearing Rose mentioning her name, she thinks her sister suspects her of being the killer.

Chapter 27 Summary: “SEAGLASS – 1984”

The video shows Nancy sitting close to Mr. Kennedy as she watches her daughters perform a play. Lily plays Princess Leia, Rose is a ghostbuster, and nine-year-old Daisy plays Gizmo from Gremlins. Terrified during her first speaking role, Daisy recites the rules about Gremlins. As she warns that the creatures must not go out in the light or be fed after midnight, her sisters throw a sheet over her head and an egg at her. Finally, when Daisy states that wet Gremlins “turn into ghosts” (200), Lily throws cold water over her. The video zooms in on Frank and Mr. Kennedy vying for Nancy’s attention. Their competitive conversation is interrupted by screaming inside the house. Daisy recalls this is when Lily found her lifeless at the bottom of the stairs.

Chapter 28 Summary: “31 October 2:55 a.m.: Less than four hours until low tide”

While Daisy was recovering in the hospital, a boy in the opposite bed gave her a Valentine’s card. A fan of Daisy Darker’s Little Secret, he told her he loved her. During her visits to the hospital, Nana told Daisy to stand up to her sisters. One day, Daisy saw her mother talking to a doctor and crying, but she was never told the subject of the conversation.

Rose leaves the room to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Trixie asks about the identity of the man Nancy was sitting with in the video. When she learns it was Mr. Kennedy, Trixie seems surprised, saying she thought she had seen him somewhere before. Rose is gone for longer than expected, and the group continues watching the screen.

Chapter 29 Summary: “SEAGLASS – 1985”

The video shows Lily’s 14th birthday. While Rose looks beautiful and happy, Lily has a short, unflattering haircut. Talking to the camera, Rose pretends to be a reporter investigating “Hairgate.” The video then cuts to Nancy holding hands with Mr. Kennedy, waiting to watch Lily sing. Lily performs a harmonious duet with Nana while her father plays the piano.

Daisy recalls how, the night before, Lily’s hair was in two waist-length braids. However, on the morning of her birthday, she woke to find them cut off and lying on her pillow. Daisy was responsible but left the incriminating scissors on Rose’s bedside table. To ensure she got away with the crime, Daisy drugged her sisters’ bedtime drinks with Nancy’s sleeping pills. The family assumed that Rose had cut Lily’s hair while sleepwalking.

Chapter 30 Summary: “31 October 3 a.m: Three hours until low tide”

When Rose returns to the room, she expresses relief that they have avoided another death. Daisy watches Rose twisting the ring on her right hand: a 16th birthday gift from Nana. Daisy has always been jealous of it.

Daisy thinks about Rose’s 16th birthday in 1986. Rose was about to go to a school for gifted students and was having a party. During the preparations, Nancy complained about the dirty footprints Mr. Kennedy always brought in from the garden. Daisy was angry that she could not stay up late with her sisters and their friends. When she was told to go to bed, she tried on Rose’s new designer dress and used her make-up. She also looked in Rose’s diary and read one of her variations on “Hush Little Baby.”

From the stairs, Daisy spied on Rose’s friends as they picked straws and were locked in the cupboard together. Lily looked upset when Rose and Conor drew the same straws. When the cupboard door was eventually unlocked, Rose and Conor were still kissing. At midnight, Daisy cut up Rose’s new dress and put the remnants in her eldest sister’s bed. Lily was blamed for the crime as Daisy left the scissors on her bedside table.

Chapters 21-30 Analysis

The pace of the novel slows as these chapters focus on the Darker family’s past and Daisy’s secrets, evoking The Damaging Effects of Secrets. Flashbacks provided by the home videos and Daisy’s memories give readers contextual insight into the protagonist’s character and perspective.

The depth of Daisy’s childhood sense of isolation emerges as she describes herself as “almost always alone, with nothing but novels and an overactive imagination for company” (218). Excluded by her older sisters and overlooked by her parents, she feels she is only special to Nana. The protagonist’s perception of herself as invisible is highlighted as she refers to herself as “a nobody.” Daisy’s frustration at not being “seen” by others is encapsulated in her encounter with the boy in the hospital. While the boy claims to love her, she realizes he is confusing her with her fictional namesake. Daisy’s desire to be noticed and heard is illustrated in her participation in the family play. Despite experiencing stage fright so severe it stops her heart, Daisy undertakes her first speaking role. However, once again, she is overshadowed and humiliated. Daisy’s transformation from a Gremlin into a ghost foreshadows her later fate.

In Chapter 25, the novel’s Flowers motif is explored in Daisy’s memory of pressing flowers with her mother. From early in her life, Daisy reads significance into the name Nancy chose for her. She believes her mother selected it because daisies are “the least interesting or beautiful” type of flower (185). Nancy’s preference for Daisy’s more “exotically-named” sisters also seems to be evidenced in her thoughtful handling of the silver locket, which Daisy assumes contains pictures of Rose and Lily. Thus, when Daisy observes Nancy cutting dead daisies from the grass, she interprets it as a clear sign that her mother does not love her. The devastating conviction causes her heart to stop, demonstrating a connection between Daisy’s intense emotions and her heart condition. However, Feeney infers that the narrator’s perception of events may not be accurate. Nancy’s removal of the dead flowers and her observation that “people don’t appreciate what they have until it is gone” suggests that she is dwelling on Daisy’s short life expectancy (184). Later in the novel, this is confirmed when the contents of Nancy’s locket are revealed to be a picture of Daisy and a lock of her hair.

The contradictory elements of Nancy’s character are illustrated throughout these chapters. Daisy’s mother seems to demonstrate genuine love and concern for Daisy in her overprotective behavior. She also shows she is capable of compassion in her protectiveness of Conor when she believes Mr. Kennedy has been hurting him. However, Nancy’s vanity is vividly illustrated in Daisy’s memory of pleasing her mother by swapping the size tags on her dresses. Meanwhile, her visible distress while talking to Daisy’s doctor is later revealed to be caused by the news that Daisy could live longer than expected. Nancy’s motivation for keeping this information to herself and her failure to approve the groundbreaking surgery is never explained.

From Chapter 29 onward, the darker side of Daisy’s character emerges, once more tying into the theme Storytelling and Lies. The protagonist’s capacity for deceit is first highlighted by the relatively harmless lies she tells for her mother’s sake. However, she also reveals how her lies escalate into a secret campaign of revenge against her sisters. Daisy’s admission of destroying Rose’s dress and cutting off Lily’s hair shows that she is not “quite as sweet” as she appears (189). The premeditation of “Hairgate,” which involves drugging her sisters in advance and framing Rose, invites readers to reassess her role in the novel. Suddenly Daisy seems less of a victim and a more likely perpetrator of the murders. Feeney intensifies readers’ growing suspicions through Daisy’s revelation that she loved murder mysteries and hoped to write one. The confession highlights the novel’s exploration of storytelling and lies.

In these chapters, Conor’s father also increasingly comes into focus as a suspect. By asking questions about Mr. Kennedy and implying that she may have seen him before, Trixie creates a deliberate red herring. Readers are led to consider the possibility that Conor’s father may not be dead after all. Meanwhile, the presence of Rose’s gun is noted several times, foreshadowing the fact that it will later be used as a murder weapon.