Skeleton Creek

“There’s something to it. A name like that has to come from somewhere.”

Sarah’s question about the name of the town, Skeleton Creek, suggests that it carries symbolism for the main characters to explore. This question highlights the book’s detective genre by introducing a mystery the teens seek to solve.

“But Gladys Morgan had given us a beginning, a thread to grab hold of. It would lead us to trouble of a kind we hadn’t anticipated.”

An example of the visual language and metaphor that Ryan uses throughout the novel, this passage compares the clues they find to a thread. This suggests an association between the mystery and a tapestry that can be woven and slowly unraveled.

“I look back, I see warning signs. Sarah looks back, she sees invitations.”

Ryan juxtaposes his point of view with Sarah’s in this description. It reveals the different approaches they take to similar situations, characterizing Ryan as cautious and Sarah as adventurous.

“I think what I do is safer than what Sarah does. I can write about whatever I want—monsters, ghosts, arms falling off, people buried alive—and it doesn’t matter what I write because it all comes from the safety of my own imagination.”

Ryan explains that print can be safer and more efficient than digital technology for storytelling since the imagination is unlimited and requires no travel. His analysis foreshadows the danger in which Sarah finds herself when she goes on location to record video at the Dredge. It also foreshadows the teens’ capture at the end of the novel. 

“At that point, I didn’t have any memory of what had happened to me. There were little bits and pieces, but nothing concrete.”

This passage demonstrates thematic significance to the theme The Relationship Between Print, Digital, and New Media. Ryan’s language is illustrative of the relationship between his print journal and Sarah’s video diaries. His journal provides bits and pieces of the mystery, while the videos help him to clarify and make his memory more concrete, often through the additions of image and sound—limitations of the print medium. 

“‘Why can’t I move my leg?’

‘Because we’ve surrounded it with a Big Bertha—a really big plaster cast. I’m afraid it will be a while before you can walk on it again.’”

The cast on Ryan’s leg serves two purposes in the novel. It contributes to his isolation, confining him to his room and limiting his interactions with anyone besides the adults in positions of authority, fitting within the theme The Relationship Between Young Adults and Authority. Ryan’s cast also mirrors the effects of the crushed leg that Joe Bush drags behind him as he haunts the Dredge. The cast is a symbolic reminder of the threat that the Dredge and Joe Bush represent, an element of the story that Ryan is aware of but that Sarah sometimes underestimates.

“After that, my parents went quiet. Neither of them are talkative folks—no one who lives in Skeleton Creek talks very much.”

Gothic mysteries and ghost stories require an atmosphere of fear and suspense mixed with elements of horror. The secrets and conspiracy of Skeleton Creek help build this atmosphere by limiting the effective communication between the teen protagonists and the adults who might offer them support. This also helps build the theme of the relationship between young adults and authority.

“They’d laid down the law about Sarah, and that was that.”

The word law is a hyperbolic reference that suggests parents can police the behavior of their young-adult children. This euphemism also reminds young-adult readers that rules set for young adults are sometimes arbitrary or disregard a situation’s context. This language is a trait of young adult fiction and fits within the theme the relationship between young adults and authority, as it interrogates the ways that adults make and enforce rules in society.

“It spoke to me from beneath the wide brim of a workman’s hat.

‘Number forty-two is mine. Stay away from this place.’”

This threat given to Ryan by what appears to be the ghost of Joe Bush verifies the existence of the ghost for readers, meeting the expectations of a ghost story, which must sustain an atmosphere of supernatural fear. Additionally, the ghost’s claim of ownership of the Dredge as an asset number ties Joe Bush to New York Gold and Silver, highlighting the company’s corruption and its indifference to the damaging effects of its machinery upon the people and town of Skeleton Creek.

“Make sure to get rid of this stuff—my parents put something on my computer to monitor my activity (I disabled it)—did you check your computer? Some of this new stuff is harder to get around.”

Sarah parenthetically mentions that she disabled the parental controls meant to limit her internet activity to show how much more media-literate young people are than their adult counterparts. Still, she cautions Ryan to be careful, as their being caught could lead to the complete shutdown of their investigation.

“I’d never ask Sarah to stop making movies, so she really shouldn’t expect me to stop writing. She knows I can’t stop.”

This passage characterizes Ryan and Sarah as obsessed with both storytelling and their medium of choice. It also shows that the teens understand and respect each other even though they have different tastes in media.

“It was like I’ve already seen and heard this information through a dirty window, and now the window has been cleaned. Things I already knew have become a little clearer.”

This passage details Ryan’s remembering things he forgot after watching Sarah’s video. Ryan’s similes often compare an abstract process, like memory, to a physical object, here, a dirty window being cleaned. These literary devices save his descriptions, which are often based on his thoughts and emotions, from being too abstract. 

“The sound of the leg being dragged—dragged—dragged—and then ping! Something clicked forward in my memory.”

Ryan uses onomatopoeia to mimic the sound of the video. He goes on to explain that it is the repetitive sound that allows him to remember what happened. This passage fits within the motif of sound in transmedia storytelling because it demonstrates the link between sound and memory.

“Listen, Sarah, I don’t think I’m going to make it unless I turn this into a story. I’m going to crack under all the pressure. I can feel it. So, it’s a story, right?”

Ryan explains that he must fictionalize what they have learned in order to handle everything because it is too traumatic and terrifying. Ryan’s fear reinforces the danger they face in their investigation. Additionally, Ryan’s reasoning that he must think of the story as fiction adds to the story’s pretense of authenticity.

“I’ve spent the last couple of hours scouring the web for anything about Skeleton Creek [...] It’s like I’ve dug up all the bones I’m going to find and they make up only about a tenth of what I’m searching for.”

The simile works with the symbolism of the town’s name, as Ryan compares the clues he seeks to the bones from a grave. The fact that he has only found a small amount conveys the enormous task the teens have before them and the difficulty they will face finding more information. It also shows that Ryan has exhausted the internet as a resource, which means they will have to conduct the rest of the investigation in other, riskier ways.

“So now she’s diverging from Poe into Stevenson? Fair enough. I sometimes think she’s trying to tell me something with these passwords.”

Carman uses Ryan’s comments to explicate the importance of the passwords as literary allusions. This ensure that readers can identify the allusions and understand how they relate to the narrative thematically. The passwords are also clues to the mystery.

“It feels like my mom took a broomstick and started beating me with it. Whack! Whack! Whack!”

This simile is meant to establish the intensity of Ryan’s feelings, comparing a memory of pain to the current pain he feels in his leg as he searches his father’s room. However, the repeated whacking sound is similar to the tapping that Ryan and Sarah hear at the Dredge, foreshadowing a connection with Old Joe Bush’s ghost.

“2:13. I tried to pick up one of the cuff links, and the whole piece of cardboard lifted up out of the box [...] 2:15. They’re going to be back any second now. [...] My computer is scanning the piece of paper while I write. Come on—Finish! 2:18. They’re Home!”

This passage is a departure from Ryan’s typical journal-entry structure. Instead of writing a longer entry under a single heading, he records multiple timestamps within the entry as he waits anxiously for his computer to scan a piece of evidence. It is an example of showing rather than telling: The quick succession of time stamps reveals his panic without Ryan explicitly stating his feelings, as he does elsewhere in the novel. 

“I feel like the FBI has scoured my mattress and squeaky box spring, taken pictures, dusted for fingerprints—all the while with two-way radios wired to the kitchen so Mom could tell them if I was on my way and they could jump out the second-story window.”

This extended simile comparing his mother to the FBI illustrates Ryan’s paranoia, as his parents continue to monitor his behavior. It also positions him in the role of a prisoner and illustrates the growing antagonism that exists between the young-adult and adult members of the family. This fits within the theme of the relationship between young adults and authority, as Ryan struggles against the rules and regulations that his parents have set.

“This is the message that played on the Dredge the night I fell:

.-.-. .|-.-- -- ..-|- …. . |.- .-.. -.-. …. . -- .. … - |

The dots are the hammer, and the bars are the wrench. The message asks a question.”

Ryan uses typographic elements to represent a Morse code message. In this way, Carman blends transmedia elements by integrating different mediums. The message Ryan reveals is a breakthrough in the investigation, showing that print and digital media work better together than in isolation from each other, just like Ryan and Sarah.

“Are you the Alchemist?”

Alchemy is the medieval pseudoscience that attempts to create gold from different base metals. Alchemy is linked with magic and the occult, so the question Ryan decodes contains ominous overtones. The ghost’s search for the Alchemist suggests that the Alchemist might be responsible for Joe’s death. The connection between Joe’s death, gold, theft, and alchemy all hint at corruption and suggest that a crime has taken place.

“After about ten years, Sarah’s mom came back on the line.”

This example of hyperbole illustrates Ryan’s impatience as he waits for news about Sarah’s whereabouts from her mother. His impatience signifies how much he worries about Sarah, especially because he knows the context for her disappearance, which her mother does not.

“I hope I can escape the house without getting caught.”

Ryan’s language suggests that his home, a place that typically represents safety and security, is a prison. This fits within the theme of the relationship between young adults and authority and the traditional Gothic-horror trope of turning the domestic space into a place of danger rather than safety.