67 pages • 2 hours read
Meg ShafferThe Lost Story: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 25-Interlude 16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary
After riding all night, Rafe and Jeremy arrive at Granny Apple’s orchard, as suggested by the Valkyries. The orchard is next to the Angel Windows, one of the two entrances to Ghost Town. Granny gives the men a basket of Golden Sun apples. She asks them to repeat each of her instructions, such as that Jeremy and Rafe must take the apples, which contain sunlight and courage, to Ghost Town. They must also take care not to be separated. In Ghost Town, they must not believe even their own eyes, as anything can be deceptive. All they can trust is their own heart. Rafe and Jeremy eat an apple each for fortitude and set out.
Chapter 26 Summary
It becomes clear why this particular entrance to Ghost Town is called the Angel Windows. The door is a huge rock formation with three holes or windows in it; it is so scary that even angels are scared to go inside. Rafe can’t see what they’ll be stepping into, as there are just fields on the other side of the rock. Jeremy explains that Ghost Town itself is a ghost, as it is hidden—it will reveal itself only when they enter it. Jeremy kisses Rafe for courage, and Rafe enters one of the windows.
Interlude 13 Summary: “Storyteller’s Corner: The Ghost Town”
While in Shanandoah, there are two entrances to Ghost Town—the Angel Windows and the Devil’s Tea Table. In the real world, the only way to get into Ghost Town is to die with unfinished business.
Chapter 27 Summary
Rafe finds himself in a place that is a rotting, shadow version of his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia. The sky is sunless and filled with black clouds, and everything is covered in dust and ash. Rafe spots Jeremy in the distance and follows him to the discolored, ramshackle version of Jeremy’s big, blue house. Jeremy is in his old bedroom, clearly under Ghost Town’s spell. Jeremy tells Rafe that he saw his father, who told him that the reason he died by suicide was that he foresaw that Jeremy would leave his parents. Jeremy knew that this was a Bright Boy and destroyed his father’s apparition, but he feels awful, nonetheless. He is grateful that he still has Martha, his old dog who is dead in the real world.
As Jeremy cradles the shadow dog, Rafe reminds him that the dog is a deception, just as Granny warned. He begs Jeremy to eat the apple in his pocket. Jeremy refuses, so Rafe takes a bite of an apple and kisses Jeremy, forcing the sunny fruit into his mouth. The kiss generates heat and light and breaks the spell over Jeremy.
Martha begins to growl and turns into a Bright Boy. The Bright Boy taunts Rafe and Jeremy with Emilie’s St. Agatha medal, indicating that she has been captured. Rafe and Jeremy must now hurry to meet the King of Lost Virginia.
Chapter 28 Summary
As Rafe and Jeremy advance to save Emilie, Rafe tells Jeremy that he knows the kiss he gave him in Jeremy’s house was not their first. Rafe finally knows that he and Jeremy were in love in Shanandoah. They kiss again and walk ahead.
After many hours, Rafe sees the ghost of his old house. As Rafe feels the darkness from his house envelop him, he tells Jeremy that he is glad his father is gone. While Bill was alive, life was very difficult for Rafe and Bobbi.
Suddenly, Bright Boys surround Rafe and Jeremy, seizing their weapons and Granny’s apples. Jeremy is dragged to the back of the house since the king wants to see Rafe alone in the kitchen. Rafe enters the kitchen and sees his father at the table, wearing his old work clothes. Bill asks Rafe to sit, and Rafe obeys because he knows that this really is his father.
Interlude 14 Summary: “Storyteller’s Corner: Yes”
The storyteller confirms that the man at the table is actually the lost soul of Rafe’s father, and not just an apparition.
Chapter 29 Summary
Emilie is trapped in the cold basement of Rafe’s ghost house. She remembers Skya telling her that the Bright Boys feed on fear, so she sings Stevie Nicks songs aloud to keep her fear at bay.
Just then, Jeremy is thrust inside the basement, his wrists tied tightly with electric cords. Emilie brings out Fritz from her pocket, and the rat happily chews through the wires. Jeremy is freed. He kisses Emilie on the forehead and says that he must go find Rafe. Emilie tells Jeremy to wait because Skya has a plan. Skya let Emilie be captured so that she could give Rafe a message: “Do it in one” (338). Jeremy has no idea what the message means. Emilie also tells Jeremy that Bill has the book of Rafe’s memories. There is something in that book that Bill does not want Rafe to discover.
Jeremy tells Emilie that the book also contains memories of after Rafe locked himself in his room the night before they disappeared. Emilie wracks her brain, looks at the cords that Fritz has chewed, and realizes that the long scars on Rafe’s back are from electric cords. When she was working at a vet’s tech, she had seen similar scars on a severely abused dog. Emilie thinks that Bill did not just slap Jeremy but whipped him raw with an electric cord.
Chapter 30 Summary
In Bill’s company, Rafe is seized by a familiar fear: the fear that he is in trouble with his father. Bill tells Rafe that even he doesn’t know how he came to Ghost Town. All he wanted was a last chance to speak with Rafe. Rafe senses that Bill is hiding something with his words and calls him out. Bill tells Rafe that he has his book. Rafe needs to destroy the book, as it contains “misery […] trash” (345), which will only poison Rafe’s mind against Bill and Bobbi. Rafe realizes that Bill cannot destroy the book or open it because Skya had magicked it that way. When Rafe refuses to burn the book as Bill suggested, Bill asks the Bright Boys to bring Emilie.
The Bright Boys bring in a bound and gagged Emilie, wrenching her hair. Rafe cannot believe that Bill has turned into such a monster but realizes that the Ghost Town is getting to Bill. The Bright Boy finds the knife that Bobbi gave to Emilie and hands it over to Bill. Meanwhile, Emilie gestures “one” with her index finger. Understanding the gesture, Rafe asks Bill for one chance to make the perfect shot. If Rafe wins, Bill must leave. Bill agrees to the offer.
Chapter 31 Summary
Dozens of Bright Boys materialize in the backyard. Ripper nails a paper target to a rotten tree trunk, and Jeremy is made to sit under the target. The Bright Boys surround his father. Rafe realizes that it is not out of loyalty that they call Bill their king but because they feed on his fear. Emilie whispers Skya’s message to Rafe, so Rafe tells his father that theirs is a one-shot-only contest. Ripper brings out a red spider from his mouth and places it on the target above Jeremy’s head.
Rafe trembles with fear until he sees Jeremy’s calm face. Jeremy is calm because he knows that Rafe will hit the spider. Rafe stills himself and draws back the arrow. Telling Bill that he lied about his arrow being off-center, Rafe shoots the spider dead. Skya’s voice says, “West—By God!—Virginia!” (357).
Chapter 32 Summary
Skya stands on the roof of the house, shooting arrows at the Bright Boys. The fight turns against the Bright Boys, with Jeremy slashing at them. Bill sinks to his knees in defeat. When Ripper charges toward Rafe, Bill tosses Rafe Emilie’s knife. However, the knife falls on the ground a few feet away from Rafe. Ripper is already upon Rafe. Emilie grabs the knife and stabs Ripper in the back. Calling Emilie a mean girl who did not let him be a prince, Ripper dies.
Interlude 15 Summary: “Storyteller’s Corner: Pride”
The storyteller congratulates Emilie for her courageous feat.
Chapter 33 Summary
As all the Bright Boys disappear, Emilie, Rafe, and Jeremy hug. Emilie tells Rafe the truth about his scars. Rafe asks Bill if Emilie is right. Bill does not answer initially but confesses that he came to his room to talk to him, saw the taped-up pictures of Jeremy, and lost his cool. According to Bill, he only wanted to drill sense into Rafe since he believes that Rafe would have been ostracized for his love for Jeremy. Rafe reminds his father that the only person who ever ostracized him was Bill himself.
Skya steps forward and tells Bill that what he did was unconscionable. When she found Rafe, his wounds were infected. However, Bill still has some hope left because he gave Emilie’s knife to Rafe rather than his vile army. Bill will get one last chance to redeem himself. If he succeeds, his soul may find light, but if he fails, he will never feel sunlight again. Rafe is struck by the authority in Skya’s voice. He now understands why she is the queen of Shanandoah. The friends leave Ghost Town and do not look back at Bill.
Interlude 16 Summary: “Storyteller’s Corner: Reunion”
Walking from Ghost Town into another world is like emerging from a nightmare into a beautiful dream. According to the storyteller, this is what it feels like for Emilie and the others as they go into Shanandoah. The reunion between Skya, Rafe, and Jeremy is filled with emotion, though the sweetest is between Skya and Jeremy since Jeremy remembers Skya all too well. The two hug as if to make up for the last 15 years.
Chapter 25-Interlude 16 Analysis
This section takes the reader to the novel’s third prominent setting, which is Ghost Town. Ghost Town’s bleakness, following the enchanting landscape of Shanandoah, immediately switches the narrative’s tonality and atmosphere. As Rafe notes, the most frightening aspect of Shanandoah is not that it is a hellscape filled with monsters but its familiarity. Ghost Town is described as a nightmarish alternate to Rafe’s hometown, suggesting that it contains all the worst fears of the real world.
An example of how Ghost Town subverts reality is the banner, which usually reads “West Virginia,” being distorted to spell “Lost Virginia.” Another is the blue and yellow houses fading to a sickly gray and a brown snake eating a hole in the side of a house. As this description shows, Shaffer uses visual imagery to build the distinct world of Ghost Town and juxtaposes it against Shanandoah’s beauty: The colors here are all browns, whites, and grays, unlike Shanandoah’s glossy blues and pinks, creating a visually drab atmosphere.
Ghost Town’s scenery introduces a note of deep foreboding in the plot, foreshadowing Bill’s return and The Challenges of Self-Discovery that Rafe will soon confront. Tellingly, the villain of the novel is not a dragon or an ogre but Rafe’s own father—another way in which the novel infuses psychological realism into its fantastical plot. The reveal that Bill is the foe whom Rafe needs to defeat has been foreshadowed early on: Jeremy tells Emilie that Rafe finds it hard to deal with Bill’s death because there is unfinished business between them. Winter, the Valkyrie, describes the dangerous king of Ghost Town as an old foe of Rafe’s, who has defeated him before. The fact that Bill beat Rafe with a cord confirms that he indeed is an enemy figure for Rafe.
Bill’s treatment of Rafe illustrates the damage and trauma that parents can sometimes inflict on their children. Bill wishes to suppress every part of Rafe that threatens his sense of order, whether it be Rafe’s art, his sexuality, or his skill with a bow and arrow. In archetypal terms, Bill represents the malevolent father figure who consumes his own children to preserve the status quo and his own power. The archetype is common in many mythologies, such as that of Kronos, who devours his own children in Greek and Roman myths. The threat that Bill represents to Rafe in the present is that he does not want Rafe to remember the truth about him. Even now, Bill wants to control Rafe. However, unless Rafe defeats the control that Bill represents and accesses the entire truth, he cannot complete his heroic quest. Thus, Bill must be defeated.
While Rafe’s quest involves settling unfinished business with Bill, Emilie is also on a quest to accept that she can be brave and enterprising. Throughout the text, Emilie tells Jeremy that she is not particularly courageous. When Skya indicates that Emilie should rule Shanandoah in case Skya perishes, Emilie responds, “[W]ith Mom gone, I barely remember to pay the electric bill. […] I think I’d fail everyone” (294). In this section, Emilie finally accepts that she is as heroic as the other characters. She stabs Ripper, saving Rafe from death. In this instance, she is described as standing tall, “face set in stone, eyes pure gray steel” (359). Since Emilie is often shown as soft and dressed in pink, the deliberate comparisons to stone and steel indicate that she can be stoic and tough when the need arises.
The plot point of the spider is revisited in this section, with Rafe succeeding at the crucial shot just as Jeremy had predicted. Significantly, Rafe is able to make the shot because Jeremy is under the target; this signifies the redemptive and transformational power of love. It also ties in with Bill’s own lesson: that one must put one’s own heart where the target is and then aim for the heart. Jeremy is Rafe’s heart not only because Rafe loves him but also because Jeremy has always given Rafe the heart to achieve his dreams. It was Jeremy who admired Rafe’s paintings, igniting Rafe’s confidence in his art, and who believed that Rafe is a prodigy at archery.
Although the battle to save Jeremy is climactic, the text suggests that its real climax is yet to come. Bill and Rafe’s unfinished business is not yet settled. Bill appears stuck in his old ways, asking Rafe to hunt wolves with him even while Rafe is leaving Ghost Town. It is yet to be seen if Bill will take the last chance that Skya has promised him and redeem himself. Thus, the text sets up another mystery to be solved in its final section.
