What Lies in the Woods

“After that, it belonged to everyone, and each found a different part to tell again and again, polishing it smooth.”

The intense and voyeuristic public interest that quickly arose around Naomi’s experience in the woods made the event even more traumatic for Naomi and led to confusion and misrepresentation about what happened. If there had been less publicity and pressure, Naomi might not have readily agreed that it was Stahl who attacked her. The quotation uses the metaphor of a rock or gem being worn smooth by repeated handling to illustrate how the shape of the story of what happened in the woods is changed by the involvement of others.

“Soon enough our friendship turned downright feral. Forbid us to see each other and we’d spit and claw and sneak out into the woods until our parents relented.”

Naomi’s memories of the intense childhood bond between herself, Liv, and Cass introduce themes of social class and power into the text. Naomi came from a very different social context than her friends, and there was tension between the parents of Cass and Liv. The girls were still young enough for these social constraints not to matter enough for them to explicitly notice or acknowledge; however, their desire to deliberately act outside of social norms, clinging to their independence and freedom, shows that they were subconsciously aware of Jealousy and Tension Within Friendships—only in the woods could they have social equality.

“I’d lied to the police. I’d lied on the stand. I’d lied to myself, told myself I’d seen Alan Michael Stahl in those woods—and maybe there was even a time I’d believed it.”

Naomi begins to reflect on, and recognize the impact of, a choice that she made years ago. After Stahl’s death, Naomi becomes increasingly haunted by the knowledge that she falsely accused a man who spent the rest of his life in prison. The quotation reveals how moral complexity is created within the novel: Naomi must decide if she was justified in lying even though Stahl killed other women. It also develops the Destructive Consequences of Secrets and Lies, providing one of many examples in which characters lie and misrepresent reality.

“We knew the world was cruel and dirty and dull, and it was all so brutally unfair that we refused to accept it. There was magic in the world. We only had to find it.”

Naomi reflects on her experiences playing the goddess game. The game was powerful because the girls were on the cusp of adulthood, resisting the reality they were going to have to live in for the rest of their lives. The quotation reflects the cynicism that impacted the girls even at a young age.

“Liv was dead. She’d killed herself, but we’d killed her too.”

After Liv’s lifeless body is found in the pond, Naomi is initially persuaded that Liv’s death resulted from suicide. However, Naomi also immediately feels an acute sense of responsibility, which motivates her actions in the remainder of the plot. Naomi feels the need to finish Liv’s work of bringing the skeleton’s identity to light because she feels that she let Liv down by not being more supportive.

“I hated police procedurals. I didn’t read mysteries. […] Being part of one of those stories had ruined the rest as far as enjoyment was concerned, and I had no desire to gaze into the maw of human darkness in some quest for understanding.”

As Naomi struggles to begin her investigation into the identity of the skeleton, she considers the rise of the true crime genre, which she has avoided because of her traumatic experiences. This provides a critique of true crime entertainment by implying that it is insensitive to victims of violence. Naomi also undermines the idea that true crime can help with understanding criminal psychology and implies that it mostly serves to entertain those who are fascinated by gruesome events.

“She hadn’t been our talisman, our goddess, our protector. She had been a girl, so much younger than I was now, who died in the forest and was lost. Who was missed. Who was mourned.”

When Naomi identifies the skeleton in the woods as belonging to Jessi Walker, Naomi finally confronts Jessi’s humanity as a victim, realizing the impact of her choice to keep the skeleton secret for decades. As young girls, Naomi and her friends couldn’t fully see how important it might be to tell someone about the skeleton they had found—they did not consider externalities like Jessi’s family. This quotation shows how Naomi has changed and matured over the two decades since she first found the body.

“I have never been able to silence my thoughts with alcohol. It only ever blunts my defenses, lets loose all the creeping things in the corners of my mind. I’ve found other ways to cope.”

When Naomi has sex with Ethan for the first time, she feels overwhelmed and distressed by the investigation and wants to numb herself to these feelings. Naomi compares the way she uses sexual encounters to the way someone else might use alcohol, making it clear that she doesn’t pursue sex from a desire for pleasure or connection, but rather as a maladaptive way to cope with trauma.

“It would be years later and far away that I’d finally recognize what it meant—that I had been more than a little in love with Olivia. Gay was just a synonym for stupid when we were growing up in Chester. Bisexual was a punchline to a dirty joke.”

Naomi reflects on her close bond with Liv and the intense feelings she felt for her friend when they were girls. Because Naomi didn’t have any context for understanding that she could be attracted to other girls, she couldn’t make sense of these feelings. This quotation provides additional context for why there was such an intense emotional rivalry between Naomi, Liv, and Cass and how this dynamic spiraled into violence.

“Everyone I’d ever been with, I’d been trying to be a particular version of myself. With Mitch, I was an artist who could make some meaning out of her damage.”

Naomi’s history of her romantic relationships, including her relationship with Mitch, is based on her insecurity. Because Naomi does not believe that she is worthy of love and struggles to feel safe, she is inauthentic with her partners, modeling her behavior and personality on their desires rather than being herself with them. With Mitch, Naomi feels pressure to engage with her past traumas, even though she would rather leave them behind.

“Sometimes it seemed like the only thing I’d ever been good at was surviving being broken. I didn’t know how to be whole. So any time I felt like I was healing, I found a way to break myself again.”

This quotation reveals Naomi’s destructive and self-loathing mindset in the wake of the events she survived. Naomi purposefully put herself in unsafe and unpleasant situations, such as pursuing sex with Oscar, because she doesn’t think she deserves to feel safe and happy. This quotation shows the challenge that Naomi faces if she ever wants to put her past behind her: She needs to accept that she deserves to move forward and build a stable and happy future.

“I’d tried to be Artemis, the fearsome huntress, since the summer began, but there was none of her in me now. Only the quailing fawn before the hunting dog’s snapping teeth.”

When Naomi thinks back to Oscar sexually assaulting her when she was 11 years old, she uses a metaphor comparing herself to a baby deer being attacked by a vicious dog. This metaphor emphasizes how vulnerable and fragile she was and how aggressive Oscar was toward her; the specific reference to animals continues the motif of the feral just under the surface of the civilized and echoes the draw and horror of the woods in the rest of the novel.

“You wanted to get hurt, so you went to someone who’d be happy to hurt you. It doesn’t mean it was anything close to okay.”

After Naomi admits to Ethan that she has had a sexual relationship with Oscar for years, Ethan characterizes her motivation as self-destructive. This relationship began when Naomi was just 15 years old and asked Oscar to come to the woods and have sex with her. Ethan shows his compassion and astute understanding of Naomi’s psychology by explaining that the adult Oscar took advantage of her and that Naomi was trying to process her trauma by seeking a violent encounter.

“But Ethan was a good guy, I thought. Improbably enough.”

Naomi is learning to trust Ethan because he has consistently been caring and attentive toward her. The quotation shows that Naomi is finally beginning to be vulnerable, even though she has had many negative experiences with other men. In light of subsequent events, the description here is ironic; Ethan may be a good guy, but he is actively deceiving Naomi about his identity just as she is praising his integrity.

“If you didn’t know the whole story, you would think that something terrible happened to the two of them, and you didn’t even exist.”

Ethan makes this comment to Naomi after Liv’s funeral, discussing the speech that Cass gave. Ethan is unimpressed and even suspicious of Cass’s attitude, noticing details that Naomi overlooked. The difference in their reactions shows the extent to which Naomi is still under Cass’s sway: She doesn’t notice that Cass omitted her, whereas Ethan catches on immediately. This shows that Ethan genuinely cares for and feels protective toward Naomi.

“Whatever I felt, it was for a man who didn’t exist.”

When Naomi learns that Ethan has been lying to her and that he is Stahl’s son, Naomi is devastated because she has developed romantic feelings for Ethan and sees him as someone she can trust. By saying that Ethan doesn’t exist, Naomi reveals how completely her impression of him has changed; she can never think of him in the same way. Naomi is particularly sensitive to this betrayal because she finds it so difficult to trust people in general.

“There was violence in him, always. I had tasted it on his skin: salty sweat and bottomless rage at the world.”

Naomi questions whether Oscar could be responsible for Jessi’s death. She has always known that Oscar has the capacity to be violent—this is part of why she sought out a relationship with him. Naomi reflects on her encounters with Oscar in a visceral description that uses taste and smell imagery, implying that she has simultaneously been aroused and frightened by him.

“These were not the scars of an execution. This was rage. The person who did this to me wanted me to suffer.”

As Naomi struggles to understand, once and for all, who attacked her, she contemplates the scars on her body and the particularly aggressive and violent nature of the attack. This sets the stage for Naomi drawing closer to the truth: The rage someone would have had to feel to attack her in such a way makes it particularly shocking—but also completely in keeping with the friendship dynamics the novel has explored—when Cass and Liv are later revealed to have been the ones to attack her.

“Let me stand in the woods where I’d bled, where I’d almost died, and let me unweave everything that had followed.”

Naomi grows more desperate to understand the violent events that happened in the woods. Confused, she finally decides that the best thing to do is to return to the site of the attack and see if she remembers anything. Naomi feels that all the lies that have happened in the wake of the attack have obscured the reality of what happened. As the earlier metaphor of the smooth pebble explains, her memories are entirely unreliable, so she wants to return to the physical scene of the crime, the place before the lies and confusion began.

“My certainty fractured. I couldn’t remember. My memories had been too firmly overwritten with lies; I couldn’t trust them.”

As Naomi continues her investigation and uncovers more information, she becomes less and less certain. Investigating is difficult for Naomi not only because she must dwell on her traumatic past but also because it leads her to doubt the narrative of her life. The quotation shows Naomi’s commitment and self-awareness: She knows she can’t rely on her memories because those can be inaccurate. Unlike in the aftermath of the attack, she wants to ensure that everything is fair and objective this time.

“She really believed that Persephone was going to take you to the underworld and then bring you back. She thought she was helping you.”

Liv’s mother admits that Liv stabbed Naomi. While Liv’s parents know that what their daughter did was wrong, they rationalize it because of Liv’s mental illness, which left her unable to distinguish between fact and fiction. The quotation alludes to the myth of Persephone (See: Background); Liv’s parents do not think that their daughter was bad or violent, but simply a confused young girl.

“I had nothing left in this world. Not one thing to fight for. Nothing except myself. It was enough. Somehow, it was enough.”

As Naomi struggles to get away from Cody in the woods, the odds are not in her favor, and it would be tempting to give up and accept that she is going to die. However, Naomi finally values herself enough to want to fight for survival. This moment marks the completion of Naomi’s healing and growth: She no longer needs someone else to give her a sense of self-worth.

“The secret had stayed lodged under his skin like a splinter, and infection had festered around it. Until we found it, and pricked our fingertips with that diseased bit of wood, and the infection had entered our blood as well.”

After Naomi finally learns from Cody the complex series of events around Jessi’s death, the attack, and Liv’s death, Naomi uses a metaphor comparing the first secret (Cody left Jessi in the woods after she fell and hit her head) to a splinter that created disease and decay. The imagery vividly plays into the theme of the Destructive Consequences of Secrets and Lies. The comparison to a splinter also shows how serious consequences build: Jessi’s death was not murder, and if Cody had done the right thing and taken responsibility immediately for getting help for her fall, many other worse events could have been avoided.