57 pages • 1 hour read
Megan MirandaAll the Missing Girls
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Natural Environments
The novel’s setting plays a crucial role in shaping the lives of the characters. The natural landmarks of Cooley Ridge—the forest, the river, the caverns, the meadow—all have very specific associations and are tethered to certain memories. When they were children, Nic and her friends would play in the meadows. As teenagers, they’d explore the dangerous caverns. As they grow older, these places take on new meanings.
The forest is a space shared between generations: “There were secrets in those woods—the past rising up and overlapping, an unstoppable trail of dominoes already set in motion” (103). When Nic walks between the trees at night to the Carter property, she notes that since she’s left Cooley Ridge, the place has been filled with “too many unknowns” (54). These “unknowns” arise out of the darkness of night. But since Corinne’s disappearance—and now Annaleise’s disappearance—they inspire fear in Nic, not spooky whimsy, as they did in childhood. This fear, no matter how tangible, is still seductive, and was inspired by the dares the friends used to give and take as tokens of loyalty.
What makes these spaces such an integral part of Cooley Ridge is their accessibility. They lack supervision and maintenance; they are places where anything can happen to anyone and no one will know. Aside from being literally hideouts for those seeking solitude (in this case, kids and teenagers and those hoping to disappear), they make Cooley Ridge unique. The important memories are not just made at home, but are rooted in the soil of the forest and the rocks of the caverns.
Varied Degrees of Reality
In order to make sense of the disappearances, Nic knows that she must “understand how everything looked” from the girls’ points of view (225). She searches Annaleise’s apartment, mines information from those who knew her, and traces her steps through the woods into the window of the motel room. Although she walks Annaleise’s path all the way to the scene of the girl’s murder, her own associations with the story are inseparable from the facts. Although Annaleise has explained the motives for her actions toward the Farrell family, Nic is still on the receiving end of blackmail. As much as she can understand what happened, there is no way for her to completely disregard the trauma Annaleise has caused her father.
This relationship between Nic and Annaleise’s disappearance is much more nuanced than the public realizes. When the police arrive at the Farrell residence after finding Annaleise’s body, Nic gives them “the story they wanted in the first place” (348). She and Tyler get in the shower then answer the door together, so as to meet the police officers’ expectations. Nic is well aware of how the public’s opinion can outweigh the facts of a case. When she is at Laura’s baby shower, she is provoked to leave by hearing all the gossip of the partygoers. One woman goes so far as to claim that “Corinne got what she deserved. Put them all in their place, didn’t it” (247). Everyone knows about Corinne’s more infamous moments. They spite her for her flirtatiousness and her risky behavior. To them, she’s just a husk of a human, incapable of interiority. These versions of reality are the simplest: cause and effect. To understand Corinne’s life and get to know her means that one has to let her in and understand her complexities, which are accompanied by trauma and pain: “Corinne was the rabbit. We followed her down, down, down, and she left us here” (323). This is why Nic’s own opinions of Corinne are pulled in various directions as she returns to Cooley Ridge. Even within her friend group, the recollections from the night at the fair vary depending on who saw what. Nic’s quilting together of these stories to solve the mystery is a testament to the importance of how a collective memory is made whole by its constituents.
Responsibility
Throughout the book are various examples of responsibility that are either respected or abandoned. It is from an overwhelming sense of responsibility that Laura murders Annaleise, in order to stop the secrets and blackmail and realize the “life she was owed” (344). After Nic takes the engagement ring from Tyler and tells him she’s pregnant, she leaves town for Philadelphia and starts a new life. The burden of responsibility is too overwhelming for Nic to confront. She felt she could put it behind her, and tells herself: “I had everything I wanted waiting for me in Philadelphia. A whole life there” (109). What begins pulling her away from Everett and her life in Philadelphia is the realization that her deepest emotions and memories cannot exist outside Cooley Ridge. The only way for her to achieve some semblance of peace is to lay Corinne and Annaleise to rest. Nic’s responsibility to her father caused her to return home. Her return also caused Annaleise’s disappearance. If she hadn’t returned home with her ring and her impression of wealth, Annaleise wouldn’t have started blackmailing her.
Everett’s responsibility to Nic’s family to play the part of lawyer extends only as far as his relationship with Nic. As soon as she mentions that she’s slept with Tyler, he walks out the door, “fingers, digging and digging,” into his skin (356). Nic’s irresponsibility is painful for him. She has fulfilled her responsibility to Tyler and, in exchange, broken her responsibility to Everett.
These different kinds of responsibilities, both ones that are instilled by society (the responsibility to let the police into the Farrell house with a warrant) and those that are more abstract (Laura’s responsibility to accept the generous gift from Nic), are a driving force of the book.
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By Megan Miranda
