Daisy Darker

“There were plenty of other—better—options, but she chose to name me after a flower that often gets picked, trampled on, or made into chains.”

Here, the protagonist reflects on her mother’s decision to call her Daisy. Feeling the choice shows Nancy’s disregard for her, Daisy compares the way she is overlooked and dismissed by others to the fate of the flowers bearing her name. Her observation draws on the novel’s recurring floral motif.

“Pity fades with age, hate is lost and found, but guilt can last a lifetime.”

Referring to the Darker family’s concealment of her death, Daisy highlights the connection between secrets and the long-lasting effects of guilt, speaking to the theme of The Damaging Effects of Secrets. While the family succeeds in keeping their secret from the outside world, guilt is shown to eat away at the characters in different ways.

“The house is only accessible when the tide is out, and is completely cut off from the rest of the world at all other times.”

This description of Seaglass illustrates why it is the ideal location for a murder mystery. The house’s seclusion on an island that can only be reached at low tide creates the classic closed-circle scenario, where characters are trapped with an unknown murderer. Feeney’s setting deliberately evokes Agatha Christie’s novel, And Then There Were None.

“The clocks scared me as a child. I could hear them from my bedroom—tick tock, tick tock, tick tock—as though relentlessly whispering that my own time was running out.”

Here, Daisy’s observation draws attention to clocks as a symbol of mortality. The concept of the clocks as a memento mori is echoed during the murders when their chiming on the hour signifies another death.

“Sometimes love and hate get tangled, and there is no way to unpick the knot of feelings we feel.”

The protagonist highlights the motif of Broken Hearts as she remarks on the symbiotic nature of love and hate. The dynamics between the “dysfunctional” Darker family illustrate the co-existence of these two contrasting emotions.

“I spot a copy of Daisy Darker’s Little Secret on the bookshelf. Seeing it reminds me of my own secret. The one I never wanted to share. I lock it away for now, back inside the box in my head where I have been keeping it.”

Here, the theme of The Damaging Effects of Secrets is explored. Daisy connects the secret of her fictional namesake to her own skeleton in the closet. Unable to acknowledge that she is dead, she represses the knowledge deep in her unconscious mind.

“Stories change a little each time they are told, even when they are as rehearsed as ours. Like children, they grow and evolve into something new, something with ideas of their own. Stories are also lies, and we’re all storytellers in this family.”

The fine line between Storytelling and Lies is an ongoing theme of the novel. As Daisy points out, all the Darkers are liars, constructing narratives that suit their purposes. Daisy’s sisters and parents lie about the circumstances of her death, allowing others to believe that Mr. Kennedy killed her. Daisy lies to herself, fabricating a story in which she is still alive. Nana and Trixie are also talented storytellers, convincing the other characters of their innocence while committing the murders.

“The weather outside has worsened, providing a soundtrack of rain tapping at the windows, and the candles sometimes flicker when the wind howls.”

Daisy Darker combines murder mystery tropes with a Gothic atmosphere. Here, Feeney uses pathetic fallacy—a common Gothic device—as the tempestuous weather conditions reflect the heightened emotions of the characters.

“That nightmare people sometimes have, where they feel like they are falling? I have it all the time.”

Throughout the novel, the author provides clues that Daisy is dead. In this example, the protagonist’s description of her recurring “nightmare” is actually a traumatic flashback to the moment of her death.

“When I was a little girl, I used to imagine the sea coming in through the cracks in the walls, and the doors, and the windows, and rushing down the chimney while we slept in our beds, until Seaglass was full to the ceiling with seawater, and we were all floating and trapped inside.”

Daisy’s description of Seaglass filling with seawater and the occupants floating inside evokes the image of a snow globe. Her childhood fantasy emphasizes how Seaglass becomes a prison for the murder victims. The image also reflects how Daisy’s spirit remains stuck in the house until she liberates herself by telling her story.

“The diagnosis of my broken heart felt like a death sentence, and five is awfully young to find out that you won’t live forever.”

Here, Daisy describes how her heart condition looms over her life. Even as a child, she is conscious of her mortality and that her life expectancy is short. Her anticipated early death shapes the way Daisy sees the world and how others perceive her.

“Maybe finally, and for the first time, my family does know what it is like to be me; to live with the constant fear that today might be their last. I see the same fear on the faces of the residents at the care home where I volunteer; because they know their time is almost up.”

The novel’s theme of The Dispensation of Justice is highlighted as the Darker family is forced to see the world through Daisy’s eyes. Knowing they are likely to be killed, the characters become intensely aware of their mortality. Daisy’s evident satisfaction at this reversal of roles suggests her as a suspect.

“There’s no need to be afraid of the dead; it’s the living you have to watch out for.”

Nana’s dismissal of the threat of the supernatural and warning about “the living” echoes the events of the novel. As a powerless ghost, Daisy is invisible and incapable of harming anyone. However, Nana and Trixie dispense violent revenge on her behalf.

“Secrets are like unpaid debts: they pile up, and too much interest is best avoided.”

Here, the narrator alludes to a recurring theme: The Damaging Effects of Secrets. Employing the simile of interest accumulating on “unpaid debts,” Daisy suggests that the longer a secret is kept, the more harmful the effects will be. The statement applies not only to her family members but to Daisy herself, who conceals her death from herself for years.

“Time moves more slowly when your heart is broken […] Time stretches so that seconds seem like minutes, and minutes seem more like hours. It’s starting to feel as though I’ve been trapped inside this house with my family forever.”

Time is connected to the symbol of The Clocks in the novel, representing mortality. Daisy attributes the slow passage of time to her “broken heart.” However, her sense that time is indefinitely prolonged reflects her experience as a ghost. The narrator’s feeling of being eternally trapped with her family hints that her spirit is unable to move on.

“It was my first taste of fame, and I didn’t like the flavour. Just because someone has read a book with my name on the front, it doesn’t mean that they know who I am.”

Here, the protagonist refers to the boy who believes he loves her after reading Daisy Darker’s Little Secret. Annoyed when others confuse her identity with that of her fictional namesake, she perceives it as another example of others overlooking her. Daisy’s comment is also ironic, highlighting the novel’s intertextuality. By the end of the narrative, she realizes that she must write a new book with her name on the cover to express who she really is.

“Books will teach you anything you want to know, and they tend to be more honest than people.”

The theme of Storytelling and Lies is underlined here in Nana’s comment on the educational properties of books. Her observation takes on a double meaning when she and Trixie are revealed to have planned the murders with the help of Agatha Christie’s novel, And Then There Were None.

“I guess I’m one of those people who other people just don’t see.”

Feeney’s use of irony is again illustrated as Daisy reflects on her invisibility. Accustomed to being overlooked in life, she fails to recognize that she is a ghost and other characters literally cannot see her.

“Love is like the soil that hate needs in order to grow. I think it’s rare in relationships to have one without the other.”

Here, Daisy reflects on the complex nature of the Darker family’s relationships. Using a gardening simile, she suggests that love and hate are inextricably linked in their feelings for one another.

“I sometimes think our mother named us all after flowers because that’s what she wished we were. Flowers are much easier to pick, and arrange, and cut down to size than daughters.”

Drawing on the novel’s Flowers motif, Rose reflects on Nancy’s motivations when naming her daughters. Using an extended metaphor, she suggests that Nancy applied the techniques she used in gardening to parenting. As a result, she was a cold and critical mother.

“It’s a night I’ve always wished I could forget.”

Throughout the novel, there are references to Halloween 1988—the date that lies at the heart of the Darker family’s secrets. Here, Daisy appears to suggest she is remorseful for an incident that occurred on that day. However, it later emerges that she wants to forget her death and the involvement of her loved ones.

“Nana taught us that the devil is not a fictional man with a red cape and horns, he’s the voice inside our heads that tells us to do things we shouldn’t, he’s the eyes that pretend not to see, and the ears that pretend not to hear.”

Nana associates evil not only with “sinners” but with those who willfully ignore the wrongdoing of others. Encapsulating Nana’s uncompromising views of moral responsibility and The Dispensation of Justice, this passage explains why she murders Frank and Nancy as well as the characters directly involved in Daisy’s death.

“Seaglass has thin walls that like to eavesdrop, and tired floorboards that like to talk. This house has never been very good at keeping secrets.”

Throughout the novel, Feeney depicts Seaglass as a character in its own right. Here, the author’s personification of the house is illustrated in the claim that it likes to “eavesdrop” and “talk.” The comparison of the house to an indiscreet spy adds to the Gothic atmosphere of the narrative.