Twisted Hate

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-40

Chapters 41-50

Chapter 51-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Beauty as a Measure of Value

Josh is often referred to as egotistical or vain, yet admits to caring about his appearance because he realizes “the world traded in appearances, so it made sense for [him] to look as good as [he] could” (159). Jules, too, is often judged for her appearance, resulting in insecurities that affect her daily life. Jules’s fraught childhood with her vain mother, Adeline, gives Jules her first glimpse of the importance of beauty. Adeline is a former model who spends her paychecks on beauty products instead of bills. As Jules grows from an awkward child into a young woman, instead of loving her unconditionally, Adeline becomes envious and resentful. In realizing that “[her] own mother viewed [her] as competition instead of family” (141), Jules begins to equate beauty with self-worth.

Adeline uses her beauty to win the affection of Alastair, the wealthiest man in Whittlesburg, Ohio. This teaches young Jules that the path to financial stability and happiness is through beauty, which is why 17-year-old Jules is drawn to Max’s “looks, charm, and flashy car” (176). Throughout their relationship, Max involves Jules in crime and speaks to her condescendingly about her dream of becoming a lawyer, insisting she is “way too hot to be stuck in some musty courtroom all day” (141); he suggests she be a model and “capitalize on that face and body” (141). Max solely judges Jules based on appearance, assuming she lacks intelligence and framing her supposed lack of intelligence as a compliment. Years later, Jules’s one-time date Todd and Josh’s coworker Micah make the same mistake. Todd stands Jules up for a date until he notes her curves, and Micah tells Jules that she doesn’t look like a typical law student. Even Josh, Jules’s love interest, calls her by a hated nickname—“JR,” short for Jessica Rabbit (an animated character known for her curves)—before eventually stopping.

When Max blackmails Jules for a painting she finds hideous, he claims that “value doesn’t always equate to beauty” (388); he insinuates the same is true for Jules. Again, Jules’s harassment by her former loved ones informs her views of herself and love. She is more comfortable with hookups than long-term relationships because they involve no “deep conversations or friendship or hope for some time of future. Just sex. It was all [she’d] ever given, and all anyone wanted from [her]” (265). However, through her relationship with Josh (who also partakes in hookups to ignore his issues), Jules is able to work through her beauty-related insecurities.

Adrenaline Providing Distraction

Both Josh and Jules use adrenaline to distract them from issues. While adrenaline increases concentration, it doesn’t take away pain, only distracts from it. It makes Josh and Jules feel temporarily invincible, allowing them to overcome stressors such as saving patients or studying for exams. However, in chasing the high of thrills, they run from their dark pasts.

Josh is a “notorious adrenaline junkie” (35), and though his father wanted him to pursue a career in surgery, he chose emergency medicine because of its intensity. To Josh, “busy was good. Busy kept [his] mind off other things” (15). He thrives in dangerous situations, which is why he joins his sister on her trip to Vermont—to ski a triple black diamond—despite knowing then-enemy Jules will be present. When given the opportunity to face the past and find closure (i.e., his father’s weekly letters), he finds it “ironic how quickly [he’d] jump off a literal cliff, bridge, or plane, but when it came to the personal moments, the ones that mattered, [he] was a child standing at the edge of a pool for the first time. Scared. Hesitant” (337). In avoiding his emotions, Josh takes physical risks to feel alive. It is through his relationship with Jules that he finds a similar, healthier rush.

Jules believes “distraction was the key to repressing memories” (29), and law school has been her most effective distraction. She struggles with her past and worries about the stability of her future, which makes distractions “the only lifeline [she] [has]” (89). While her proclivity for adrenaline is not as potent as Josh’s, she revels in parties and such to escape obsessive thoughts. Jules’s recklessness is a point of contention between her and Josh, as she’s involved his sister, Ava, in trouble over the course of their friendship.

Josh and Jules’s initially hateful relationship ironically becomes a healthier distraction than physical challenges and parties. Together, they experience catharsis, a release of repressed emotions. Early on, Josh admits that while “adventure sports were [his] physical release, sparring with Jules was [his] mental one. Nothing else gave [him] quite the same rush” (82). Though their relationship starts with insults and sex, it develops into something deeper. Their underlying feelings for each other make their sex less of a physical rush and more of an emotional catharsis. After their first hookup, Josh and Jules realize the value of opening up to someone who’s seen them at their worst. Instead of continuing to suppress their feelings, they start to seek opportunities to purge their emotions without fear of judgment.

Freedom in Closure

Both Josh and Jules try to escape their pasts, with Josh ignoring his past by immersing himself in physical challenges and Jules doing the same through recklessness. Their failure to face their pasts and find closure prevents them from overcoming grudges, insecurities, and trust issues—making long-term romantic relationships and transparent friendships impossible. Being similar people, their romance provides the support they need to realize that “moving on from the past didn’t mean burying it beneath a new foundation and hoping no one found it; it meant exposing the ugliness to the light and taking responsibility” (393). In learning to acknowledge their pain, Josh confronts his issues with Michael and Alex and Jules confronts her past with Adeline, Alastair, and Max.

Josh’s anger holds him hostage: He hides his father Michael’s weekly letters without reading or throwing them out, and hates himself for his curiosity because “it felt like a betrayal” to both his sister, Ava, whom Michael attempted to kill, and his mother, whom Michael framed for his murder attempts (160). In refusing to deal with the letters or visit Michael in prison, Josh is “holding onto a remnant of the man [Michael] used to be” (160). By holding on to a past that no longer exists, he allows “thoughts of [Michael] to fester like cancer. Slow, invisible, and gradually bleeding [Josh] of life until [he] was nothing but a shell of [himself]” (315). By fixating on past relationships, he is unable to contend with his present and future. But with Jules’s help, he realizes he’s been prolonging his closure. Though his visit to prison proves disappointing, as Michael is unchanged, Josh is now open to healing. He severs ties with Michael after realizing he will never change but reconciles with Alex after seeing how much he has changed.

Jules’s behavior is dictated by fear and insecurities instilled in her by her past. Though she’s made strides to better her life, “the whispers from [her] past reasserted themselves, making [her] question everything [she’d] achieved and strived for” (142). She first finds closure at her mother Adeline’s funeral, having built up her childhood home in her head when in reality, the funeral proves manageable. With her deceased mother and stepfather Alastair behind her, Jules must face Max, who’s followed her to the present. When Max blackmails her into stealing Josh’s painting, she’s terrified of telling Josh the truth and him leaving her, so she instead betrays his trust. Max’s own inability to find closure with Jules results in his death, despite her pushing him to move on from the past as she has. In the ultimate act of closure, Jules reveals her past and robbery—freeing herself of Adeline’s, Alastair’s, and Max’s influences regardless of Josh’s reaction.