39 pages • 1 hour read
Liz MooreLong Bright River
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Then”
Mickey recalls the aftermath of her sister’s first overdose. When Mickey tells Simon about the episode, he is sympathetic and comforting. Over time, he becomes Mickey’s mentor, despite Kacey’s dislike of him.
Within a week of her overdose, Kacey again begins to sneak out at night. The rift between the sisters begins during this period: “On the nights Kacey was home, we two lay in the same bed, each with our own secret, a line drawn between us, a chasm that widened each week” (171).
As Mickey enters her senior year of high school, she applies to two colleges and gets into both. Gee refuses to fill out the application forms for student loans. Shortsightedly, she believes that an education will be useless and will put Mickey deep in debt. Heartbroken, Mickey turns to Simon for consolation. He suggests that she attend community college and apply to the police academy when she turns 19. At this point, she begins sleeping with Simon.
After two years on the force, Mickey saves up enough money to buy a house of her own. Surprisingly, Kacey is upset when her older sister moves out. Shortly after, Kacey is arrested for a robbery that sends her to Riverside Correctional Facility for a year. Mickey believes this stint in jail will finally give Kacey a chance to detox.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Now”
After the Thanksgiving holiday, Detective Nguyen briefs the patrol officers on developments in the Kensington strangulation cases. A video cam caught a brief shot of the first victim being followed by a man in a hoodie that reads “Wildwood.” The detective speculates that the killer is a white male in his forties, since this is the typical profile for such a criminal.
As Mickey makes her rounds that day, she shows the video footage around the Kensington neighborhood, but nobody recognizes the man. Later that day, she runs into Kacey’s hooker friend Paula. Although Paula has always been friendly to Mickey, she seems resistant to speak to a cop and denies telling anyone that Kacey has been missing for a month. When Mickey shows her the footage of the attacker, Paula seems to recognize him: “ Paula begins to laugh […] —Don’t bullshit me, […] That’s one of your guys, Mick, she says. That’s a cop” (197-98).
Chapter 11 Summary: “Then”
Mickey recalls her early days in the ugly old house she bought. She begins to decorate it slowly, grateful to be free of the constant stress and arguments at Gee’s place. Simon sometimes comes over to spend the night with her. She goes to visit Kacey at Riverside and realizes that her sister is finally getting past her addiction. The two women re-establish the rapport they lost because of Kacey’s drug use. When Kacey is released, Mickey invites her to move in. The two coexist happily for six months. Kacey even finds a job and a steady boyfriend. She also learns to tolerate the presence of Simon in her sister’s life.
Everything is going along well, though Mickey thinks, “I tried hard to ignore the low noise that thrummed throughout my day, some tolling, cautionary bell” (205). One day, Mickey returns home early from work to find Kacey upstairs with a friend. When she searches Kacey’s dresser drawer, she finds drug paraphernalia. Clearly, her sister has become addicted again.
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
This segment explores the origins of the fracture between Mickey and Kacey. The tipping point seems to be Kacey’s first overdose. After this episode, Mickey becomes judgmental of her sister’s increasingly self-destructive behavior. For her part, Kacey ceases to confide in Mickey because she feels ashamed of her inability to control her addiction. Although they are still sleeping in the same bedroom in Gee’s house, a rift has opened between them.
The house itself, and Gee’s poisonous influence, has a negative effect on both girls. Gee refuses to help Mickey apply to college. At the same time, Kacey can only escape her grandmother’s harshness by turning to drugs. Kacey sees Mickey’s decision to leave the house and buy a place of her own as the ultimate act of betrayal, as Kacey must now face Gee’s abusive personality alone. Her drug use escalates until she ends up in prison. Moore underscores the therapeutic absence of toxic families in the brief interlude when Kacey comes to live with Mickey in her new house. The younger sibling is temporarily able to kick her drug habit, while the older sister now feels as if she has re-established the rapport that she lost with her sister years earlier.
Unbeknownst to the reader at this point in the novel, the snake in this particular Garden of Eden is Simon. He illustrates the theme of abuses of power by seducing Kacey while he is still involved with Mickey. This arrangement drives Kacey right back to her addiction, prompting Mickey to kick her out, not realizing that the catalyst for her sister’s destructive behavior is Simon. The theme of police abuse is amplified in the episode when Paula tells Mickey that the probable Kensington serial killer is a cop.
