Survive the Night: A Novel

“She grabs her coat. Well, Maddy’s coat. A hand-me-down from her grandmother accidentally left behind when the rest of her belongings were carted away. Charlie found it under Maddy’s bed and claimed it as her own.”

The quote establishes Maddy’s coat as an ongoing symbol for Charlie’s love for Maddy and her cherished memories of her. The coat will appear multiple times throughout the novel, reminding the reader of The Devastation of Grief and the difficulty of processing that devastation when it is compounded by guilt. Charlie clings to this one article of clothing that belonged to her friend much as she clings to her guilt after losing Maddy so brutally.

“‘You’re still special, Charlie,’ Robbie says, ‘I need you to know that.’”

Robbie’s insistence that Charlie is special foreshadows his use of specialness as an indicator of a person’s worth, especially a woman’s worth. The quote, thus, foreshadows Robbie’s reveal as the Campus Killer and his murders of women he deems as “not special.” Because he compares Charlie to other women, especially Maddy, and blames his victims’ lack of specialness for their deaths, the quote demonstrates The Wrongful Blaming of Women for Misogynistic Violence.

“What’s not okay, at least to Charlie, is remaining in a place where she’s miserable. Where she’s reminded daily of a deep, painful loss. Where memories sting and guilt lingers and not a week, day, hour goes by in which she doesn’t think, I shouldn’t have left her. I should have stopped him. I should have saved her.”

The quote emphasizes The Devastation of Grief that plagues Charlie throughout the novel. Her immense grief, compounded by guilt, for Maddy’s death leads to her leaving Olyphant in an effort to escape it. This quote also foreshadows the reveal of Charlie’s suicide attempt before her departure.

“Instead of what’s really happening, I see a heightened version of the scene. Like my brain is playing tricks on me. I hear conversations that aren’t happening and see things that aren’t really there.”

This quote demonstrates The Blurred Lines Between Reality and Imagination. Charlie explains to Josh the way her hallucinations affect her perceptions. She once used them to cope with her grief, but now they are causing her to see things that are abnormal or that obscure her perceptions of reality. She blames these hallucinations for making her leave Maddy on the night of her murder.

“That’s when Maddy’s grandmother, overcome with grief, tilted her head back and screamed into the blue September sky.”

This quote showcases The Devastation of Grief that affects Maddy’s grandmother and eventually drives her to vigilantism. She loses herself in her grief and abandons any scruples about harming others, including innocent people like Charlie and Josh. Marge’s grief would later prove difficult for her to overcome, even more so than Charlie’s.

“And Charlie has no idea who the man driving her there really is.”

The quote incorporates Trust Versus Paranoia, showing that Charlie’s lack of knowledge about Josh worries her. His decision to hide his identity from her makes her suspicious that his intentions might not be good and that he might be dangerous. She starts to reconsider her decision to come with him as a result and starts questioning him soon after this scene.

“He could also be wondering why she’s suddenly asking so many questions. Or why she can’t seem to remember any of his answers. It makes Charlie add another item to her list of things to do, joining ‘be smart’ and ‘be brave.’

Be careful.”

This quote introduces the “Be smart. Be brave. Be careful.” motif, which shows the caution Charlie wishes to practice when she suspects Josh might be dangerous. As a result, this quote also drives Trust Versus Paranoia, showing that Charlie does not trust Josh. She uses this mantra throughout this section, using word choice and repetition to make the slogan memorable for her.

“Charlie waits a beat. Considering her options. Weighing which is smarter, braver, more careful.”

This quote draws on the “Be smart. Be brave. Be careful.” motif again, with Charlie using the same word choice and repetition to remind herself of her potentially dire situation. It emphasizes Trust Versus Paranoia by increasing the anxiety Charlie feels in her interactions with Josh. She limits herself to choices that she believes will limit the danger or damage she could cause for herself. As she delves deeper into her questions with Josh, she finds herself less trusting of him.

“Not that she’s certain Josh wants to do her harm. When it comes to the man sitting a mere foot away, nothing is certain. But it’s a possibility. Enough of one that she slides a little closer to the passenger door, trying to put an additional inch between them. Enough to keep her checking the side mirror, looking in vain for those headlights. Enough for the same six words to keep repeating through her head like a good-luck chant.

Be smart. Be brave. Be careful.”

The “Be smart. Be brave. Be careful.” motif appears again to indicate Charlie’s genuine lack of knowledge about Josh’s danger. Trust Versus Paranoia is central to this section, as Charlie realizes that she cannot be too careful. Charlie needs to be clever. She hopes that this strategy will be enough to keep her from doing something reckless.

“It doesn’t matter if Josh poses no threat. The alternative—that he does—is too risky to consider. It’s best to err on the side of caution. To be smart, to be brave, to be careful.”

In this passage, Charlie believes that Josh is the Campus Killer and does not trust him. She wants to escape, but she also does not want to do anything reckless that could make it easy for him to grab and harm her. The passage draws on the “Be smart. Be brave. Be careful.” motif once again to show how focused Charlie is on ensuring her security first and foremost. It drives the theme of Trust Versus Paranoia for this reason.

“If the map says it, then it must be true. It’s about the only thing she can trust.”

This quote uses Trust Versus Paranoia to show the effect of Josh’s gaslighting on Charlie. Instead of merely distrusting Josh, she now has difficulty trusting herself. She suspects that she could be hallucinating the whole trip, but when she sees the map, she realizes that it is real. With The Blurred Lines Between Reality and Imagination, Charlie can only rely on items like the map.

“But nothing about the situation is certain. She could be wrong about Josh. It could all be a huge misunderstanding. Her fanciful imagination running at full gallop because her life has been a guilt-ridden train wreck for two months.”

The quote shows Charlie’s continued self-doubt and her distrust of Josh. She concludes that her hallucinations are worsened by the traumatic event of losing Maddy and cannot completely trust her perceptions. These lines thus emphasize both Trust Versus Paranoia and The Blurred Lines Between Reality and Imagination. Charlie merely hopes that Josh is someone that she can trust, and if she cannot trust him, she must find a way to survive.

“But she’s uncertain. And anxious. And no longer capable of trusting what she sees. That’s what she should have told the woman instead of saying she didn’t trust Josh. She should have flat-out stated that it was herself she didn’t trust.”

This quote incorporates the themes of The Blurred Lines Between Reality and Imagination and Trust Versus Paranoia to show Charlie’s growing fears that she is going mad. She worries that she will no longer be able to trust herself if her hallucinations get worse. Her lack of certainty about whether or not she imagined the 20 questions game makes her feel like she is trapped in a horrifying scenario with an inability to know who to trust, including herself.

“If she can’t trust herself, then she needs to trust Josh.”

This quote incorporates The Blurred Lines Between Reality and Imagination and Trust Versus Paranoia to show Charlie’s growing fear over her hallucinations. She fears losing her grip on reality. One of Charlie’s major fears is that her hallucinations will leave her so vulnerable that she will eventually have no choice but to put her trust in others, even if they might be dangerous and have malicious intentions.

“This coat, so not her style in any way, is the only reminder of Maddy she has left. Now it’s, if not completely ruined, at least damaged. She can wear it again—and there’s no doubt she will—but it will be just like her memories of Maddy.

Irrevocably marred.”

This quote uses the symbol of Maddy’s coat. Charlie connects the stained coat to her memories of Maddy, which have been marked by her horrific and the trauma and grief that Charlie suffers because of it. Charlie fears that, like the coat, her memories of Maddy will always be marred by the guilt that blemishes them. For this reason, the quote uses The Devastation of Grief to show the depth of sorrow Charlie suffers.

“Women need to do that, you know. Look out for each other. There’s a special place in hell for those who don’t.”

This quote emphasizes Marge’s secret desire to make Charlie help her find the killer. Though she mostly blames the killer for Maddy’s death, she does not want to believe that Charlie cannot help her and does not want to die without finding the killer. This quote foreshadows Marge’s complicated relationship with Charlie later in the novel and their connection to Maddy through their grief and love for her. For this reason, the quote supports The Devastation of Grief. It also inspires Charlie’s epiphany that encourages her to find the killer.

“She blamed herself and hated herself and punished herself because that’s what women are taught to do. Blame themselves. Blame the victims. Tell themselves that since the Angela Dunleavys and Taylor Morrisons and Madeline Forresters of the world had sat through the same lessons on assault, received the same tiny bottles of pepper spray, and endured the same self-defense classes, it must have been their fault they were attacked. Or raped. Or killed.

No one tells women that none of it is their fault. That the blame falls squarely on the awful men who do terrible things and the fucked-up society that raises them, molds them, makes excuses for them. People don’t want to admit that there are monsters in their midst, so the monsters continue to roam free and the cycle of violence and blame continues.”

This passage demonstrates The Wrongful Blaming of Women for Misogynistic Violence. Here, Charlie acknowledges the role that victim-blaming and the idea of sole female responsibility have played in her guilt over Maddy’s death. She also realizes that she cannot blame herself or the women the Campus Killer hurt; only the Campus Killer is to blame. She, thus, decides that she must stop him from killing other women.

“Charlie was afraid that if nothing changed, she’d experience another unfortunate accident, this time with a different result.”

In this quote, Sager demonstrates The Devastation of Grief by revealing that Charlie’s grief, compounded by guilt, became so overwhelming that she attempted suicide. After she survived her attempt, she left campus because she feared she would try again and succeed. This revelation shocks both Josh and Charlie herself, showing how little Charlie has truly delved into her own grief before that night.

“When I found out Maddy was dead, it felt like someone had jammed this knife right into my heart and plucked it out. The pain. It was too much.”

This quote incorporates The Devastation of Grief by exploring Marge’s grief following Maddy’s death and how it affected her. It creates a parallel between her and Charlie, as they are both forced to confront their grief directly. This confrontation inspires Charlie to try to help Marge come to terms with her grief and Maddy’s death even if they cannot find the killer. It also expands Marge’s character and shows the depth and complexity she has.

“Just down the road is the bridge at the base of the waterfall. A short rickety span crossing the ravine. Beneath it, black water churns. It’s nothing compared to the fear rushing through Charlie’s body. Her terror is twice as dark and twice as volatile.”

This quote uses Trust Versus Paranoia to show that even though Charlie fears the danger of the ravine, she fears being murdered by her homicidal and treacherous boyfriend Robbie even more. This terror makes her willing to do something as reckless as driving into the ravine to avenge Maddy and survive Robbie’s inevitable attack. She knows that she cannot trust Robbie and knows she has the handcuffs and the means to escape the car when she must.

“Special girls don’t need to show off in too-tight shirts and too-high skirts. To get his attention, they don’t need to write their number on a napkin and slip it with a wink into his lap.”

This quote re-establishes The Wrongful Blaming of Women for Misogynistic Violence by showing how Robbie shames his victims, including Angela Dunleavy and Maddy. He uses “specialness” as an indicator of personal worth but appears to have specific ideas of what constitutes specialness in women. This world view is rooted in misogyny and causes him to blame women for the murders he commits against them.

“Now he’s making Charlie go away as well. He has no other choice. Keeping her alive is too risky. His specialness outweighs hers.”

This quote incorporates both The Wrongful Blaming of Women for Misogynistic Violence and Trust Versus Paranoia. Robbie decides that even though Charlie is more special than the women he murders, she is not special enough for him to spare or prioritize over himself. This is especially the case after Charlie drives his car into the ravine and makes it clear that she wants to kill him for killing her best friend. He also does not trust her, as he knows she will report him to the police or kill him if he spares her.

“But the bedrock truth is that surviving the night has left Charlie feeling lonelier than ever.

Maddy’s gone.

Robbie, too.

Now more than ever, Charlie’s in need of a new friend.”

This quote uses Trust Versus Paranoia to indicate that Charlie needs friends in her life. Having once distrusted Josh, she realizes now that he is a good man. She also wants to live her life to the fullest and to have friends that will enrich her life. She starts by accepting Josh’s friendship and his invitation to see a movie.