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Bag of Bones

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  • Alternative Character Interpretation: With the reveal that she's Max's mentally ill daughter, Rogette's character becomes very open up for the interpretation. Does her sadism stems from her illness, or was she like that since the beginning? Did she recover from her mental illness and was diagnosed with leukemia in the process? Was she even mentally ill in the first place, or did the information was false so that she could assume different identity?
  • Catharsis Factor: While Max's death wasn't very satisfying to most of the readers due to the fact that he still got Mattie killed, the same thing cannot be said about Rogette. As a sadistic enforcer of her father and a relentless manipulator trying to kill Kyra, her Karmic Death can be very satisfying, especially that she died because of the man she tried to drown and the ghost of a woman whom she helped to kill.
  • Cry for the Devil: Sara, while brutal and unhinged, was, at the end of the day, another victim, whose murders and rapists never faced any consequences. Many readers found her to be sympathethic, and Mike himself admits that he feels sorry for her.
  • Fridge Horror: Just how much Jo suffered on the hands of Sara? Mike describes her screams as painful, and considering the fact that Jo's ghost lived in Sara Laughs for four years, Sara could have done anything to her.
  • Heartwarming Moments: In the finale, it's revealed that Jo's ghost still lives in Sara Laughs, and Mike also moved in there. So, after all the suffering, they did got back together.
  • Ho Yay: When Frank departs after Jo's funeral, he kisses Mike goodbye. On the lips.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Max Devore did so many horrible things, that it's actually hard to decide which one was the point of no return. It could be setting the forest on fire For the Evulz, which resulted in the death of Carla Dean. It could be trying to buy his own granddaughter from his daughter-in-law. It could be his attempt to drown Mike in Dark Score Lake. And finally, it could be comitting suicide to let Mattie think she won, and then sending George Footman to kill her.
    • While she's a pretty tragic villain for most of the time, Sara Tidwell crossed it when she started targeting the innocent descendants of her rapists — and said descendants were always children. As the novel progresses, she becomes much more evil and unhinged, manipulating Max into killing Mattie and making a deal with the Outsider to murder Kyra, who is only three years old.
    • Rogette crossed it when she tried to drown Mike in the lake and stone him, but what truly cemented it was sending Footman to murder Mattie and then trying to off her own niece even after Max's death.
    • Jared Devore crossed it when he and his friends gang raped Sara Tidwell and murdered her son, which caused the ghost of Sara to seek revenge on their ancestors.
    • George Footman and Richard Osgood were already established as pretty unpleasant people, but they only became truly unreedemable when they killed Mattie in front of her friends.
  • No Yay: Anytime Mike is aroused by Mattie. He has to resist the idea of having sex with her, considering he is twice her age.
  • Squick:
    • Mike's Erotic Dream is disgusting no matter with whom he has sex. First, he dreams about having necrophiliac sex with his dead wife, then he has a vision of intercourse with Mattie — who is twenty years younger than him — and finally, he gets a handjob from a ghost of Sara Tidwell.
    • Max mentions having sex with prostitutes and giving them cunnilingus. Considering the implied age-gap, it's more than unnerving.
    • Rogette's death can actually cause nausea — a piece of wood pierces her face, pokes her eye out and rips skin off of her, letting Mike to see her skull and muscles.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • Mike's mourning of Jo is pretty sad in its realism, especially how much of a burden her death became to him, as well as the fact she was pregnant.
    • Mattie's death. After facing ostracism for several months and almost winning a custody battle with Max, the poor woman is shot dead while celebrating her seeming victory. Even if her final moments, all she can worry about is her daughter.
    • Carla Dean's death. An idea of a small child Dying Alone is already horrible, but then it's revealed that her father drowned her in a lake under the influence of Sara, who made him think that he was saving her from suffering.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: Max Devore has a gay son, leading to a few references to gay marriage not being legal in all states at the time. Mike is also uncomfortable with his lawyer’s cynical strategy to use this to turn the jury against Max.
  • The Woobie: Mattie Devore was raised by alcoholic parents, both of whom she lost in a young age. She managed to happily marry Lance and give birth to Kyra... but then her husband died and her father-in-law started trying to take away her daughter from her. She lost all of her friends and her job, and when she thought she finally won, she was shot dead by George Footman.

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