Corrupt

“‘You ran away from my brother, my family, your mother, and even your own friends,’ he pointed out, ‘but what if one day you found that all of those securities you took for granted—your house, your money, and the people who love you—weren’t there anymore? Would you need help then? Would you finally realize how very brittle you are without those comforts you seem to think you don’t need?’”

In this quote, Michael foreshadows how he and his friends plan to ruin Rika’s life. Additionally, he emphasizes how “brittle” she is, conveying that he still views Rika as a possession or object instead of a human.

“Erika Fane played her parts well. The dutiful, self-sacrificing daughter for her mother, the pleasant, agreeable girlfriend for my brother, and a shining student and beauty in our seaside community growing up. Everyone loved her.

She thought she was nothing to me, insignificant and invisible. She wanted me to open my eyes and see her again so fucking badly, but she didn’t realize that I already did. I knew the deceiving cunt that stewed underneath that perfect little sheen of hers, and I couldn’t forget.”

Throughout their lives, Rika and Michael are continuously watching each other. However, Michael feels like they cannot be together due to his family and—when he believes that Rika is the one who uploaded the damning videos—due to her betrayal of his friends and chosen brothers. The coarse and demeaning language he uses here emphasizes his toxic opinions about Rika’s personality and worth.

“Three years ago, curious little Erika Fane wanted to play with the boys, so we indulged her, and she betrayed us. There was no way we’d forget. Once restitution was paid, my friends could have peace.”

Michael’s thoughts reveal The Power and Limitations of Brotherhood. At this early point in the novel, Michael values his friends so much that he will destroy the life of the woman he secretly loves to avenge them. By assigning the blame to Rika—asking for “restitution”—he absolves his male friends of any responsibility for their wrongdoing. This shows that early in the novel, the guys have not grown up and still cling to immature feelings and desires from high school when they all felt like they belonged and were safe with each other.

“‘Toughen up,’ he bit out in a whisper as his breath fell across my cheeks. ‘You’re not a victim, and I’m not your savior. You handled it. End of story.’ […]

Michael had been right. I wasn’t a victim, and even though the thought of him showing up to save the day would’ve given me some kind of hint as to what he felt about me—if anything—the fact remained that I never wanted to be someone who couldn’t fight their own battles.”

Throughout the novel, people assume Rika is fragile because of her sheltered upbringing and tragic childhood. However, Michael always encourages Rika to find independence, freedom, and agency, emphasizing the theme of Overcoming Fear and Victimhood to Find Empowerment.

“They tell us that what we want is wrong and that freedom is dirty. They see chaos, madness, and fucking as ugly, and the older you get, the smaller that box gets. You feel it closing in already, don’t you?”

In the catacombs on Devil’s Night, Michael explains to Rika that the reason he pursues chaos is so he can have freedom. In this quote, he uses the first-person plural pronoun “we,” which implies that he believes Rika is like him and also wants freedom. While Michael and Rika may play games with each other’s emotions, they are more aligned than they believe.

“He didn’t want to know me. He didn’t like me.

And I wanted that fact to stop hurting. I was so sick of dreaming. Sick of having forced a relationship with Trevor because I believed he would set me straight, and sick of wanting a nightmare that treated me like a dog.

Sick of both of them.”

Initially, Rika is objectified by both Crist sons. Michael treats her cruelly, while Trevor treats her like a trophy. In the epilogue of the novel, it is revealed that Rika once witnessed Michael kill a dog out of mercy, so her choice of the word dog here suggests that neither Michael’s mercy nor Trevor’s cruelty is good for her. Instead, she must find her own agency and choose her own future.

“But that didn’t mean I really knew anything of youth culture, either. My hometown population was largely wealthy and well-connected. That wasn’t the average. How much of a threat would you be without money, connections, and daddy? Was the playing field more level without those perks?

That’s what I was trying to find out. Without my family name and their money, without my connections and their protection, what was I capable of?”

Rika grew up extremely wealthy and feels like that upbringing has kept her sheltered and without freedom. This quote foreshadows the guys’ plan to take Rika’s money from her—a challenge that allows her to learn how strong she is.

“I enjoyed the fear of the silent darkness, but it was something else, too. You became aware of things under the shroud of night that you didn’t see in the light of day. The things people hide and how lax they become with their secrets when they think everyone is asleep.”

Rika spends most of the novel being afraid and playing the role of a victim. However, Michael encourages her to see that she actually enjoys the adrenaline and vulnerability that comes with fear. This lesson ultimately aids her in Overcoming Fear and Victimhood and Finding Empowerment.

“‘When we used to wear the masks,’ Michael said, dropping his voice to a near whisper, ‘you liked it, didn’t you? It scared you, but it turned you on.’”

By wearing a mask, Michael is able to perform a role, emphasizing the theme of Freedom through Performativity. His relationship with Rika involves both games and masks, but the relationship is so solid and pure that he does not feel the need to perform for her; he can instead have the freedom to be himself.

“It never escaped my attention how she hid [her scar] around my brother, as if it made her less beautiful.

No. Our scrapes and bruises, tattoos, scars, smiles, and wrinkles told our stories, and I didn’t want a pristine piece of wallpaper. I wanted her and everything she was. At least for tonight.”

While most of the men in Rika’s life find her scar off-putting, Michael finds it beautiful. This shows that, unlike his father and brother, he sees her as a full, autonomous woman and not just a possession that has great financial value.

“I wanted to see who she was when she stopped caring what everyone else thought or expected of her.

When she finally realized that my opinion was the only one that mattered.

And even though she was always the one to watch me as we grew up, that didn’t mean I wasn’t always aware of her, either.”

Rika frequently admits to having watched Michael for their entire lives, but he also admits to watching her. Their frequent use of the word “watch” evokes the male and female gaze. While their gazes do involve sexual desire, they rarely objectify each other. Unlike the other men in the novel, who see Rika only as an object either for sexual gratification or for financial gain, Michael sees her as a complete person, and she does the same for him.

“The muscles in my arms tightened, and I stared ahead, trying not to care. No one comes between friends. Least of all a woman.”

Throughout the novel, Michael struggles to make room for both his friends and Rika in his life. However, the true test of the strength of his friendships is how his friends react to Rika after the reveal that she is not responsible for uploading the damning videos of them onto the internet. Interestingly, the one friend who still believes in the misogynistic stereotype that women always ruin male friendships is excised from the group, an event foreshadowed in this quote.

“But what was she going to get out of me? Was I enough?

Or was my father right? Was I not worth a damn? Even if I just admitted it to myself, I’d hurt her.

She was too young, I was away all the time, and for the first time in a long time I didn’t like myself. I didn’t like my reflection in her eyes.

She had too much power over me.”

Michael’s difficult and somewhat abusive relationship with his father leaves him with anxiety around power dynamics. He rarely wants to give up power because it makes him feel vulnerable and out of control. Rika is one of the only people who has power over Michael, and he initially resists dating her because he cannot stand to be vulnerable with her.

“Her voice was hard and strong, and even though I might not understand how she did what she did, I also knew I would never have to. I didn’t know what it was like to make hard choices.”

Alex serves as Rika’s foil in that she has to fight for every privilege and luxury she has, while Rika is born into vast wealth. Rika has a lot of compassion for Alex’s situation, but this quote foreshadows that soon Rika will also have to make difficult choices when it comes to her relationship with the Crist boys.

“There was no one to help me but me. You’re not a victim, his words came back, and I’m not your savior.”

When the guys finally confront Rika about her suspected part in sending them to prison, she initially flees out of fright. However, she soon remembers Michael’s advice to her on Devil’s Night: that she is the only person who can save herself. She confronts the guys, clearing her name and finding her agency.

“I narrowed my eyes on him. ‘You think the past three years have been easy?’ I charged. ‘I was the one to piss her off. She was mad at me that night, and you all paid the price. I had to look at her day after day…that lying, manipulative, vindictive bitch sitting two feet across the dinner table, knowing it was all my fault.’ I turned my head, looking between Kai and Will, and then back at Damon. ‘You’re my brothers, more than family. You guys served the time, and I have the guilt for it. We all paid.’”

Despite not going to prison with his friends, Michael still feels that he suffered immensely when his friends were imprisoned. His deep guilt and assumption that Rika was the one who uploaded the videos ultimately led him to be oblivious to the actual perpetrator: his brother.

“I’d fought back. I’d hurt him.

And I hadn’t run. Not like three years ago in the forest.

Being scared wasn’t a weakness. But letting it force my head down and my voice quiet was. Fear wasn’t the enemy. It was the teacher.”

When Damon attacks Rika, she lashes back at him physically instead of cowering. Her newfound ability to defend herself—to fight through fear—helps her realize that she can use fear to her advantage, an important step in Overcoming Fear and Victimhood to Find Empowerment.

“What if I’d completely corrupted her? What if she’d begun to like playing games too much, and the lust to play—and to win—overpowered her need for me?

What if her heart had hardened so much that she closed herself off in order to survive?

What if I was the one who had to bend?”

For most of the novel, Michael pretends that he doesn’t want to be in a relationship with Rika because he believes she betrayed him and his friends. However, this quote reveals that his true reason for resisting a relationship is that he is scared to be vulnerable with her. He is eventually able to overcome this fear by realizing that “bending” does not make him weak; it makes him a strong and compassionate partner.

“What the hell was the matter with me? Was all the power I felt pretending like she didn’t exist greater than how fucking good she felt when I had her in my arms?”

Michael initially believes that withholding love from himself—and instead seeking out pain—is the best way to feel powerful and in control of his life. However, his relationship with Rika helps him see that freedom can come from being in a safe and secure relationship.

“Michael. Michael, Michael. Always on my mind. Always inside of me.”

For most of Rika’s life, she has been obsessed with Michael. This quote has a double meaning. First, her obsession and love for Michael runs so deeply that she feels him in her body and DNA. Additionally, the couple has an active and imaginative sex life, meaning that Michael is physically and emotionally inside of her.

“Last night I swallowed shame and pushed boundaries, and I didn’t know if it was to test the trust, to test his love, or just to see the emotions that the experience would unfold between us, but I came out of it knowing one thing: that nothing could stop us.”

When Rika has a threesome with Michael and Kai, she primarily does it to help Kai get back in touch with his emotions after his stint in prison. However, she also does it to test the boundaries of her relationship with Michael. She learns through this sexual experience that their relationship will give her a lot of freedom, as long as she and Michael continue to push the boundaries of what they think a normal relationship can be.

“You’ll be just because I’m fucking angry, and I’ve got nothing to lose. I already lost everything, because just like a woman does, you fucked everything up. You came between brothers.”

When Damon kidnaps Rika for Trevor, he reveals his true motivation for wanting Rika gone. With Rika present, the dynamics of his friend group shift, and he feels isolated and abandoned by his brothers. However, Rika has come between another set of brothers, too: the Crist brothers. Damon’s strong hatred of women leads him to distrust Rika automatically.

“Something fell behind my eyes, and I didn’t blink. I might not have been able to choose between Rika’s life and the lives of my friends, but I had no trouble choosing between them and my brother.”

After Trevor is shot, he begs Michael to take him back to shore to seek medical attention. However, Michael cannot forgive Trevor for what he’s done, and he pushes his brother into the water to drown. This emphasizes that, in the novel, friendships are often stronger and more meaningful than biological relationships.