51 pages • 1 hour read
Jessa HastingsMagnolia Parks
Jessa HastingsFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A 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 31-46Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary: “Magnolia”
Christian accuses Magnolia of using her boyfriends. Magnolia admits to Gus that she loved Christian once, but never as much as she loved BJ. Gus also guesses that she is now developing feelings for Tom. He says, “All these boys are loopy because of you” (215), but this comment is not meant to be a compliment.
Chapter 32 Summary: “BJ”
BJ is nervous, feeling that his romantic date with Magnolia could be a shift in the wind. Luxury isn’t enough to impress her, so he takes her on a boat ride to a secluded beach and offers her a picnic. He asks her how she feels about Tom but privately thinks, “She loves me, she wants to be with me, I can tell she does. I’m watching her climb over the walls she built around herself” (221). Magnolia asks him why he cheated on her, saying that she wants to “process it properly, and move past it, so it doesn’t kill me forever” (222). BJ tells her that he cheated simply because he wanted to. Hearing this, Magnolia demands to end the picnic and return to the hotel.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia returns to the hotel room, and when Tom looks at her sympathetically, she feels a change in their relationship. She cries over BJ, and Tom holds her. She feels broken and expendable in BJ’s eyes, but in Tom’s arms, she feels safe. BJ finds them at the bar having drinks and complains that Magnolia does not know what she wants. He also accuses her of being selfish. Magnolia thinks of herself and BJ as wild horses running down a cliff, spewing venomous words at each other, as if “all that’s left of loving each other is hating each other” (229). She tells BJ that she wants him to leave her alone, but she is lying.
Chapter 34 Summary: “BJ”
Back in his hotel room, BJ becomes overwhelmed by his feelings and does two lines of cocaine through a 100-euro note. He then joins his friends and flirts with the bartender. Henry tells BJ to pull himself together. The bartender leads him toward the toilets, and BJ thinks of Magnolia as the woman takes off his clothes. Magnolia sees them and runs away.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Magnolia”
After she sees BJ with the bartender, Magnolia runs back to the hotel room and kisses Tom, then asks if he would like to have sex with her because she wants to sever herself from BJ for good. While she and Tom have sex, the only things she can think about are BJ and his tattoos.
Chapter 36 Summary: “BJ”
Magnolia knocks on BJ’s hotel room door at 2 am, wanting a hug. He guesses that she had sex with Tom and wonders, “How will I ever get past her?” (245). When she sees the bartender behind him, she runs off. BJ texts her, asking about the weather, and she gives him an emphatically negative report.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia vents to Paili, who cries with her. Magnolia feels stuck on BJ, reflecting, “He’s the moon, and I’m the tides” (247). She takes a shower and has breakfast with Tom, who knows that she went to see BJ. Magnolia feels that she and BJ are knotted together, perhaps because they fell in love too young, but she doesn’t want Tom to leave her. He suggests that they continue their relationship.
Chapter 38 Summary: “BJ”
BJ observes that things are different between Magnolia and Tom now that they have had sex, for she is showing Tom more vulnerability. Overcome with uncomfortable emotions, BJ does a line of cocaine to cope. As the group flies home, Magnolia avoids BJ. Christian texts Magnolia, saying that she could have come to him if she was upset.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia feels like BJ has betrayed her, so she sits in the cockpit with Tom on the flight home, mostly to hurt BJ. She thinks, “It felt like I was lost at sea and [Tom] was this saviour piece of driftwood that I could cling to” (259).
When Magnolia returns to her parents’ house, Bridget reveals that their mother is moving out, and Marsaili is now sleeping in their father’s room. Magnolia is angry about the cheating and calls Marsaili a hypocrite.
Chapter 40 Summary: “BJ”
BJ fills his days by having sex and doing cocaine, then goes to visit Magnolia. He feels the awkwardness between them. He wants to fight because he interprets the conflict between them to mean that Magnolia still loves him. She is wearing jewelry that BJ gave her. She repeats that it would have changed things if he had told her the real reason for his decision to cheat. However, she stresses that there is no hope of a relationship between them now. Jonah texts BJ and scolds him for doing drugs.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Magnolia” Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia finds Tom in her house, teaching Bridget and Paili how to make a martini. He asks her to come with him to Clara’s birthday party. Paili texts Magnolia, asking about Tom and BJ. Magnolia asks Christian to tell her how much BJ is sleeping around.
Chapter 42 Summary: “BJ”
BJ is dealing with his feelings by abusing alcohol and cocaine and engaging in casual sex. He observes that Jonah and Henry are fighting over Taura. Jonah thinks that BJ should kiss Magnolia to regain her affections.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia dresses up for Clara’s birthday party. Tom is upset because Clara is seeing someone. Tom and Clara’s boyfriend quarrel, and Magnolia feels sad to realize that Tom and Clara’s dynamic mirrors the situation between her and BJ. She goes home with Tom.
Chapter 44 Summary: “BJ”
BJ knows that Magnolia will be shopping on Friday, so he tracks her down in the Gucci store. She is wearing the black bomber jacket that she helped him to choose. He asks to come in the dressing room with her. He suggests that she likes to play hard-to-get because it makes her feel in control. He kisses her, and they begin to undress, but the salesperson interrupts them. BJ says that Magnolia needs to figure out what to do with Tom. A follow-up text from BJ to Magnolia confirms that the weather is very good.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia has been coerced into having dinner with her family; her father ensured her presence by threatening not to pay her credit card bill. She bought a 10,000-pound surfboard to spite him. Bridget knows about Magnolia and BJ’s encounter in the dressing room, and Marsaili accuses Magnolia of cheating on Tom. Meanwhile, BJ turns down a text invitation from a girl with whom he previously had sex.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Magnolia”
Tom comes to Magnolia’s room. She tells him that although she kissed BJ, she still prefers Tom. He says that he is interested in her, too.
Chapters 31-46 Analysis
The group’s decision to vacation in Greece allows them to pursue new permutations in their tangled relationships, for their absence from London provides opportunities to disregard the usual checks and balances on their behavior. In this more relaxed setting, BJ is able to spend time with Magnolia alone, which is not something their usual social scene affords them. The scenario is also more accessible than her living situation, for she is usually surrounded by other family members. Likewise, the romantic setting of the boat, the beach, and the picnic gives Magnolia the opportunity to recalibrate her relationship with BJ, and the isolation from the rest of the world gives them an opportunity to be more open with one another, even though the scene ends with further distress and heartbreak. Ironically, while Magnolia proves for the first time that she is ready to address his infidelity as an obstacle to their relationship, she cannot accept his rare attempt at honesty. In a moment of self-awareness, BJ finally acknowledges the truth—that he simply acted on his impulsive desire to have sex with another girl, despite his feelings for Magnolia. Hearing this, Magnolia finds it extremely painful to realize that he would want someone other than her; she fears that there must be something lacking in her, and this insecurity adds to her internal conflict.
However, although Magnolia deeply wants BJ to prefer her over any other romantic or sexual prospects, this desire becomes complicated when she also covets Tom’s attention and affections, just as she has continued to enjoy Christian’s preference for her. Gus, who is able to act as a mentor character and provide an adult perspective, warns Magnolia that this inner need for regard from multiple sources will ultimately be hurtful to others, and his comment foreshadows the conflict that will cause further strife later in the novel. Although Christian’s perspective is less objective, he also foresees the harm in Magnolia’s need for attention and approval from many different men.
Given the abstract complexities of the protagonists’ interactions, both Magnolia and BJ use various images to try to characterize their complex relationship. In addition to their constant queries about the metaphorical weather, Magnolia thinks of them as wild horses or like a tangled gold necklace. The first image captures the sense of violent unpredictability that imbues their relationship, while the second image combines the concepts of luxury and complication. Magnolia’s comparisons also run to the more visceral, for whenever they fight, she imagines their insults and lies as vomit from an exorcism, indicating that both she and BJ are metaphorically “possessed” by dynamics beyond their ability to control. She continues to think of herself and BJ as soulmates, but this description often gains an ironic inflection, and BJ likewise acknowledges the dysfunction of their attachment. Because both characters are aware of their paradoxical toxicity and fondness for each other, their inability to escape their feelings adds to the sense of doomed love and heightens the dramatic tension.
The proliferation of libidinal attachments and the complications that ensue are echoed in several other relationships in these chapters. The largest new obstacle involves Magnolia’s increasing attachment to Tom, for he is far more than a sexual object and offers her a much-needed sense of safety and sanctuary. By seeking BJ immediately after having sex with Tom, Magnolia proves that her hope of severing herself from BJ was in vain; despite her attempts to move on, she craves his attention, and this dynamic become clear when they embrace in the Gucci dressing room. However, her sexual relationship with Tom also confirms that she is developing meaningful feelings for him as well. Her resulting confusion is amplified when she realizes that she does not want to give up her connection to either man. This love triangle establishes the major conflict that will drive the second half of the book.
The messiness of desire and libido also plays out in Christian’s desire for both Magnolia and Daisy, and the pattern is repeated once again as Tom finds himself torn between his desire for Magnolia and Clara, the latter of whom is his version of forbidden fruit. However, these liaisons do not strike Magnolia as betrayals, unlike her perception of BJ’s cheating or of her father’s affair with Marsaili. When Magnolia accuses Marsaili of being a hypocrite, she also acknowledges that part of her hurt is by the idea that she is no longer the primary object of Marsaili’s attention. In this moment, the one person she thought was devoted only to her has turned out to have affections for more than one person. Thus, Magnolia’s outrage also highlights her own considerable self-absorption.
In addition to the primary narrative, the various text exchanges offer stylistic variation and add a new emotional note to the conflicts expressed in each chapter. For example, while BJ’s drug use escalates as he avoids dealing with his painful feelings, Bridget stands outside the action and is therefore able to comment on it without getting emotionally invested. Similarly, Clara provides a foil that exposes Magnolia’s own behavior to herself, revealing that the protagonist is pretending to date another man because she cannot have the one she really wants. All of these relationships develop the novel’s broader examination of the confusion that comes with Navigating the Complexities of Multiple Romantic Partners.
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