Mother Daughter Murder Night

“She felt a sudden, fierce longing to be this man—not a farmer, but someone out in the world doing something, something physical and definitive and certain, while others slept. That was the life she was meant to live. To be the doer, not the watcher.”

These words demonstrate the frustration that serves as Lana’s major intrapersonal conflict in the novel. She is restricted from her usual activity due to her cancer, and this damages her self-perception and will ultimately motivate her to start investigating the murder.

“Ma, that’s not what I mean. You don’t get to replace my furniture. You don’t get to redecorate my house.”

Beth and Lana deal with interpersonal conflict in the novel as they have spent many years apart and now must learn to live in close proximity to each other. They do not respect each other’s priorities, and as a result, they frequently step on each other’s toes, creating rising narrative tension throughout the novel’s early chapters.

“Strange feelings of confusion and jealousy rose in Beth’s stomach.”

Here, Beth demonstrates the complexity of her feelings about her mother. She rejects much about her mother, and because of this, she feels jealous when she sees her mother comforting her daughter.