Supernatural

This theme is evident in images, language, various plot points, and literary and film references, as the novel is in many ways a traditional horror story exploring the darkness of a disturbed mind and the lethal possibilities inherent in female desire. This theme is established in the novel's opening pages when Samantha notes that she and Ava call the town where Warren is located “the Lair of Cthulhu,” explaining that this is a reference to a “giant squid monster invented by a horror writer who went insane and died here” (4). This nickname begins to make sense when Samantha mentions that the town has recently experienced a wave of violence, including random decapitations. Samantha calls her professor Ursula “Fosco, after the villain in the Gothic novel The Woman in White,” explaining, “there is just something about her...that suggests she has distressed maidens in her basement, human...