Book of Night

Each central character is, in their own way, constrained by who they were in their past. The novel highlights the inescapable effect that upbringing and personal history have on the present by titling recurring flashback chapters simply “The Past.”

Charlie, the novel’s protagonist, is the clearest example of the oppressive nature of her experiences, traumas, and mistakes. When the story opens, Charlie is cheerfully and adamantly attempting to move away from the person she was, rebuffing criminal job opportunities from her former employer Balthazar: “‘Nope!’ she called back as cheerfully as she could manage. […] Charlie was out of the game. She’d been too good at it, and the collateral damage had been too high. Now she was just a regular person” (5). Because this happens so early in the novel—and because Charlie has done little to actually grapple with what she has undergone in favor of simply ignoring it—the reader immediately understands that this status quo will soon be upended.

As the recurring flashbacks establish, Charlie is deeply impacted by her childhood experiences. It quickly becomes clear that she received insufficient attention and support from her parents, both of whom were estranged in different ways. When Rand coerced her into a life of crime, she found something that made her feel powerful and in control for the first time. It’s this sensation that she carries with her into adulthood and which makes it impossible for her to ever fully leave that life behind. There are also hints that Posey has been more subtly impacted by this past. Although she was too young to understand the full implications of what was happening to Charlie, she too suffered from parental neglect and felt overshadowed by her older sister. Posey’s growing obsession with shadow magic reflects a need to take control of her fate in a way she couldn’t when she was young.

The flashbacks also explore how Vince came into being and the moments that shaped the person he now embodies. He had a relatively happy upbringing as Edmund/Remy’s shadow, Red, until Lionel Salt entered their lives and forced Red, to commit horrific acts of violence in Salt’s pursuit of power. This past comes back to haunt him when Charlie’s attacked in the bar and he comes to her rescue, letting his old skills emerge. When he and Charlie split up, neither recognizes that they’re both running from the manipulated and coerced young people they’d once been.

To set up the next installment of the series, the novel closes on both Vince and Charlie being fully devoured by their pasts: Charlie has become a member of the Cabal, embedded deeper in the criminal underworld than she ever thought possible, despite her attempts to get out; meanwhile, Vince has reverted to his previous noncorporeal self, once again a tool for someone else’s will. The implication is that they will have to first confront these origin stories before they can take any steps to escape.