If It Bleeds

Content Warning: The source material for this study guide depicts or includes references to death by suicide, child violence and child death, and sexual violence and self-harm. On one occasion, the source material makes use of the n-word.

The novella is narrated by a journalist named Craig who is looking back on his childhood.

In 2004, Craig is a nine-year-old boy who lives in Harlow, Maine. He works for an old tycoon named Mr. Harrigan, who sends Craig lottery tickets as holiday gifts. Craig’s father disapproves of the lottery tickets, believing that Craig should be paid a higher wage instead. Mr. Harrigan is a billionaire, having built his fortune on conglomerate business and the stock market. Craig argues that he simply likes working for Mr. Harrigan.

Craig’s mother died in 2001. Soon after Craig impressed Mr. Harrigan with his Bible reading at church, the tycoon invited him to read novels at his house. Craig assures his father that Mr. Harrigan never does anything inappropriate to him.

When Craig is 11, he asks his father for a cellphone. The following year, the first iPhone is released and Craig’s father gets him one for Christmas. On Valentine’s Day, Craig receives a winning lottery ticket from Mr. Harrigan. Thrilled to have won $3,000, he shares the news with his father and Mr. Harrigan, who offers to invest it for him in the stock market. He not only takes him up on this offer but also decides to buy his employer an iPhone as a thank-you gift. Craig’s father hesitates because Mr. Harrigan dislikes new technology, but he allows Craig to move forward with the purchase.

Mr. Harrigan initially rejects the gift, arguing that he would lose all his time on the phone. Craig shows him how to get real-time updates on the stock market and how to look up news and magazine articles on Google. After Craig teaches him to make calls, the tycoon admits his arrogance. He starts thinking about the how the Internet could radically change the way people do business. Craig later realizes that Mr. Harrigan was predicting the creation of paywalls years in advance.

Craig continues to help Mr. Harrigan set up his iPhone, changing the ringtone to play “Stand By Your Man” by American country singer Tammy Wynette. They also set up his voice message for missed calls. Mr. Harrigan explains that he moved to Harlow to get far away from ruthless New York, where he had spent most of his life. He appreciates the town for its peace and pleasant company.

In 2009, Craig visits Mr. Harrigan only to discover that he has died. Before the ambulance arrives, he pockets Mr. Harrigan’s iPhone. The night before the funeral, Craig writes a goodbye message on Mr. Harrigan’s phone, telling him how much he misses him. The funeral is carried out exactly according to Mr. Harrigan’s specifications. The reverend honors him as Harlow’s benefactor. Craig quickly learns that Mr. Harrigan has no family. He is the last to approach the coffin to pay his final respects. While no one is looking, he returns Mr. Harrigan’s iPhone, placing it in his inside pocket.

Mr. Harrigan’s business manager, Charles Rafferty, asks to meet Craig and his father about a matter the late tycoon wanted to settle before his death. He gives Craig a letter to inform him that Mr. Harrigan has bequeathed $800,000 to Craig for his college studies. In the letter, Mr. Harrigan gently discourages Craig from pursuing his aspirations to become a Hollywood screenwriter. He advises him to entrust his inheritance to Rafferty for further investment. Craig takes the latter advice.

Later that night, Craig calls Mr. Harrigan’s phone to hear his voicemail recording. He leaves a message to say that he wishes Mr. Harrigan was still alive. The next morning, he receives a message from Mr. Harrigan under his SMS handle, pirateking1: “C C C aa” (50). Terrified, Craig tells his father they need to rescue Mr. Harrigan from his grave. Craig’s father reassures him that Mr. Harrigan is dead. He theorizes that someone likely cloned the phone to commit corporate espionage.

Craig decides to visit Mr. Harrigan’s housekeeper, Mrs. Grogan, to make sure that their employer left her something in his will as well. When Craig comments that the late tycoon was generous to his employees, Mrs. Grogan explains that Mr. Harrigan also had a vindictive streak. Sometime in the past, Mr. Harrigan ensured that a former employee who had stolen from him would never find work in Harlow again. Craig later thinks about his father’s theory and wonders why the hacker would have sent such an odd, incoherent message bearing Craig’s initial. He visits Mr. Harrigan’s grave and calls the phone to see if he can hear him through the soil. He hears the ringtone but does not hear Mr. Harrigan answer.

Craig begins middle school in the nearby town of Gates Fall. Because he is the shortest kid in the grade, Craig immediately becomes the target of a bully named Kenny Yanko. Kenny forces Craig to shine his boots as a form of initiation. Craig refuses and is saved by the earth sciences teacher he has a crush on, Ms. Hargensen. When Ms. Hargensen asks Craig what Kenny was going to make him do, Craig chooses not to tell the truth to spare Kenny from trouble. Kenny resents the favor Craig has done him. The following week, Kenny is expelled from school for assaulting a teacher.

Craig goes to the Autumn Dance, which Kenny crashes to bully him. Confronting him in the parking lot, Kenny orders Craig to shine his boots once more. Craig refuses, so Kenny beats him up. Craig attempts to fight back, landing a punch in Kenny’s face. Ms. Hargensen comes to administer first aid on Craig. While waiting for Craig’s father to pick him up, Ms. Hargensen deduces that Kenny was the one who attacked Craig. Craig denies it once again.

Craig’s father tries to get him to identify his bully, but ultimately understands when Craig says he wants to let it go. He makes Craig promise to take it to the police if it ever happens again. Worried by this outcome, he calls Mr. Harrigan’s phone and leaves a message about what happened to relieve his anxiety.

The next day, Kenny Yanko dies. Remembering the late tycoon’s vindictive side, Craig worries that he somehow caused Kenny’s death by calling Mr. Harrigan. Ms. Hargensen notices that Craig is feeling guilty about it. Remarking that children tend to think of themselves as the center of the universe, she discourages the notion that Craig had anything to do with Kenny’s death. Craig calls Mr. Harrigan’s phone once again and asks for a sign to show that he caused Kenny’s death. The next morning, Craig sees a new message from pirateking1: “a a a. C C x” (72).

Craig’s father asks the town minister, Reverend Mooney, to talk to Craig. Craig confesses that he has been thinking a lot about the link between Kenny’s sudden death and his assault at the dance. To allay his guilt, the reverend reveals that Kenny died by suicide. Craig lets his worry go.

Craig enters high school, where he befriends a boy named Mike Ueberroth. Having overheard his father, an investigator, talk about the case of Kenny’s death, Mike reveals that Kenny did not die by suicide, but died accidentally while engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation. What disturbed Mike’s father was the fact that Kenny’s hair turned white as he died. Craig consults the Internet to learn what could have caused Kenny’s hair to change color. Without a clear sense of whether Mr. Harrigan might have killed Kenny or not, Craig stops worrying about what really happened.

Craig gets a part-time job as the groundskeeper’s assistant in Mr. Harrigan’s old house. In 2011, he uses his savings to upgrade to an iPhone 4. While moving his contacts to the new device, he comes across Mr. Harrigan’s number. He tries calling it again on his new phone and is relieved when the voicemail recording no longer plays. Ms. Hargensen later advises him not to indulge in superstition if he doesn’t want it to burden him.

As Craig gets older, his ambitions switch from screenwriting to prose fiction. He later pivots to journalism while editing the school newspaper. He goes to study journalism at Emerson College.

One night, Craig’s father calls to inform him that Ms. Hargensen and her husband have died in a motorcycle accident. Craig later learns that they were killed by a man named Dean Whitmore, who had been involved in drunk driving accidents in the past. Through his wealthy family connections, Dean is given a suspended sentence, provided that he enters rehabilitation.

Craig is furious with the outcome. He goes home to mourn Ms. Hargensen with his old friends. He finds his old iPhone and turns it on again. He calls Mr. Harrigan’s number to talk about Ms. Hargensen and Dean Whitmore. He ends his message by wishing that Dean were dead.

Dean dies by suicide shortly into his stay at a rehabilitation center. A counselor indicates that Dean had left a brief note, the content of which Craig recognizes as lyrics from Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man.” Craig worries that if Kenny and Dean had been killed by Mr. Harrigan, then it would make him complicit in their deaths. He finds a new message from pirateking1 on his old iPhone: “C C C sT” (91). Craig believes that Mr. Harrigan is asking him to stop.

Craig goes to Castle Lake, calls Mr. Harrigan one more time, and thanks him again. He throws his first iPhone into the water and briefly considers throwing away his current phone, an iPhone 5C, because he and Mr. Harrigan became addicted to using cellphones. He is unsure what to really think about Kenny and Dean’s deaths but concludes that he would want to be “buried with empty pockets” (93).