Nothing More to Tell

“After Charlotte, Shane, and Tripp found Mr. Larkin, there was something strangely glamorous about the three of them—as though they’d aged a decade in the woods that day, and knew things the rest of us couldn’t possibly understand. Tripp, who hadn’t been at all friendly with Shane and Charlotte before, was absorbed into their group as though he’d always been there.”

This quote illustrates how trauma “ages” children in certain ways, and explains the newfound relationship among the three kids who found Mr. Larkin. However, there is also dramatic irony at play because the kids literally know things others (including Brynn) don’t know. This is because they are lying about the murder and the evidence. The glamour they seem to have is bound up in their brush with death.

“I make a face to hide the fact that I kind of like when she sounds like a mom. Well, not my mom. The last postcard I got from Lisa Marie Talbot, seven months ago, was of the casino in Las Vegas where she works. All it said on the back was Full of craps!”

This quote illustrates the difference between Tripp’s biological mother, Lisa Marie, and his boss Regina, who serves as another parental figure to Tripp. Regina is a “mom” in all the ways Lisa Marie is not—she gives Tripp support, affection, advice, and attention. Lisa Marie’s postcard is a joke because, like the casino, she is “full of crap” in the sense that she often lies.

“‘Did you, Shane, and Charlotte ever separate? Lose sight of one another?’

Before my mother left, she rarely talked to me like a parent. Lisa Marie left the basics of life, like how to brush my teeth or prepare a bowl of cereal, to my father. But sometimes she liked to ramble about things she found interesting when I was nearby. It was more like she was talking near me than to me, but I still soaked it up. More than once, she said, ‘The world would be a better place if more people knew when to stop talking. Everyone says too much, all the time. Ask them a simple question, and they’ll give you their entire life story. No one cares! Just say yes or no. It doesn’t even matter which one is true.

I rubbed the callus on my thumb with my forefinger and said, ‘No.’”

Officer Patz asked an eighth-grade Tripp this question, and Tripp answers a simple “no” (which is a lie) after reflecting on one of the few pieces of “wisdom” his mother imparted on him. Tripp clings to these few pieces of wisdom because his mother withheld affection and care from him, so he takes what little he can get. However, this advice turns out to be terrible. All of Tripp’s attempts to keep secrets or omit information result in disaster. The fact that he thinks about this before answering makes it clear to the reader that he’s lying to the police, although the police can’t tell because they don’t have access to his interior thoughts.

“‘Anything else you want to tell me, Tripp?’

‘No. There’s nothing more to tell.’”

Tripp tells the police that there’s “nothing more to tell” even though he’s lying, omitting important details, and he even stole evidence from the crime scene. This is an ironic repetition of the novel’s title, which also occurs a few more times throughout the text in similar situations, where there most certainly is more to tell.

“Tripp is an elite by association […] the rules make no sense, obviously, but that’s dreg logic for you.”

This quote illuminates the growing class conflict at the school: scholarship students (“dregs”) are pitted against those who pay tuition (“elites”). However, much like socioeconomic class more generally, how much money someone has and whether they pay tuition are not the only factors that determine a student’s class. For example, Tripp is perceived as an elite despite having less money than almost anyone else at the school because he is friends with elites Shane and Charlotte.

“‘Motive needs the personal element for our viewers to care, and it’s going to take far too many resources to even scratch the surface here. My recommendation is that we kill the idea.’ I wince, because there’s something awful about hearing that word while looking at Mr. Larkin’s smiling face. Almost like he’s dying all over again.”

One of Carly’s associates points out a reason why some murders are more likely to be solved: if there are family, friends, or other survivors who are pushing for answers. Without this, it’s harder to create momentum but also harder for police to get the information they need. This quote also includes the metaphor of “killing” a story that is often used in newsrooms of all types, not just true-crime media. However, this takes on added resonance when used in the context of true crime, and illuminates why Brynn wants “justice” for Mr. Larkin. It seems that identifying someone’s killer is an important part of their story and legacy.

“Here’s the problem, Trey […] I’m kind of done with this whole mothering thing.”

Lisa Marie said this to Tripp years ago. She calls him Trey even though this is not his legal name nor his nickname, and also he doesn’t like it. This illustrates the distance between them before it’s explicitly spelled out a few words later, when she proclaims she is “done” with “mothering.” Her use of the verb “mothering” instead of the noun “mother” suggests that it doesn’t matter if she gave birth or is his actual mother, she doesn’t plan on doing any actions in alignment with this.

“‘Reopening old wounds about Will is setting people on edge,’ Uncle Nick says. ‘Maybe you should tell Motive to take a step back.’

‘Motive is nothing like Don’t Do the Crime!’ I protest.”

This is one of several warnings Brynn receives for investigating painful truths. It’s significant that these warnings come from people like Uncle Nick and Charlotte, because they end up being suspects at different points in the novel. Brynn also claims here that one true-crime show is completely different from the other, which may be true, but does not discount the point Uncle Nick makes.

“I wouldn’t go looking for him if I were you. He’s having a bad night.”

Every time Tripp drinks excessively, Charlotte and Shane warn others to stay away from him, labeling it as a “bad night.” Brynn ignores the warnings, but later she also realizes that their tendency to steer him away from people when he’s intoxicated is meant to prevent him from speaking the truth.

“‘Am I the next Killer Kid, then? Is that what this is about?’ I ask. ‘You’re giving me the heads-up that Shane didn’t get? Thanks a lot. I’ll be sure to plan my day around getting slandered on YouTube.’”

When Lisa Marie asks Tripp to frame Shane on television for money, Tripp is furious, so he takes a sarcastic tone and accuses her of framing him. Even though at this point in the novel Lisa Marie has not actually framed her son, Tripp’s sarcastic comment foreshadows her later plans to actually frame him.

“The first boy I ever had a crush on told me I looked like a fairy princess […] He never wanted to talk to me, though. Just stared at me like I was some kind of object. It’s been like that my entire life—or worse, because sometimes the attention gets really creepy […] Shane’s always been different, though. He barely noticed me at first. I was the one who had to chase him […] It was a nice change of pace, and so was the fact that he treated me—treats me—like an actual person.”

To explain her bizarre attachment to Shane, Charlotte employs the metaphor of “chasing” and objectification. The reason for her attachment—having to chase him—is continually fulfilled by Shane because he doesn’t really like Charlotte that much. Although she could probably find someone to replace him, this also reveals the lengths to which she’ll go to keep Shane.

“I’m not getting out. I’ll be standing in those woods behind Saint Ambrose forever, making a decision that I was way too young to make, and maybe the worst part of all is that I don’t know if I’d choose differently today.”

Tripp describes the long-standing trauma of finding Mr. Larkin’s body in the woods. It’s stuck with him, and he feels like even if he leaves the physical place where it happened, he’ll always still “be” where it happened.

“‘Try it with tears,’ I say before slamming the door.”

Lisa Marie recorded a video for Gunnar’s television show in which she tries to frame Tripp for Mr. Larkin’s murder, and Gunnar responded that she should “try it with tears” to make it more convincing and dramatic. After Lisa Marie blames Tripp for her own behavior, Tripp decides he’s finally done trying with her, and repeats Gunnar’s words before leaving on that final note.

“I think I knew, from an early age, that Noah wasn’t like other kids.

Lisa Marie was lying, but also she wasn’t, because what regular kid would do what I did and then live for four years like nothing happened?”

Even though Tripp tries to reject Lisa Marie, her words still have an impact on him, and he struggles with self-esteem in part because he feels rejected by her. Thus, when he hears her say this, even though it’s for a fake TV show and she knows that Tripp wasn’t the real killer, he still internalizes the words and beats himself up about it.

“All I did was pick it up. All this time, I thought I was using Shane as a shield for my father. It never occurred to me that it might be the other way around.”

Tripp recalls Shane’s words, which he genuinely believed in eighth grade, and suddenly realizes how easy it would have been to lie about that for Shane. He uses the metaphor of a “shield” to describe lying to protect a murderer’s true identity. Instead of a shield protecting one from being killed, which is the purpose of a shield, here, a shield is ironically applied to preventing a murder from being solved.

“I’ve never felt more alone than I did when people were mad at me for being sneaky about working at Motive, which was bad enough. But it’s been worse to realize how much my tunnel vision hurt my friends, my family, and especially Tripp.”

Brynn’s secret may not have been as troubling as Tripp’s, but it still made her isolated and lonely. She uses the metaphor of “tunnel vision” to describe her singular focus on her career, which she prioritized above everything else in life to dire effects.

“It’s not as though I’ve been afraid of him for the past four years, or worried that he’d hurt someone else. Even when I believed he’d killed Mr. Larkin, I also believed it was a single, horrific mistake that he’d never repeat. Still, the thought that he’d done it—and that I’d made myself complicit by covering for him—poisoned everything between us to the point where I’ve spent most of high school avoiding him.”

Tripp explains the burden of his false belief about his father with the metaphor of “poison.” Rather than killing someone immediately, poison slowly kills over time, just like keeping secrets and holding onto false beliefs.

“Men like Dexter are a hornet’s nest. Why poke them if you don’t have to, right?”

Rose uses the metaphor of a hornet’s nest to describe Dexter: she’s trying to warn Brynn and Tripp not to contact him. She ends up being right because they learn nothing from Dexter and just get into dangerous situations. However, like a hornet, once Dexter “stings” Brynn, Ellie, Nick, and Tripp, he dies.

“‘You don’t have to be sorry for anything, but I do. I am.’

‘I kind of do, actually.’

Actually. Here’s that moment again. Actually, Dad, I thought you did a lot worse than theft, and that’s why I’ve basically ignored you for four years, and spent every waking moment trying to leave Sturgis and get as far away from you as possible […] The moment passes. Maybe this time for good.”

Tripp often uses italics in his narration to show words that he thinks but does not say out loud. Oftentimes, these words contain the sense of what he needs to express but are too blunt to actually say without sounding rude or ridiculous. He does this to convince himself that he can’t actually say what he needs to say. He then lets the moment pass and never broaches the real subject with his dad in this novel.

“‘You’re holding a lot of secrets, Brynn,’ Mason says. ‘Be careful. That can wear a person down after a while. I should know.’”

In this quote, Mason points out the burden of keeping secrets to Brynn. Mason’s secret is one of the least destructive and most necessary in the novel. However, even these types of secrets are shown to have negative effects over time.

“Mason is Mr. Larkin’s brother?”

This small detail of which word Charlotte emphasizes in her sentence ends up being the crux of Brynn’s argument for why Charlotte is the best suspect for Mr. Larkin’s murder. This shows that the most insignificant-seeming details can still be clues, and that the puzzles of murder mysteries often include a great many pieces.

“‘I’m sorry, Shane. I didn’t mean…’ I didn’t mean to muzzle you. I just didn’t want my dad exposed as a murderer.”

Tripp again uses italics to show what he wants to say but does not actually say out loud. However, in this case he still gets his thoughts across because Shane understands that it’s now acceptable to talk about the night Mr. Larkin died.

“I pause, wanting to live for a few more heartbeats in the space where I don’t know anything bad.”

Even though Brynn continuously ignores other people’s warnings that knowledge can sometimes be harmful or upsetting, she still second-guesses herself whenever it seems for a moment like someone she actually likes might have killed Mr. Larkin. When Uncle Nick comes under suspicion, she almost doesn’t want to know anymore.