54 pages • 1 hour read
Freida McFaddenOne by One
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Complexities of Deceit and Trust
Deceit and trust play meaningful roles in One by One. The entire plot hinges on a deceit: While the others think they are going on a relaxing vacation in a charming inn in the woods, Lindsay and Warner know they are luring the group into a deadly trap with the intention of punishing Claire, Noah, and Jack for their extramarital behaviors. However, there are many smaller deceits that also play important roles, with the narrative exploring the complexities of deceit and trust in the characters’ lives.
The most important deceit is Claire and Jack’s romantic affair, which damages the trust between Claire and Noah. Claire knows that the lies she tells Noah have consequences, further fueling the fighting and hostility in their marriage and breaking down their levels of trust. When Noah asks Claire to leave with him to find their own way to the inn, she refuses, thinking it is safer to stay with the group. However, she later regrets her decision, thinking, “I’m beginning to wish I had trusted Noah and gone off with him” (173). If Claire and Noah had split from the group, they would have been safer, given that Warner works alongside Lindsay to torment Claire, Noah, Jack, and Michelle.
The trust between Jack and Claire is also fragile. Claire thinks she is falling in love with Jack, but she does not fully trust him. When Jack reveals he brought his rifle against Michelle’s wishes, Claire is concerned, thinking, “It makes me uneasy that he lied to Michelle and the rest of us about it” (149). This is not the only lie that he tells Claire in the narrative, as Claire realizes that her entire relationship with Jack was established on deceit: “Jack acted like it was over between him and Michelle. But maybe that was a lie” (160). At best, Jack convinced himself that he wanted to end his relationship with Michelle, even though it was not true. At worst, he intentionally lied to Claire to trick her into a sexual relationship.
Another deception is found in the friendship between Lindsay and Claire. When Lindsay and Claire first met, Lindsay hid the truth of her past from Claire, while Claire always trusted her. Lindsay does not reciprocate Claire’s trust. Though she admits she does not want to kill Claire, she tells her, “You know too much. I can’t trust you to keep my secrets” (279). Despite their years of friendship, Lindsay cannot trust Claire, which is likely the result of Lindsay’s own deceit.
Thus, all of the relationships in the narrative are tarnished by deceit and lack of trust to varying degrees. The novel’s ambiguous ending reinforces this theme by having Claire remain suspicious of Noah despite their reconciliation. The novel thus suggests that trust, once broken, is difficult to reestablish.
Appearances Versus Reality
Appearances and reality are often at odds in One by One. The characters in the novel are often mistaken in their assumptions about their surroundings and one another, creating mystery and tension around what may or may not be true or false in the characters’ perspectives and experiences.
Lindsay curates an incredibly specific appearance during the group’s trip to the woods. She first works to make Claire think that Warner is a controlling, judgmental boyfriend. At the diner, Warner tells Lindsay not to order a burger and then suggests that she needs breast augmentation surgery. This upsets Claire, who notices that “[Lindsay’s] cheeks grow pink and she folds her arms self-consciously across her chest” (60). In feigning a relationship built on unhealthy power dynamics, Lindsay makes Claire question her relationship with Warner. This pushes Claire’s suspicion away from Lindsay and works in tandem with Lindsay’s plan to make Warner the suspect for the murders. In casting herself as a victim in her relationship, Lindsay successfully preserves her image, in Claire’s mind, as a bubbly, trustworthy friend. This is categorically opposite to her true identity: a calculating killer.
The setting of the woods also provides various contrasts between how things appear and what they truly are. As the group gets more and more lost, Claire becomes more fixated on the idea that they are being “hunted” by some sort of dangerous wild animal. The claw marks on the trees and the side of the cabin reinforce Claire’s fears, even though she notes that the claw marks often appear at a height that would be unusual for a large predator like a bear. Lindsay then plays into this fear by pretending to panic, claiming that a bear is approaching. The natural setting thus misleads Claire into assuming that their greatest danger is the animals that surround them or running out of supplies, when in reality, the real threat is Lindsay and Warner.
The characters’ perceptions of one another are also sometimes based on misleading appearances. For most of the narrative, Noah appears to know nothing about Claire’s affair and continues to behave as though he suspects nothing while interacting with both Claire and Jack. Claire later discovers that Noah knew everything all along. In a similar vein, Warner presents himself as a plastic surgeon and even pretends to give Lindsay medical aid when she’s “dying”—in reality, he is a murderer on the run and Lindsay is merely faking her own death as part of the plot. Claire is so taken in by the supposed death that she grieves deeply.
The novel’s narrative momentum is thus driven by the constant tension between how things appear to the characters and what is really going on. The plot’s various twists and turns suggest that, ultimately, nothing is ever quite as it seems.
The Psychological Impacts of Isolation
The isolation that the group experiences while trapped in the wilderness takes an incredible toll on the various characters’ psyches. This is most apparent in Claire, as she is the primary narrator, and her thoughts are most deeply and coherently explored by McFadden. Through Claire’s experiences, McFadden illustrates the psychological impacts of isolation.
Claire’s time in the forest shapes her perception of the natural world around her and the people she travels with. When it comes to the natural world, Claire is uncertain of the wilderness. As the minivan gets closer to the supposed inn, Claire begins to notice how remote the area is, thinking, “For the last half hour, the road we’re on has become progressively narrower and more isolated. I don’t think we’ve seen another car in twenty minutes” (72). The road physically gets smaller, and it also gets less populated by other people. This creates a sense of claustrophobia: The forest is closing in around them.
Once the group is fully lost in the woods after leaving the broken-down minivan, Claire’s mind starts to play tricks on her. Lindsay plants the seeds of the idea of monsters lurking in the darkness with the bear she reports seeing, and these seeds take root in Claire’s subconscious. She expects to see some sort of animal, so her mind begins to conjure the signs of one. She thinks she hears a howl: “As I smooth out the leaves on the ground to form Michelle’s bed, I hear a sound from off in the distance. I pause, listening. Then I hear it again. It sounds like a howl” (130). No other member of the group hears the howl, meaning it could be a figment of Claire’s imagination.
The fear and panic, coupled with the lack of communication with the outside world, continue to shape Claire’s perception of the wilderness, especially when she’s alone. When the group splits up to look for Michelle, Claire is alone and believes she sees a creature: “The bush shifts on its own accord and I see a dark shadow within. And then a low growl” (154). McFadden does not clarify, at any point, if what Claire sees is real. No other character sees what she sees, meaning it might be a hallucination.
The more alone Claire becomes, the more her hallucinations intensify, turning from auditory to visual, demonstrating the extraordinary impact of isolation on Claire’s psychological state. Even when she returns safely home, she is still not fully recovered from her experiences—her suspicions linger, as do her fears, which suggests that the impacts of isolation continue to influence her thoughts and feelings.
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