54 pages • 1 hour read
Karen M. McManusOne of Us Is Back
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Reggie’s Necklace
Reggie Crawley is one of Nate’s former high school classmates and his current roommate. Reggie has a reputation for using hidden cameras to record girls he brings to his bedroom. Nate finds Reggie’s behavior immoral and wants him kicked out of their house, but the other roommates vote to keep Reggie so he can keep paying his share of the rent. However, a few days after the vote, Reggie disappears and is later found dead. Nate is surprised when he learns that Reggie wore a necklace his mother gave to him. The necklace takes on the symbolism of a more compassionate side of Reggie, showing Nate a side to Reggie’s personality Nate hadn’t known was there before Reggie’s death.
When Emma finds Reggie’s necklace in Owen’s backpack, the necklace takes on the symbolism of trouble. Emma and Phoebe have been concerned that Owen shares dark characteristics with Jake Riordan and Jared Jackson, both of whom perpetrated harmful plots against the Bayview Crew. Phoebe and Emma are concerned about Owen because they know that he helped Jared trick Brandon into his death during the truth or dare game. When they find the necklace in Owen’s backpack, it symbolizes proof of their fears. However, Phoebe later learns that the necklace was placed in Owen’s backpack by the real architect of the new practice makes perfect game. With this knowledge, the necklace loses its power over Phoebe and her family.
Patrick’s Keys
For most of his childhood, Nate Macauley had to be the adult in his family because his mother and father struggled with addiction. However, both of Nate’s parents are sober in One of Us Is Back. Patrick has only been sober for a few months, and Nate is struggling to believe he can trust in his father’s sobriety. Therefore, when Patrick loses his work keys, Nate is immediately concerned that his father is drinking again.
When Patrick finds Phoebe unconscious in an equipment shed at Bayview High School—a building that could only be accessed using Patrick’s keys—he sees the keys as a symbol of his inability to act responsibly. Patrick believes he is at fault for Phoebe’s circumstances due to being careless with his keys. When Reggie goes missing, the keys become symbolic of the ingenuity of the game’s architect and the connection Chelsea creates between her father’s death and Jake Riordan by choosing the school—and consequently, Patrick’s keys—as part of her game.
The Digital Billboard
The practice makes perfect game begins with a message displayed on a hacked digital billboard in Bayview. The message tells Bayview that it is time for a new game that will have only one rule. By choosing a billboard managed by Conrad and Olsen, Chelsea’s father’s former advertising company, Chelsea makes the billboard symbolic of the career her father loved, but also of the place where Alexander rekindled a relationship with Katherine Riordan.
The billboard later becomes symbolic of the Bayview Crew’s ingenuity in investigating crimes as they make the connection between the billboard and the Alton family. The choice of using a billboard connected to her father’s former advertising company gives Chelsea away because learning of the connection allows Maeve to connect the game Alexander’s ad campaign. In this way, the billboard symbolizes Chelsea’s emotional attachment, which gives her away in the end.
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By Karen M. McManus
