50 pages • 1 hour read
JP DelaneyThe Girl Before
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “A new friend confides she was once sent to prison for shoplifting. It was some time ago and she has turned her life around since. Do you: — Consider it irrelevant–everyone deserves a second chance — Appreciate her honesty in sharing this with you — Reciprocate by confiding a mistake of your own — Feel sorry for her that she was ever in that situation — Decide she’s not really the kind of person you want as a friend”
Jane worries about what Edward will think when she tells him that she’s pregnant, and spends some time reflecting on her stillbirth. To distract herself, she begins sorting out her notes on Emma’s death using Post-it notes to write down possibilities; she includes Simon, Edward, Saul, Deon Nelson, and Edward’s stalker on the list. After looking at the notes, she feels that she’s gotten “nowhere” (235) and goes to recycle them. In the recycle bin, she finds one of the sketches Edward did of her, and notes that there’s a kind of “double image” (235). The neighbor, Maggie, talks briefly to Jane about Emma’s “cancer treatment” (236). Jane realizes that Emma had told yet another lie. When Maggie leaves, Jane takes the Post-it notes back out of the recycling bin.
Jane goes to her sonogram appointment and the doctor tells her that while the placenta and umbilical cord are as they should be, there is a probability that her baby will have Down’s syndrome. Jane feels all of her “carefully laid plans” falling apart (241). Jane does more research about Down’s syndrome and cries.
Jane goes back to Carol Younson and tells her about all of Emma’s lies. Carol says that it’s possible that Emma had “pseudologia fantastica” (247), where she intentionally pretended to have things about her, including being a survivor of a rape. Carol realizes that it’s possible Emma lied to her “as a kind of sounding board […] before she tried her story on someone else” (248). Jane spends the rest of the conversation processing her grief about her stillbirth as well as the possible Down’s syndrome diagnosis, and concludes that if the test is positive, she will have an abortion. Shortly after, Jane gets the results; it is most likely that the baby will be normal, so she will keep it. At the end of the chapter, Jane tells Edward she is pregnant and explains that there is still a small chance the baby will have Down’s syndrome. Edward tells her she is stuck in “Emma’s story” (254) and leaves her.
In Chapter 10, Amanda confronts Emma over the HR report that Emma made against Saul. Amanda says, “you were my friend and you screwed my husband” (237). As they argue, Emma says “it was Saul who raped me” (238). Amanda accuses her of lying. As the conversation concludes, Emma finds herself missing Simon, remembering “how nice it felt to be forgiven” (239).
Edward breaks up with Emma, and she has something “like the feeling after someone dies” (250). Emma stops eating. The night of the break-up, the water in the shower goes cold and the lights turn off. She is scared, and thinks that either the kitten, who she has named Slob, has “dislodged one of the cables” (251), or that the “house itself is doing this” (251). She cries in the shower.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Which relationship problem do you fear most? —Getting bored — Realizing you could do better — Growing apart —Your partner becoming dependent on you — Being deceived”
Emma continues not eating and describes that her ability to not eat “is the proof [she’s] still powerful” (257). When she goes to therapy, she tells Carol that Edward “is a vicious, bullying egomaniac” (257) and that she’s broken up with him for that reason. Emma describes “longing for [Edward]” permeating her body. When she gets back to One Folgate Street, she finds the kitten, Slob, dead and bloody in the garden. She feels scared and reaches out to Simon.
Emma and Simon talk, and he offers to stay with her at One Folgate Street. She declines, citing that “this house is built like a fortress” (263). When Simon leaves, Emma tries to cook, but the stove doesn’t work. Despite this, Emma begins to smell gas coming from the stove, which lights on fire and burns her. She runs her burned arm under the sink. She feels “like the house didn’t want Simon to come around” and feels “scared” (264). She goes into the cleaner’s closet and hides there.
Jane, newly single and still pregnant, invites her friend, Mia, to come over while she talks with Simon, who brings a folder of research with him. Jane explains to Simon all that she has discovered about Emma’s lies. Simon says that he knew about Emma’s relationship with Saul, and that she told him about how “Saul drugged her and forced himself on her” (260). Simon implies that Saul frequently uses sedatives in champagne to have sex with women. Then Simon shows her the research in the folder, which shows a connection between deaths and the construction of Edward’s buildings.
Chapters 10-11 Analysis
The “double image” Jane finds of herself, which shows both a gentle and a violent side to her face, mirrors the revelation that Emma has been lying throughout the story thus far. The previous image Emma had painted of herself as a weak, pretty, vulnerable young woman is now altered by the realization that she is strong, manipulative, and impulsive. Delaney implies in this section that everyone has a side of themselves that is well-intentioned and good, and that everyone also has a side that can behave in dangerous, cruel ways. While Jane resists these temptations, Emma continuously does the wrong thing to try to get her life back on track. When faced with conflict, Emma responds by trying to lie her way out. In this section, One Folgate Street also seems to have a two-sidedness, with technological features that previously seemed useful and harmless becoming dangerous.
