Deadly Animals

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness, child abuse, child death, death by suicide, animal death, and graphic violence.

“Some of them died right before the horrified eyes of pedestrians, others with their insides more outside. Ava used to cry when she came across the mangled remains, but now her natural inquisitiveness trumped any childish sentiment left.”

The text opens with Ava’s macabre hobby of studying dead animals in an abandoned garden she calls her roadkill body farm. This quotation demonstrates how Ava’s childhood fear of death has developed into a scientific curiosity. Ava’s “natural inquisitiveness” helps her overcome her fears and anxieties throughout the text, as this curiosity compels her to action rather than caution.

“‘The Moors murderers killed girls and boys,’ she said, then stopped. She could mention Peter Kurten, a German who had murdered everything from the age of nine, but self-preservation silenced her in time. If she bit down on her lip any harder it would bleed, and this was not the time to enjoy it.”

This allusion to a real, historical event enhances the novel’s English setting. The Moors murders occurred in Manchester, just north of the West Midlands town of Rubery, where the novel takes place. This early moment of characterization demonstrates Ava’s deep knowledge of unusual crimes, which becomes an asset for ultimately solving the case. In this quote, Ava displays the self-restraint she has developed to avoid the often violent reproaches she receives from her mother for speaking out of line, illustrating The Psychological Impact of Conformity.

“‘Please don’t be a cliche and bring Myra Hindley or Mary Bell into it, Detective Constable. The exception to the rule is not the rule, now, is it?’

Lines blushed, as if he’d been scolded by his mother.”

Ava calls in a new theory using her Miss Misty/Mrs. Poshy-Snob voice. By imitating an adult, Ava gains the confidence to share her knowledge in full, even adopting a sarcastic tone to mock the detective.