50 pages • 1 hour read
JP DelaneyThe Girl Before
JP DelaneyFiction | 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 12-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “In a well-run society, there have to be consequences for those who break the rules. Agree . . . . . Disagree”
Chapter 12 opens on Jane appreciating her new pregnancy, wondering how she could have ever “considered aborting this child” (267). In the shower, the water goes cold, and she wonders if the house isn’t able to recognize her because she’s pregnant. She is nauseous and throws up in the shower. When she cleans up the vomit, she finds a pearl. Jane compares the pearl to those on her necklace, but there are no pearls missing.
Jane takes the pearl to a jeweler, who implies that the pearl might have come off of a necklace that was then restrung. Jane wonders if Edward gave her a necklace “he’d previously given to someone else” (270) and calls Simon to investigate further. As Jane talks to Simon about where the pearl could have come from, Simon declares that Edward “must have been there when it got broken” and that it’s possible he then dragged Emma to the stairs and “pushed her down” (273). Jane isn’t convinced. Simon offers to come stay at One Folgate Street.
Simon and Jane go see DI Clarke, and they discuss the possibility that the necklace was on Emma’s neck when she died. Jane puts the necklace on, and Simon helps her with the clasp. She notices that “his fingers are clumsy” and senses “that it might be because he’s attracted to [her]” (277). DI Clarke suggests that Jane leave both the house and Edward. Following this meeting, Jane tries to work with a realtor, Camilla, to rent something else, but can’t get anything in her budget that’s big enough. Camilla reminds Jane of all the rules in the lease agreement and that she can be evicted if she breaks them. Jane describes starting to feel scared of One Folgate Street.
Jane has Simon over for dinner and cooks him steak. She confides in him about the Down’s syndrome scare. Meanwhile, Simon talks about wanting a family with Emma. At the end of the night, Simon again offers to stay the night. Jane declines.
Emma continues to feel that the house’s atmosphere is changing. Simon offers to come over again. Instead of accepting, Emma invites Edward over when he finally texts her back. Via text, Edward tells her to “Wear the pearls. Not much else” (271). Emma begins to prepare for her evening, putting on the necklace. She is heading to the shower when she hears “a sound from downstairs” (274). She can’t see anyone. The house makes a “high-pitched whine” and a “lightbulb pops in the ceiling” (275). Afterwards, the house seems to reset, and Emma gets in the shower. She hears a voice say her name from behind her, and when she turns around, she says, “What are you doing here? [...] How did you get in?” (279).
Simon is behind her, and says, “I kept the keycode” (282). Emma doesn’t know what to say, and Simon begins to explain that he’s been staying “upstairs […] in the attic […] so that I can be near you” (282). Emma is confused. Simon points to the necklace and tells her he knows that Edward gave it to her. Then Simon explains that he’d set her up using a fake phone number. Emma tells him that he’s still not going to be with her and asks him to leave. Simon says that he “can’t let it go” (283) and grabs at her when she tries to run away. He tells Emma that he loves her and then pushes her. She knows “he meant this to happen, that he wants [her] to die” (283) and falls down the stairs. Emma’s narrative goes blank after this.
Chapter 13 Summary: “There is often a large gap between my goals and my outcomes. Agree . . . . . Disagree”
Jane is the only character narrating the story now. As Chapter 13 opens, Housekeeper asks Jane to complete a diagnostic. She is curious about the change in the question options, and does research while connected to the neighbor’s Wi-Fi, discovering that the diagnostic is actually a test “designed by psychologists to diagnose unhealthy, pathological perfectionism so it could be treated” (292). Jane realizes that Edward is “trying to control, not just our surroundings, or even the way we live in them, but our innermost thoughts and feelings” (292).
As Jane processes this new information, there is a glitch with the lights and laptop. On the computer screen is now a video playing from a camera watching her from the wall. When she closes the video window, there are more windows, each showing “where the cameras are” (293) in the house. Jane discovers that there is even a camera “directly above the bed” (293) and her “revulsion turns to rage” (293). Jane looks back through the lease agreement and finds that there is a clause explaining that she can be videoed.
Jane goes directly to the Monkford Partnership offices and speaks with David Thiel, who explains that “no one accesses those camera feeds apart from the automatic face recognition software” (296). While she asks David Thiel more questions about the shower or why the cameras didn’t record Emma’s death, Edward comes into the room and tells her she has to leave One Folgate Street. Edward accuses Jane of being “fixated” (296) on Emma; Jane counters by asking Edward, “[W]hy did you have [Emma’s] necklace repaired and then give it to me?” (296). Edward explains that he gave her a similar necklace, not the same one. Jane asks Edward if he killed Emma, and he asks, “Who puts these crazy ideas in your head?” (297). Edward tells her to leave.
Jane, who is now more “freaked out” (298), calls Simon and they meet at a Starbucks. Jane explains about the confrontation with Edward, and Simon asks if Edward can prove that there are two different necklaces. Simon tells Jane that she can stay with him if she wants. Jane observes Simon and wonders why he seems “so tense” (300). She figures out that she can count the number of pearls on her necklace to conclude if one is missing. There are twenty-four pearls on each strand, and Jane decides that “Edward was telling the truth” (300). Then she wonders, “What if it all happened just as Simon said […] but to him, not Edward?” (300). She realizes that “there have been no technical malfunctions at One Folgate Street while Simon’s here,” so what if Simon was the one “somehow causing it all” (301).
Chapters 12-13 Analysis
As One Folgate Street’s features take on an ominous hue, a central tension of the novel is brought closer to the surface—the role of technology in humans’ lives. Though Housekeeper and the other functions of the house have an impact on the characters in earlier chapters, this section of the novel makes each component of the house become something that can cause harm. All of the events leading up to Emma’s death, including the gas fire, the temperature of the shower, and even the stairs that she falls down, are part of the physical space of the house. Jane’s conversation with David Thiel intensifies the focus on the ways that the technological advances present at One Folgate Street are meant to reflect the larger duality between technology’s potential to both help and harm human’s lives. When Jane discovers the cameras, she suddenly feels that the house inspires fear rather than safety, yet as Thiel explains, those cameras are actually present to help the house gather appropriate data. Delaney seems to be making a commentary on the ways that humans both rely on technology and can also use it in ways that are not healthy or beneficial.
The structure of the novel changes significantly in Chapter 13 when Emma’s narrative comes to a sudden stop. The length of the narrative sections up through Chapter 11 are such that the story switches back and forth from Jane to Emma for relatively long periods of time. In Chapters 12 and 13, Emma’s narrative rarely takes up more than two pages, and after her death, she gets a full blank page. By the next chapter, Emma is no longer present as a narrator. Delaney frequently references the ways that an empty physical space can relate to a person’s emotional state. In voiding Emma’s narrative before the end of the novel, Delaney creates an emptiness that seems reflective of the interior of One Folgate Street.
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