In the first issue of the novel, the narrator presents the disease affecting the teenagers in the fictional universe described in the ‘’Black Hole’’. The only ones who were affected were the teenagers and they suddenly developed rashes, and bumps while others had new limbs growing out.
The narrator remembers how he was paired with a girl named Chris in biology class and how different she was from other girls. This scene portrays girls and boys rather stereotypical, with the women needing help and the men appearing though and ready to do anything.
When the narrator cut into the frog, he became shocked by the sight and also had a feeling that this image was going to influence his life. The narrator claims that it felt as if ‘’he was looking at the future’’, foreshadowing thus the events that will take place. The narrator blacks out and during the time he is unconscious, he sees a black whole, swallowing everything and everyone. This represents the first time when the term ‘’black hole’’ is mentioned in the novel.
In the next scene the narrator is together with one of his friends in a spot they used and which they called Planet Xeno. The narrator and his friends used the space to get high and during that time they mentioned someone they knew who contracted the bug and had another mouth grow on his chest.
The narrator sees something moving in the bushes and while he investigates it, he finds the camp made by some of those who were affected by the disease in the woods. He also finds the skin left behind by some girl affected by the disease, showing that no one was immune to it.
When the narrator arrives home, he has a strange dream, in which he is surrounded by naked men, near a lake. When he looks down at his genitals, he sees that his penis resembles a pig’s tail. When the narrator looks down, he realizes that he is sitting in glass, a piece of it entering his foot. From the wound, the narrator takes out a piece of paper on which a snake is drawn. Slowly, the image transforms into an image depicting a group of men into a lake feeding from it. When the narrator looks closer, he sees that the things that the teenagers are eating are garbage and at some point one of the boys in the lake offers the narrator a fruit to eat. When the narrator refuses, the boy transforms into a snake and wraps its body around the narrator, making it hard for him to breath. As a result, the narrator sheds his skin and throws it away.
This dream is filled with symbolic meaning and it also foreshadows the way in which the narrator will be affected by the disease. The image of the narrator stepping into glass and becoming knowingly hurt shows how no one knew the origin of the disease and how it was able to affect anyone, without making any difference. The image of the snake and of the snake offering the fruit to the narrator also suggests that the disease is somehow linked with the idea of sin and with a practice not accepted by society.
The second installment is told from Chris’s perspective who is with her friends near a lake. Chris thinking about the events that took place the week before, when she was at a party where she met Rob, a boy she knew from school. Chris takes Rob to a cemetery and there they had sex. When it was all over, Chris noticed a mouth on Rob’s neck and in that moment realized that Rob was infected by the bug.
Chris stops thinking about what happened the week before and agrees to jump into the lake when the others pressure her to do it. Chris takes off her clothes and as she gets in the water the rest notice how she has a mark on her back, meaning that she was infected by the bug as well.
This installment shows how the disease is transmitted: through sex. It also suggests that those who are not infected feel attracted towards those who are infected, without even knowing it. The bug may affect people in different ways and in some cases, the ones who are infected may not even realize they have contracted the bug.
The third installment is told from Rob’s perspective, who feels guilt for not telling Chris about his condition before they had sex. Rob was sleeping with another girl who also had the bug and while he slept the mouth on his neck started to talk about Chris so the other girl threw him out. The girl’s name is Lisa and no matter how hard Rob tries to convince her to let him stay, she refuses.
The story then moves to Keith, the unnamed narrator in the first installment. He was also near the lake where Chris took a bath and one of his friends told him she has the bug. Keith goes to the woods and there he sees Chris taking her underwear off to put on her dry clothes. She then steps into a piece of glass and Keith goes over to help her. After helping her, Keith becomes determined to have her, no matter what it takes.
In the fourth part it is revealed that Chris stopped going to school. This shows just how much the bug affected the lives of the people and some were eventually forced to show themselves in public because of the way the bug was affecting their outer appearance.
Also in the fourth part, Keith goes to a dope house and there he meets a girl who has the bug. Despite this, he still fells attracted to her and aroused by her deformity, which in this case is a tail.
In the next part Rob goes to a camp in the woods where he sits with other people affected by the bug. The kids are acting paranoid, scared that something will happen to them. Thus, even though they left for the woods to try and be safe, they were still in danger.
Rob meets again with Chris and it is obvious that she is affected by the knowledge that she has the bug. The two go into the woods and there Chris thinks about the time she discovered she had the bug and how much it affected her.
Chris also felt as if she no longer belonged anywhere. She knew she was not normal anymore but she did not want to be associated with the infected ones either so she was just drifting from one place to another. This made her feel insecure about herself and unsure about what to do next.
The story moves to Keith who continues to experiment with drugs. This time, when he meets with his friends, he took acid and that made him act paranoid. Keith started running through the woods and stumbled upon a camp of bug-infected kids who took care of him. While looking at them, Keith felt a warm feeling, feeling safe being in their presence and knowing they would do nothing to harm them.
This chapter has the purpose of showing how even though the teenagers lost their physical appearance, that did not meant they were bad people who were a threat to the rest of the world.
The seventh issue starts with Chris and Rob going to the beach. They are able to escape everything there, being only the two of them. The day the two spent at the beach represents the way the children infected with the bug wanted to live their lives but could not. While the day was perfect, the night brought for the two the reminder that they were different and that no matter where they were they were still affected by the bug.
When Chris returned home, her mother found out she was missing school and grounded her. In that moment, Chris decided to run away from home, mainly because her mother told her she was going to get her to a doctor and thus there was the possibility of her secret being found out.
Chris was terrified of the prospect of her mother finding out about her condition and so she decided to run away, preferring to sleep in the woods and leave her old life behind. This shows just how much the disease affected the people and how many felt the need to hide their condition from their loved ones.
The next installment focuses on Keith who returns to the dope house and only finds Eliza. The two end up having sex, Keith becoming unable to control himself. Keith describes once more the pull he felt the first time and this time it was combined with the smell emitted by the Eliza’s skin. This transmits once more how the ones infected by the bug manifest some pull no one can resist.
The ninth issue starts with Rob being attacked in the woods by another bug infested teenager. This is the first time when someone who has the bug is presented as a danger to the rest of the people who are also infested.
It is also revealed that Keith and Chris meet at the pit where Keith used to go from time to time and bring food to those infested by the bug. One day, Keith tells Chris she can stay at an empty house, showering and washing her clothes if she needs. When Chris first enters the house, she feels strange, showing just how much she distanced herself from the life she used to have.
In the next installment the house is presented again, this time filled with the people from the camp in the woods. It appears that Chris met with the people from the camp and invited them to the house. Keith could not say no to her, even though those people were destroying the house. This proves once more just how affected Keith was.
In the 10th issue it is also revealed that Chris disappeared after inviting the kids from the camp and that Keith did got the bug but managed to hide his deformities. Keith also reconnected with the woman who gave him the bug, Eliza, who looked for him at the store where he worked. Still, Keith still wanted to be only with Chris even though she was ignoring him.
In the eleventh part, it is shown how one of the people from the camp, Dave, took care of Rick, another person infected with the bug and also the person who attacked Rob. Dave knew about Rick had done and so he decided to kill him. He them returned to the house and killed some other people who were there. The reason why Dave killed almost all of the kids is because he felt responsible for the way they were treated, for their actions and for their behavior. As time progressed, he become the father figure of the group and took care of them. When things spiraled out of control, he also felt he was the one who had to put an end to it.
Two people from the group escaped and Keith and Eliza made sure they were safe. It is during this moment when Keith and Eliza become close again. Still, despite being happy with Eliza, Keith can’t stop thinking about Chris and her whereabouts since she was missing from the house.
Eliza also made a shocking discovery to Keith: he told him about how she was raped by the people at the house as a way of making her to pay rent. Her artwork was destroyed and she was hurt as well. The men in the house treated her like that because they did not saw her as being human. Instead, all they saw was the way the bug affected her and so they considered it as being fair game to take advantage of her. What is also interesting is the fact that Eliza chose to stay with them, showing that at some level, she saw herself as deserving of the treatment she was receiving. This shows thus that the way the people treated her affected her on a deep level and made her question her worth.
The novel concludes with the 12th installment and it starts with a dream Keith had. In that dream, he was with his former friends who did not knew about him being infected by the bug. When they found out, they made fun of him and showed him pictures of deformed people. Keith then goes down a whole and ends up in a desolated place, filled with garbage and flooded. In that place, Keith finds Chris, naked, sitting in front of a shack and with a wound on her leg. Chris gets out a piece of paper from her leg and shows it to Keith. Instead of seeing the frog or the snake he had seen in his dreams, Keith saw a lizard. The picture then shifts and beautiful scenery in the middle of the dessert appears.
When Keith wakes up, he is in bed with Eliza who had just woken up from a nightmare. Keith comforts her and tells her about the life they can have in the future, a life filled with hope and happiness.
This scene is important because it is the first time when the picture Keith has changes from a dangerous and disturbing one to a picture filled with happiness and peace. This shows that even though a person may be affected by the bug, they can still live a happy and fulfilling life, surrounded by the people they love.
The story then turns to Chris, who returned to the beach where she and Rob used to go. She spends the night and day there and buries the photo she had of Rob. This is a symbolic burial for Rob, the act of giving up and moving on. Chris remains on the beach and that night, she goes into the water. The novel ends here and Chris’s fate remains undetermined. It is however possible that the ended up committing suicide.
