Conspiracy Theories
This novel is situated firmly within the world of conspiracy theories revolving around the idea of secret societies comprised of privilege people pulling all the strings of societal interaction. A secret society is at the very heart of the narrative and without it nothing else would make any sense. It is not mere coincidence or imagination that the story is set within the academic world of Yale. That Ivy League school is the epicenter of America’s oldest stories about secret societies pulling the strings and that society, Skull and Bones, is present in the story by name. While the story is constructed as taking place in an alternate reality, the underlying tale of machinations among the living which are capable of pulling them straight to hell would lack resonance without the more firmly grounded idea of an alternate reality taking place in the world we know.
Rituals of the Privileged
For the average person, ritualistic existence is limited to things like weddings, church service, and superstitious repetitions to call on good luck. Among the privileged and elite, almost every aspect of existence requires some sort of ritualistic practice. The novel takes that concept and transforms the necessity of its existence into the occult and supernatural realm. Rather than simple secret handshakes among members of those secret societies, this alternative reality requires blood rites to keep monsters like vampires and werewolves at bay. While to the outsider this reliance of extreme ritualistic practices to make their way forward may seem merely the stuff of fantasy fiction it is actually rather deeply steeped in the far less extreme but no less foreign rituals practiced among the elite.
Consequences of the Past
The consequences of the past which can introduce guilt into the present is thematically situated in the part of the story featuring beings called Grays. Grays are basically just ghosts and the protagonist of the story must confront her own guilt through interaction with these entities. It is the revelation of information which was previously unknown which is the real heart of this theme. The Grays symbolically represent the unconscious workings of motivation in the present due to circumstances which occurred in the past. The protagonist represents everybody who goes about their life pursuing goals and ambitions which are, to an unknown extent, guided by the consequences of things which happened in the past.
