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Chapters 53-88Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 53-63 Summary
Erin excuses herself to her room to think, trying to rationalize why Liz would have stolen the key. She is gone for too long and Liz comes to find her, scaring her. They both pretend to sleep until Erin goes upstairs to use the bathroom, leading Liz to realize the staff key is gone. Upstairs, Erin lets herself into Elliot’s room and finds his phone plugged into his external charger. She uses the thumbprint scanner and his corpse to unlock the phone, which opens to the Snoop app and lets her view the two people whom Elliot follows—Topher and “Anon101,” which the reader recognizes as Liz’s Snoop profile. Erin eventually realizes this as well and sends a text to Danny.
Downstairs, Liz worries about Erin and thinks of her own history of social rejection. She finally goes after Erin in time to watch her come out of Miranda’s room, claiming mild food poisoning. Liz checks on her room where, folded inside a hidden liner in her suitcase, is a bright red ski jacket, which Liz purchased to obscure her identity in the event of an altercation with Eva. She suspects that someone has moved her suitcases. Erin pretends to be asleep while thinking about how Liz could be involved with the murders. Meanwhile, Liz watches Erin, thinking about her murders “and [her] own past” (272). When the two hear Elliot’s phone chime upstairs, and Erin knows it is Danny responding to her message. She tries to play it cool as they go up to Elliot’s room, but Liz finds the phone before Erin. She uses Elliot’s thumb to unlock it and reads the message Erin sent, “SOS… Please send help. IT’S LIZ,” as well as Danny’s response: “Fuck. Erin is that you?” (282).
Chapters 64-69 Summary
The women go downstairs to talk after it becomes clear they both know about Liz’s crimes. Liz likes Erin and decides to confess to her. She tells Erin that she has always been a social outcast, and when she offered her grandmother’s money to the company, Eva suggested paying her back with a loan. Topher pressured her into taking shares because he felt he could force Liz into voting along with him during company decisions. The women decide to make tea, and Liz plays with sleeping pills she has in her pocket. They scoop snow from outside into a kettle and set it on the fireplace while Liz resumes her story.
After the investment, the Snoop group went out to a party, and Eva helped dress Liz. Liz drank quite a bit and was eventually, with Eva, invited to a potential investor’s home for more drinks. While Eva was in the bathroom, the investor assaulted Liz, who pushed him over the balcony in self-defense. Eva helped Liz leave, and Liz quit Snoop shortly after. She killed Eva because Eva was blackmailing her to vote for the merger; she then killed Elliot and Ani because they held key information that would have revealed her involvement. Internally, Liz reflects on her actual skiing talent and the fact that she has visited these same slopes in the past. This allowed her familiarity with La Sorcière. She called Eva over at the top of the mountain, then pushed her over the edge to her death. Elliot tracked her using the geosnoop application, and Ani realized she didn’t see Liz coming down the bubble lift when she and Carl were going up it.
It is revealed that Liz spiked the tea with sleeping pills, and Erin seemingly falls unconscious. Liz goes upstairs and sends a text to Danny that incriminates Erin.
Chapters 70-80 Summary
Meanwhile, Erin gets up from the couch, having recognized the taste of sleeping pills and pretended to drink the tea. She gets dressed in ski gear and climbs through a window as Liz rushes after her. Erin’s helmet gets stuck in the window and she has to unclip it to free herself, landing on her bad leg and limping across the snow. Erin knows of the “Secret Valley,” an unofficial ski route to town. Liz also gears up but, unable to free the helmet from the window, she exits without proper head protection.
The women race down the mountain on the off-piste trail as the book switches from perspective to perspective. Erin manages the jump down a small cliff to start the trail, but when Liz does it she causes a small avalanche. Erin’s injured leg makes the trail difficult to navigate, causing her to crash once. Only the memory of Will keeps her going. Each time the women stop, they hear each other and resume their frantic down-trail rush. Finally, Liz is slapped by a branch and injured, but she hears Erin up ahead and races forward. Erin reaches the final hairpin turn but her leg gives out, causing her to crash into the snow. Liz, behind her, does not know of the turn and hits a cliff face at full speed. When Erin drags herself over to check on Liz, she finds Liz dead, her head smashed in. A phone begins to ring, and Erin pulls it out of Liz’s pocket, finding Danny on the other line. He stays on the phone with her until the paramedics from town arrive.
Chapters 81-88 Summary
The novel skips forward several days to Erin getting released from the hospital, her broken leg in a brace. She goes to a nearby bed and breakfast where she finds the others from the chalet, including Inigo, who has two black eyes and a bandaged face. He tells her that the mistake he was trying to correct was giving the emergency responders the wrong address when he was on the call. Because he does not speak French, he gave them the name of a different chalet and so left to get the police. However, he ran into a tree and was hospitalized, unconscious for several days. Erin recognizes the survivor’s guilt in him. Later that night when the bell rings for dinner, Erin and Danny share a tearful reunion, and he apologizes for leaving her. They go downstairs where the others are waiting, and Erin observes the survivors.
Topher announces that the buyout offer has been withdrawn and that things are not looking good for Snoop. He also reveals that Eva’s husband sent him an encrypted file from Eva, which contains a video verifying Liz’s story about her assault and first murder. Erin realizes that Eva set Liz up, hoping to get video evidence of this potential investor molesting Liz for blackmail. When Erin shares this with the group, they realize that the rest of the file must be filled with blackmail used against investors. They debate what to do with the file until Erin retires for the night.
Three weeks later, Erin and Danny are back at the chalet, cleaning, when they get news that it will be closed and they have lost their jobs. After lunch, they realize their Snoop apps have crashed, and they find news articles announcing that Snoop has gone bankrupt. Erin goes to pack her things and sees an email from Topher. He apologizes for the way he spoke about Alex and Will and for the way he spoke to her. He explains that he now understands loss, adding in a postscript that he sent Eva’s file to the police. Erin sends him a simple reply: “Dear Topher, it’s going to be all right” (365).
Later, Danny helps Erin onto a bus. She is headed back to England for the first time in years. Danny has secured a position cooking for the bed and breakfast where the group stayed after the events at the chalet. As he helps her, he tells her to download Choon—an app like Snoop, but better. As the bus pulls away, they shout out that they love each other. Danny sends Erin a text message with his Choon ID so she can follow him and they can stay connected.
Chapters 53-88 Analysis
The last portion of the book resolves the remaining plot threads, playing with the multiple perspectives to provide a complete understanding of the novel’s events. At the climax, concern for Erin’s well-being is juxtaposed with fascination about Liz’s murderous capabilities. Liz’s confession provides a clear sequence of events and attempts to justify her choices. Her childhood sense of unbelonging, her acquisition of the company stock, and her assault all led to Eva acquiring blackmail. It is this blackmail that, years later, drives Liz to kill Eva, Elliot, and Ani in an attempt to make it all go away.
Erin fights for her life for the second time in three years. The trauma and danger of the avalanche pales in comparison to the more active, aggressive danger Liz presents. Her survival at the end of the novel grants her clarity. When she speaks with Inigo at the bed and breakfast, she sees his guilt and grief. She tells him that he must forgive himself and that it was a mistake. It is in this moment that she realizes, “These are words people have been saying to me for months, years now […] They are phrases that have always seemed meaningless. Now, suddenly, it is vital that Inigo believes them” (340). Erin is finally able to forgive herself and stop running from her past; she even steps forward to comfort others in their confusion and grief. Her final moments with Danny at the close of the novel, the exchange of affection, show that she is no longer afraid of creating connections. She is ready to go home and mourn with her family, and then move forward once again.
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