The Watchers

In this final section of the novel, the aftermath of Mina’s ordeal sheds further light on The Impact of Trauma on Creativity. Mina wants to draw the coop but has promised to keep it secret and resolves that “[t]here w[ill] be no evidence of what they went through, not even a doodle” (303). Because of the nature of her captivity and the current need for secrecy, she is barred from using her artistic talent to work through the lingering effects of her trauma, and as a result, she struggles to make any art at all. More importantly, her captivity has had yet another unforeseen effect on her vigilance and attention to detail; she is now able to perceive that the android in Galway is a watcher like Madeline, and Mina now looks for other watchers in the crowds rather than seeking out interesting faces to sketch. With this new element of hypervigilance, she is a survivor first and an artist second.

Shine also develops the theme of Gaining Strength From Found Family, using contrast to indicate the nature of true familial bonds, which do not necessarily align with biological origins. When Mina calls her biological sister, she is unable to tell her about the coop. Jennifer therefore gets frustrated with Mina and hurtfully admits that she only calls out of a sense of duty to their dead mother. Deeply traumatized, Mina “need[s] fixing more than ever, but Jennifer [i]sn’t the one to seal up the cracks” (305), and the fraught conversation marks their last moments of contact. By contrast, Mina’s found family, Ciara, is far more supportive and invites Mina to her home every week—not just because they can talk about the coop but also because Ciara is far more empathic than Jennifer. Thus, Shine suggests that captivity leads to unlikely bonds and that the bonds forged in trauma can be stronger than the bonds forged in blood.

Within the novel’s cliffhanger conclusion, Shine once again invokes a sense of the uncanny via the use of mirrors and doppelgängers. The mirror of the coop creates two Minas; as the narrative states, “That Mina was the reflection in the glass. And that Mina wasn’t the one who made it home. The woman who walked into the forest and the one who fell out of its south side were two different people” (297). The last time that Mina ever sees her old self is in the mirror, and this image represents the split that occurs because of trauma, as her captivity fundamentally changes her identity. When confronted by Madeline and the other daytime watchers in the novel’s conclusion, the sinister nature of doppelgängers once again arises; Mina thinks that the android might be Madeline with a different face, but this ends up being a false double. The android’s reappearance thus unnerves Mina with the irrefutable evidence that there are other watchers like Madeline who can endure daylight. This development leads to a cliffhanger ending, and only the next installment in the series can address the novel’s many unanswered questions.