51 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel CaineStillhouse Lake
Fiction | 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.
Background
Series Context: Stillhouse Lake
Stillhouse Lake is the first and eponymous novel in Rachel Caine’s six-book thriller series focusing on the character Gwen Proctor (formerly Gina Royal) and her children, Lanny (formerly Lily) and Connor (formerly Brady), in the years after Gwen’s husband, Mel, is revealed to be a serial killer. The subsequent novels in the series are: Killman Creek (2017), Wolfhunter River (2019), Bitter Falls (2020), Heartbreak Bay (2021), and Trapper Road (2022—written with Carrie Ryan). The two last books in the series were published posthumously.
Stillhouse Lake was conceived and written as a series from the outset, and as such there is a narrative arc that applies to the whole series, as well as the narrative arcs within each book. As suspense thrillers, the books lead on from one another and are intended to be read in sequence. At the end of the first book, Gwen and her children have escaped their immediate dangers but are under threat from Mel, who has escaped, and they are still dealing with the various consequences of the events in book one. In this context, the conclusion of the first novel sets up the second and is a narrative “hook” to encourage the reader to look forward to, buy, and read the subsequent installment. This creates macro-suspense in the same way that a thriller novel traditionally sets up internal micro-suspense in order to be a “page-turner.” The subsequent novels will continue the plot of Mel and his crimes while developing the characters of Gwen, Lanny, and Connor over several years. Gradually, the books will move away from Mel-centric plots toward other action that concentrates on the resilience and ingenuity that the family has gained as a result of their experiences. As is usual in the genre, plot twists, recurring characters, and slow-burn plot elements occur throughout the series.
Cultural Context: “Post-Truth” Society and the Internet
Caine sets her Stillhouse Lake novel and series firmly in the contemporaneous internet world, drawing on the ideas of “post-truth,” including how information—especially false information and speculation—proliferates online, the anonymous nature of internet trolls, and the division between truth and lies. A “post-truth” situation can be defined as “one in which people are less influenced by factual information than by their emotions or beliefs they already hold” (“Post-truth.” Collins English Dictionary, 2023.) Oxford Dictionaries chose “Post-truth” as the word of the year in 2016, the year before Stillhouse Lake was published, calling it “the defining word of our time” (Flood, Alison. “‘Post-truth' named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries.” The Guardian, Nov 15, 2016). This context provides a significant framing for Caine’s exploration of truth and lies, of what is “real life,” and the power that others’ beliefs and emotions—including strangers’—have on individuals’ freedom and peace of mind. Stillhouse Lake shows Gwen and her children become victims of the online community when their privacy is violated; they are subject to insults and hate based on the feeling, assumptions, and speculation of trolls online who are not interested in understanding the facts, still less in respecting the feelings and rights of Gwen, Lanny, and Connor as human beings. In this way, Gwen and her children are not only the indirect victims of Mel’s crimes, but also the victims of hate crime. This provides a rich context for the main characters’ development as they resist the identity of victimhood and seek to restore agency and order to their lives.
Literary Context: Women in Contemporary Thriller Novels
The contemporary thriller genre gives authors a space to investigate some very real fears inspired by present-day society, many of which relate to gender. As Gwen, the protagonist of Stillhouse Lake, notes, being a woman or girl is dangerous and carries the inherent risk of gender-based violence that women must navigate as they live their everyday lives. Many contemporary thriller novels explore the dangers that women face, which might include being assaulted or intimidated by strangers, kidnap of themselves or loved ones, sexual or psychological abuse within relationships, or marrying a criminal without realizing it. Contemporary thriller novels featuring women don’t usually need to explore the supernatural in order to produce terror or suspense. This is because there are already enough real dangers that women face, and the authors can expand upon these.
The predominance of violence against women in crime and thriller genres can lead to debate around the one-dimensional presentation of women as victims and the sensationalizing of gender-based violence. Supporters of the genre argue that these narratives have a cathartic function and reveal the experience of risk that women live with on an everyday basis and that society prefers not to acknowledge.
Like many thrillers about women, Stillhouse Lake explores how misogyny, when taken to its extreme logical conclusion, can result in a disregard for women’s status as humans that allows criminals to feel a sense of impunity. In creating a protagonist who is an indirect victim of Mel’s crimes, it presents a female character who is not primarily defined by victimhood. It also explores the ways in which male violence impacts whole families and communities, not the just the direct victims themselves. Many thriller plots that center on women also combine these dark elements with the more mundane female experiences of motherhood, marriage, and family, exploring the ways in which women experience the intersection between “good” and “evil” in society, and the ways in which society expects them to bear their feminine identity. No exception, Stillhouse Lake follows Gwen as she reevaluates her marriage and identity, seeks to protect her children, navigates public responses to her, and challenges assumptions about the confines of female behavior and agency.
