51 pages • 1 hour read
Natasha PrestonThe Cellar
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 22-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary: “Lewis”
In the present, on Friday, January 28, Detective Michael Walsh arrives at Summer’s house at 5:30 am. Lewis is sleeping in Summer’s bed. Walsh brings news: Someone found Summer’s cell phone. Because the phone was found near the canal, police search the water. Lewis angrily leaves the house to resume his search, insisting Summer is not dead; Henry stops him to report that Walsh announced that two bodies were found. Neither is Summer, but the family is going to the canal in case the police find any other bodies. By the time Summer’s parents, Henry, and Lewis arrive, another body is being pulled out, but it is not Summer. Walsh tells Lewis they will continue to search the water.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Colin”
The narrative flashes back to Saturday, December 19, 1987. Colin is a young boy. He and his mother are Christmas shopping for his father. They happily buy Daddy gloves and clothes. Arriving home, Colin’s mother yells at Daddy and a strange woman in bed together. Colin’s mother tells his father to leave and that he made his choice. Colin cries.
In the present, on January 30, Colin joins the community search for Summer, wanting to see if there is any need for concern. He meets Lewis and Henry and tells Lewis he hopes Summer will be found. Colin catches Lewis staring at him.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Summer”
Summer and Rose wake early to give a painkiller to Layal, whom Clover recently shoved into a chair, breaking her ribs again. At breakfast, Summer feels anger when Clover kisses her. She also notices that he seems distracted; his expression randomly goes blank and dark, and he mutters incoherently. After he leaves, Rose, Poppy, and Summer discuss his mood. Summer helps Layal into the shower, reflecting that it is Lewis’s birthday soon.
In a flashback to 2009, it is Lewis’s birthday—February 11. Summer arrives early at his house and wakes him up to celebrate. They end up cuddling in bed.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Clover”
On February 7 in the present, Clover stews about the search for Lily, thinking of it as a threat to his family. He dwells over his predicaments (the search continuing, bodies found in the canal) and worries he is a failure. After a brief breakfast with the Flowers, he goes to work. When police detectives arrive at his office to question everyone about Christy, he says he heard Christy and Greg arguing and reveals they were having an affair. He asks the detectives if they think Greg has “something to do with this” (246).
Chapter 26 Summary: “Summer”
It is February 9 in the present; Summer has been in the cellar for over six months. Clover, raging, murders another sex worker in front of the Flowers. Rose and Poppy ask Summer to help clean up, but she cannot. In bed, Summer wonders if she imagined the scene, as Poppy and Rose are so quick to clean. Summer wonders if she is “worse off” than the other Flowers since memories of Lewis and her family haunt her; she sometimes wishes she would not remember them.
In a flashback to June 5, 2010, Summer gets ready for Lewis’s aunt’s wedding at Lewis’s house, struggling to wake him. They arrive late, which irks Summer, but they enjoy the day teasing and flirting.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Lewis”
On February 24, Lewis lies awake at 2:30 am feeling that something new is wrong. Henry cannot sleep either; the two discuss Greg Hart, whom the police questioned in connection to the found bodies but released him. They decide to see him and ask for themselves. Lewis then brings up Colin Brown, saying Brown is “creepy” and questioning Brown’s motivation for joining the search. Henry wants to focus on Hart. Lewis grudgingly agrees.
They go to Hart’s after breakfast. Lewis loses control of his anger and punches Hart. A nearby police officer arrests Lewis. At the station, Walsh lets Lewis go with a warning. Henry picks Lewis up, and they continue their search. They run into Colin Brown, who is carrying newly bought books and yarn in big bags. Colin offers to help with the search again on Sunday. Lewis is convinced that Colin shows no sincere sympathy for Summer. Henry refuses to follow Colin when Colin departs; Lewis gives up, and they search in another direction.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Clover”
On Sunday, February 27, Clover spends the day with Lewis and some other search party volunteers. Lewis insists he will never stop looking for Summer; his comments cause Clover irritation and anxiety. Back at home, he worries Lewis or someone is spying on him; in the cellar, he fixates on Lily’s inability to meet his eyes and snaps at her to look at him. Rose asks for a replacement for a broken wooden spoon, and he thinks to himself how the Flowers’s “manners” are deteriorating. Over dinner, the endlessness of the search distracts him; he yells, “His fault! It’s his! […] Lewis!” (277-78), which upsets Lily. Clover leaves in a blind fury. He picks up a sex worker, takes her to a remote wooded area, and kills her.
Chapters 15-28 Analysis
Dramatic irony reaches a peak in this section. While the author reveals that Colin killed Christy, the other characters do not know this; this makes his deft baiting of the police regarding Greg Hart impactful and ironic, as they eagerly go off to question Hart as a suspect. Even stronger dramatic irony exists in Colin joining the search for Summer and meeting Lewis, as the author has established who Colin is, but the characters searching for Summer do not yet know of his action. When Lewis and Henry encounter Colin carrying bags of yarn and books, Lewis dismisses his suspicions about Colin; the narrative thus far establishes he should follow his instincts, which increases suspense. Additional dramatic irony is evident in that the Flowers do not understand the cause of Clover’s deepening anxiety and anger, but the narrative already revealed this detail; the continuing search drives his anxiety, especially Lewis’s comments about finding Summer. Each of these instances of dramatic irony contributes to the overall interest and complexity of the narrative.
Changes in Summer’s and Clover’s character arcs become more evident in this section as the protagonist and antagonist begin to switch positions in terms of power. Considering Summer’s overall character development, she reaches her point of greatest internal conflict when she begins to think that her relationships with her family and Lewis make her struggles in the cellar harder than what the other Flowers experience since they have no relationships outside the cellar. This “new low” represents a subtle turning point in Summer’s character as she begins to feel anger over Clover’s actions. For example, she feels resentment when he kisses her cheek and gall when he mentions a movie night as though their situation is perfectly normal. Significantly, she also lets her true emotions out with Clover’s outburst about Lewis; she reacts wholly as Summer, forgetting to hide behind her Lily façade in a key moment that helps support the theme of Manipulation of Identity and Resistance Against Erasure of Self. While Clover hears “desperation” in her voice, her reaction proves Summer still cares about those in her past, and her strength and hope renew after his critical slip.
As Summer reaches her lowest point emotionally and then regains the spark of hope, Clover, in juxtaposition, begins on a downward spiral of lost control. Clover’s crimes become sloppy as a result, such as murdering the sex worker in the woods. His temper with the Flowers worsens; he becomes increasingly snappish with them, ready to erupt in violence. Most significantly, he cannot suppress his panic over the investigation into Summer’s disappearance, and it drives him to join the search for her. His pretense is in place when he meets Lewis. However, Lewis’s strong insistence that Summer is alive and his never-wavering search for her, which develops the theme of Resilience in the Face of Dire Circumstances, dismantles Clover’s confidence and causes him emotional turbulence. He also senses Lewis’s suspicion of him, which causes Clover’s more desperate frame of thinking, evidenced by his paranoia in Chapter 28 that Lewis may be lurking near or in his home. This leads to bursting out with Lewis’s name at dinner, notable since he never speaks of the outside world or Summer’s past or even implies they exist. This key moment symbolizes his loss of control and descent into failure even as Summer subtly shifts into a more powerful role. This new development further contributes to the theme of The Dynamics of Power and Control in Abusive Situations.
