Content Warning: This section of the guide includes mentions of child abduction, abuse, sexual assault, predatory behavior, mental illness, violence against women, domestic violence, abortion, and suicide.

“At thirteen he believed entirely that there was gold beyond the Ozark Plateau. That there was a brighter world just waiting for him.”

The opening paragraphs establish Patch as a child who still believes in magic. He is caught up in the romance of the pirate myth and thinks that there is gold waiting for him in the distance. This childhood will be lost forever after his experience with Aaron and his kidnapping.

“Later that day the cops would crawl over the intricacies of his life and discover he was into pirates because he had been born with only one eye, and his mother peddled the romance of a cutlass and eye patch because often for kids like him the flair of fiction dulled a reality too severe.”

Ivy establishes the pirate myth to try to shield Patch from their poverty and the cruelty of other people. This quote highlights the contrast between the romantic world of Patch’s childhood—evidenced through his toys—and the harsh realities around them.

“None would yet know of the evolving tragedy that would be their lives.”

This sentence foreshadows the sprawling narrative of the rest of the book, which traces the repercussions of this violent day in the characters’ lives. None of them escape the tragedy without significant trauma, and Eli Aaron’s violence forever changes all their lives.