Where Sleeping Girls Lie

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, substance use, sexual violence, rape, and suicide.

Sade first saw a dead body when she found her mother in the bathtub when she was 10 years old. Her father had told her that her mother was sleeping, but Sade knew better, and she knows immediately that Jude is dead. She leaves the room quickly, climbing down the balcony, and is crying by the time she finds Persephone in the car. She tells the other girl that Jude is dead.

The girls get a room at a nearby B&B, where they have no choice but to share a queen bed. Sade worries that she was the last person with Jude and that she will be a suspect in his death, and Persephone tries to talk her down. After turning out the lights, Persephone quietly admits in the darkness that she is “relieved” that Jude is dead.

In the morning, Sade is embarrassed to discover she slept “holding [Persephone] like a koala would a tree” (281), but the other girl doesn’t seem to mind. As they head back to campus, Persephone urges Sade to “stay calm” and “act normal” as the drama of Jude’s death starts to unfold.