The Blue Hour

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

The fictional island of Eris is an important setting in the novel. It also carries symbolic functions and supports the theme of Public Persona Versus Personal Identity. The island is remote and difficult to access, which symbolizes the loneliness and isolation that Grace, Vanessa, and (to a lesser degree) Becker feel. As a tidal island, Eris is also a liminal space that is sometimes isolated and sometimes accessible depending on the time of day, which affects the tides. This characterization symbolizes how individuals may try to hide aspects of their personalities and histories but seldom succeed in doing so completely. Vanessa largely wanted to keep her personal experiences unknown but could not resist recording her intimate thoughts and feelings in journals and letters. Her emotional state often also influenced her art. Likewise, Grace tries to isolate herself but comes to feel drawn to Becker and risks the discovery of her crimes so that she can experience a connection to someone.

The impermanent and shifting nature of access to the island also reflects how characters in the novel (Becker in particular) only have limited and fragmentary access to the truth about past events; this contributes to The

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