Things We Do in the Dark

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault, and murder.

At the end of the novel, Paris’s mother attempts to define Paris/Joey: “Get off your moral high horse,” she chides her. “You think we’re so different, you and me? We’re exactly the same. We’re survivors” (338). Given Paris/Joey’s chameleon life—her willingness to create and then destroy identities and to move in and out of relationships—Hillier makes the mystery of the novel revolve not around “whodunit” but around who Paris/Joey really is. That is, is she vulnerable, or a cold-hearted murderer? Hillier constructs Paris’s character by hinting toward secrets kept from the reader until later, making her character elusive to build suspense.

To understand Paris Peralta is to grapple with The Traumatic Impact of Abuse. She experiences sexual abuse with racist undertones as both Charles Baxter and her uncle exoticize her because of her Filipina heritage. That experience reshapes her perception of herself as helpless and alone. Her stint in the strip club in Toronto is an expression of that lack of self-respect and her lack of identity. When she steps out on the stage, she tells herself she is someone else and even adopts a stage name, a persona that she names after her abusive mother.