The Unknown Themes
by Riley Sager
Underneath its plot, this novel is wrestling with how easily performance becomes reality, how the past repeats in the present, and how grief gets turned into self blame. It asks whether we are doomed to relive what we refuse to face, and whether anything we record or confess can ever be fully true.
Here you'll find each major theme unpacked with concrete moments from the book, including the twin disappearances, Marin's guilt over Molly, and the manipulative ambitions of Violet and Ronan. You'll also get a look at the recurring symbols, the daisy wheel, the oak tree's hanging clothes, the diary, and the camcorder, and how they blur the line between staged trickery and real danger.
Major Themes in The Unknown
Deception and performance
The novel repeatedly blurs the line between staged trickery and genuine experience. The séances, disappearances, and hauntings are initially presented as supernatural, but are revealed to be an elaborate theatrical plot engineered by Violet and the other actresses to force Ronan to confess.
- Brad's chair is moved by fishing line tied to his ankle, and Ronan admits the staged séance was his idea.
- Violet and Marin deliberately move the glass during the fake séance, but then it continues spelling DAISY on its own.
- Susie pretends to be Molly at Marin's window, soaking herself to impersonate Marin's dead sister.
History repeating itself
The present-day disappearances mirror the 1926 vanishings on New Avalon, and the characters increasingly fear they are destined to relive the past. Julianne and Marin both point out the matching order of victims and the same clues left behind.
- Julianne says Azra was awakened by the séance and is destroying the group one by one, just as the original women were destroyed.
- Marin notes the present disappearances mirror 1926 in order: Susie and Katrina Fiske, Heather and Jonquil Collins, Julianne and Phoebe Minafer.
- Susie's clothes are found in the oak tree, then Heather's dress appears in the same tree, echoing the historical dresses.
Guilt, grief, and self-blame
Nearly every character carries grief or guilt that the island seems to exploit. Marin blames herself for Molly's drowning, Julianne regrets her last words to Dean, Violet mourns her father, and Daisy's trauma drives her violent fugue state.
- Marin says, 'If I'd gone outside like she told me to, Molly would still be alive,' and believes Molly haunts her because it was all her fault.
- Julianne confesses she told Dean she wanted a divorce right before he died, and Violet confesses she missed her father's deathbed to make a movie.
- Daisy's recovered memories reveal she killed her abusive father, and the diary shows Azra possessed her when she was not aware.
Truth, secrets, and buried evidence
The story is structured around hidden pages, secret recordings, concealed identities, and buried bodies. Characters must dig, literally and figuratively, to uncover what really happened on New Avalon.
- Marin finds the missing final pages of Daisy's diary hidden inside the cottage wall behind the baseboard.
- Ruth Hume Semple's skeleton is found beneath the floorboards, still clutching her diary.
- Violet hides occult books and a cell phone at the bottom of her suitcase, and Susie's camcorder secretly records Ronan.
Ambition, exploitation, and being known
The pursuit of fame and career drives Marin onto the island, and Violet uses that ambition to manipulate her. Ronan exploits his power over actresses, and Marin ultimately chooses 'to be known' in exchange for silence.
- Marin steps off the boat despite her fear because refusing would cost her a Ronan Peters film, a hundred thousand dollars, and her first real screen credit.
- Ronan hires Marin because he expects her to sleep with him, and Loretta sees Marin as an 'unstable girl with a dead sister' who would fall for the staged haunting.
- When Violet asks Marin what she wants, Marin answers, 'I want to be known,' and four years later she is an Oscar nominee.
Symbols and Motifs
The daisy wheel / hexafoil
A protective witch mark meant to ward off evil, but it also becomes a symbol of hidden danger, vulnerability, and Daisy's own identity. Marin and the historical Daisy both carve it for protection, yet Daisy's real story turns out to be far darker than a simple haunting.
- Hex signs carved into every tree border the village, and Mrs. Semple identifies the six-petal flower as a hexafoil, or daisy wheel.
- Daisy carves a daisy wheel into the wall of her cottage for protection, and Marin later carves one into the sideboard 'just in case.'
- Marin finds a daisy wheel hidden beneath white paint on the loose baseboard, exactly where the missing diary pages are eventually discovered.
The oak tree and hanging clothes
The tree becomes a marker of disappearance and death, echoing the 1926 mystery where the vanished women's dresses were found. In both timelines, clothes left hanging in the oak signify that someone has been taken or destroyed.
- Pete's grandfather found the missing women's dresses hanging from the oak tree in 1926.
- Katrina's clothes, then Susie's clothes, then Heather's dress, then Julianne's dress are found hanging in the same tree.
- In Daisy's diary, Mrs. Semple hangs clothes in the oak after each hallucinated 'death' of Daisy's companions.
The diary
The diary represents recorded memory, hidden truth, and the power of testimony. It is both a source of apparent supernatural knowledge and a document whose missing or concealed pages contain the real revelation about Daisy and Azra.
- Ronan's screenplay is 'Based on the diary of Daisy Rue,' and the diary's last five pages were torn out, leaving the ending unknown.
- Marin finds the missing final pages hidden inside the cottage wall, revealing that Daisy killed Mrs. Semple.
- Ruth Hume Semple's skeleton is found clutching her own diary, which reveals that New Avalon was a psychiatric facility and that Daisy's real name was Azra.
The camcorder and recording devices
Recording technology exposes the gap between staged performance and truth. Susie's camcorder captures Ronan's behavior and the night of her staged disappearance, and Marin later uses the SD card to secure a confession from Violet.
- Susie secretly records her conversation with Ronan, and the camcorder contains a second video of her fleeing in the woods.
- Marin hides a camcorder in the mahogany box to film the final séance, hoping to catch Ronan's confession.
- At the dock, Marin reveals she still has the SD card from Susie's camcorder, capturing Violet's confession to killing Ronan.