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Johnathan Meerfeld
I think there are very strong evidence pointing towards Penny losing her mental faculties from the very beginning. Remember she was exhibiting some paranoid tendencies (repairman at home), believed she was being watched, seemed to be having some memory gaps even before she got to 6 ceders etc. also, she got quite a serious hit to the head.
The thing is, there is extremely compelling evidence, too, that something completely different, and much more insidious was happening.
From the very second Penny got to six ceders(including the name), things felt off. Talk of fractions, parts of a whole, talking in plural instead of singular, and some very strange behavior that cannot be explained away be old age, since it was also exhibited by Jack, etc. Tip of the iceberg. The strangest thing in my opinion, and the one single thing that I truly couldn't explain away was the pamphlet, since it seemed that it was real, yet penny was aware of it before her demise(fits well if her consciousness was actually experiencing the events of the story as a part of a much larger collective consciousness of a fungal organism).
The thing is, there is extremely compelling evidence, too, that something completely different, and much more insidious was happening.
From the very second Penny got to six ceders(including the name), things felt off. Talk of fractions, parts of a whole, talking in plural instead of singular, and some very strange behavior that cannot be explained away be old age, since it was also exhibited by Jack, etc. Tip of the iceberg. The strangest thing in my opinion, and the one single thing that I truly couldn't explain away was the pamphlet, since it seemed that it was real, yet penny was aware of it before her demise(fits well if her consciousness was actually experiencing the events of the story as a part of a much larger collective consciousness of a fungal organism).
Gretchen
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EThayer3
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Joe Bogue
I think the whole book is an allegory for hospice/end of life care. No one wants their elderly loved one to die, wishing they'd live forever and the aged commonly worry about growing old before leaving a mark on the world, but when they pass, we agree it's for the best, they're no longer suffering, etc.. and we fondly remember the impact they had on our lives
Jonele
Oh my gosh, I'm wondering the same thing. And questions about other things. That might be the point; someone said she had Alzheimer's/ Dementia and it brings the same feelings she was experiencing; confusion, paranoia, hallucinations. With that in place, the only thing I could figure out is that she was losing her mental faculties, left the house, and jumped off a cliff. But why would Jack help her? Was Shelley actually up to something? And who was the deep-voiced person she was talking to?
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