Flock

51 pages • 1 hour read

Flock

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 11

Chapters 12-21

Chapters 22-32

Chapters 33-42

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 33-42Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 33 Summary

Cecelia and Layla visit a local boutique owned by a woman named Tessa. Cecelia and Layla have been spending more time together since Cecelia became involved with the Ravenhood. At the boutique, the friends immediately notice how expensive the clothing is and how desperate Tessa seems to make a sale. Cecelia plans to tell Sean that Tessa’s business is struggling so he can help her. The Ravenhood takes money from corporate enterprises and redistributes it to local Triple Falls businesses “to keep them afloat” (295). Cecelia still doesn’t understand how they haven’t gotten caught, but she’s come to admire what they do. She’s let herself embrace her relationship with Sean and Dominic in recent weeks, too, and has since realized she’s “in love with both of them” (298).

In the car afterward, Cecelia shares her feelings about Sean and Dominic with Layla. She also explains her fear of telling her mom and Christy about their polyamorous arrangement. Layla agrees it’s best to keep it secret. When they arrive at Cecelia’s house, Cecelia is surprised to see Roman outside waiting for her. After Layla leaves, Roman warns her about making relationship mistakes.

Chapter 34 Summary

Cecelia makes an elaborate dinner for Sean, but he fails to show up. When he finally surfaces, she confronts him about abandoning her. He insists his work is more important—if she can’t handle what he does, then they should break up. Cecelia apologizes, professes her love, and begs him to take her back. He hugs and kisses her, insisting he doesn’t want to break up. Then they eat watermelon and have sex.

Chapter 35 Summary

Cecelia asks Tyler to visit Delphine with her. She doesn’t want Dominic to know. At the house, they clean up Delphine’s space despite her protests. Cecelia knows Dominic loves her and can’t understand why he lets his aunt live this way, especially since she raised him and is now too sick to care for herself.

On the drive home, Tyler reveals that he and Delphine had a secret relationship when he was a teenager. After she got sick, he joined the Marines. Delphine’s life has been extremely difficult: Dominic’s parents died and she became Dominic’s caretaker when she was only 20 years old. Cecelia realizes that Tyler still loves Delphine and promises to keep their secret.

Chapter 36 Summary

Cecelia dons her new dress for her first official date with Dominic. She’s thrilled to spend time with him. Even though she still doesn’t fully understand why he and Sean want to be with her, their polyamorous relationship has been peaceful, and she feels happy. Dominic arrives and they go to a restaurant in Asheville for dinner.

Back at home afterward, they have sex in the car and talk. Dominic opens up about his parents, revealing that they died in an accident when he was six. He has only a few pictures and memories of them. Then they lie on the hood of the car and talk about the future. Cecelia asks Dominic to let her in and he kisses her to show he’s happy with her.

When Sean suddenly interrupts their exchange, Cecelia notices fear in his and Dominic’s eyes. They tell her she has to go home so they can talk. Someone has outed them, and they have issues to solve in private.

Chapter 37 Summary

Cecelia doesn’t hear from Sean or Dominic for several days. She spends time alone trying to focus on work and reading but can’t stop thinking about her feelings for the two men. Finally, she decides to go to the garage and confront them. When she arrives, Sean and Dominic refuse to look up from their pool game. The other friends mock her. Then she notices they’re playing Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight” and “Cecilia” by Simon & Garfunkel, songs which make her realize they’ve been using her this whole time. Immobilized, she stands in the garage crying before she races home, packs, and drives out of Triple Falls.

Chapter 38 Summary

Roman agrees to give Cecelia two weeks off work. She stays with Christy in Atlanta and reveals everything that’s been going on with her. Christy is glad Cecelia got to experiment sexually but encourages her to stand up for herself to Sean and Dominic.

Chapter 39 Summary

Cecelia and Christy spend the evening with Cecelia’s mom. While watching classic romantic films, they discuss love, relationships, and heartbreak. When Sean calls Cecelia, she doesn’t answer.

Chapter 40 Summary

Cecelia returns to Triple Falls. Still angry with Sean and Dominic, she tries to distract herself by reading. Roman isn’t around anymore as he’s moved to Charlotte.

To clear her head one day, Cecelia takes a drive. She’s furious when she sees Dominic speeding up behind her. She tries racing away but finally pulls over, gets out of her car, and confronts him for using her. He pushes her against the hood, pinning her down, and insisting she belongs to him and Sean. Then he starts forcefully kissing her and pressing himself into her. She feels herself giving in. He apologizes but claims they were only trying to protect her and that he still wants to be with her. When he lets her go, Cecelia storms off, demanding he leave her alone.

Chapter 41 Summary

Back at the plant, Sean calls Cecelia to his office over the PA. He insists that he and Dominic didn’t mean to hurt her.

Then he explains what’s going on. The Ravenhood is investigating Horner Tech because they believe Roman and the company are responsible for the deaths of Dominic’s parents, who were working in the chemical plant when it caught fire. Roman covered up the incident. Cecelia protests, insisting Roman isn’t a murderer.

Sean continues: To get to the truth for the Ravenhood, Sean and Dominic were initially using Cecelia to infiltrate Roman’s house and spy on the company. They didn’t expect to fall for her. When they realized they loved her, Sean and Dominic broke up with her because they were worried she’d be in danger if Roman was found guilty and the Ravenhood’s plots were discovered. Sean professes his love for her again and demands that she stay away from him and Dominic for her safety. Then he kisses her aggressively before they part ways.

Chapter 42 Summary

Cecelia researches ravens, which helps her understand the Ravenhood, and Sean and Dominic, better. However, she still feels frustrated with them for pushing her away and manipulating her. Then one day, she realizes that the Ravenhood has been using the cell tower in the back of the mansion to hack into Roman’s files. Guessing that they’re working out there now, she blasts a song on repeat into the field where the tower is located, determined to make them come to her. Lying topless near the pool, she waits. Then a shadow passes over her. But it’s not Sean or Dominic. Instead, she looks up to see an attractive man with dark eyes staring down at her. Suddenly she realizes that he must be the “wolf” the Ravenhood has been talking about.

Chapters 33-42 Analysis

The final chapters of the novel heighten the narrative tension as Cecelia tries to navigate the true Costs of Forbidden Love. Sean and Dominic’s betrayal acts as the narrative climax and leads Cecelia to a personal crossroads. Because she “truly loves them both,” Cecelia is devastated when she discovers that she “was a game” to Sean and Dominic (343). She feels hurt and used by her boyfriends, and angry with herself for “let[ting] them in,” for “let[ting] them use [her],” and for “convinc[ing] [her]self [their relationship] was real” (343). The end of their polyamorous dynamic challenges Cecelia to reassess who she is, what she needs from her intimate relationships, and how she should proceed in the future—core aspects of identity that reflect Cecelia’s continuing confusion and self-doubt in the novel’s Prologue.

The narrative uses an array of literary devices to enact Cecelia’s intense emotional experience in the wake of losing Sean and Dominic. In Chapter 37, for example, when Cecelia goes to the garage to check in on her boyfriends and hears the songs they’re playing to embarrass her, the prose breaks into a series of single-sentence paragraphs:

Every word of the song like a slap to the face.

This isn’t happening.

But it is (342).

These lines, which resemble a free verse poem, augment the narrative pacing and capture Cecelia’s stunned response to what she’s hearing and discovering. The use of repetition and fragmentation particularly evokes her surprise and confusion, capturing the emotional and psychological costs of Cecelia’s love affairs with Sean and Dominic.

The narrative also uses figurative language, imagery, and setting to further reify Cecelia’s complex internal experience. In Chapter 38, for example, Cecelia spends time at Christy’s apartment in Atlanta. This safe and comfortable setting allows Cecelia to speak openly and to process her feelings enough to discover that “[b]etween the cloudy haze of [her] despair, there’s a silver lining” (247): Working to reconcile her heartbreak teaches her lessons about life—a traditional consequence that fittingly gets a well-worn metaphor. Then in Chapter 39, the narrative uses the old romance movies Cecelia watches with Christy and her mom to grant insight into Cecelia’s relational dynamics. These films represent both idyllic and complicated love affairs, and thus offer the characters an organic gateway to discussing these topics.

The end of the novel employs a cliffhanger to sustain the narrative tension in anticipation of the next Ravenhood novel. Flock, the first installment in the Ravenhood trilogy, establishes the parameters for the ongoing narrative by separating Cecelia from the boyfriends who have dominated her sexual desires. In Chapter 42, Cecelia realizes that even if she still loves Sean and Dominic, she isn’t going to let them use her. This resolve shows how her character has changed as a result of her recent experiences with the Ravenhood and in Triple Falls. At the same time, the novel’s final scene ends on a mysterious note: A half-naked Cecelia looks up at an attractive man who she quickly realizes is the intimidating “wolf” that Ravenhood members speak of in awed tones. The man’s good looks foreshadow that he may become Cecelia’s next love interest. The novel ends on a revelation that Cecelia does not share, suspending the narrative conflict—a formal technique used to maintain audience investment in Cecelia’s story and to heighten reader curiosity about the next novel in the series. The cliffhanger also captures how many of Cecelia’s internal conflicts remain unresolved, as she’s still on her self-discovery journey and still making sense of the Ravenhood world.