49 pages • 1 hour read
Natalie D. RichardsFive Total Strangers
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 19-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Mira follows Kayla to the bathroom under the pretense of checking on her. Kayla accuses Mira of avoiding her and of having secrets that are as bad as Kayla’s own drug addiction. Kayla says to Mira, “You’re all too messed up to even know how to watch your own backs” (199). Kayla also worries about contact with the police because she knows they tend to go after weaker targets. Mira asks about Kayla’s medical alert bracelet and learns it belonged to her deceased younger brother. At the end of their conversation, Kayla apologizes for reasons Mira doesn’t understand.
Chapter 20 Summary
After Kayla leaves the bathroom, Mira wonders if she apologized because she stole everyone’s things. Harper comes into the bathroom, clearly upset. Mira offers to talk to her, but she refuses. Mira leaves the bathroom and joins Josh, who tells her Harper called the police again and learned Corey and his father have been taken to the hospital; however, the police are distracted by the closure of I-80 and won’t have time to see them anytime soon. Mira suggests they ask Joyce to keep the bar open longer. Josh worries aloud about what everyone will tell the police, most concerned about Brecken, who he feels is trying to pin everything on him. As they talk, Joyce tells the man with the yellow hat that it’s time to leave. The man doesn’t move. Then the power goes out. Joyce announces that it’s likely the ice, meaning the power won’t come back anytime soon. She wants everyone to leave. Harper brings Mira her coat, but Mira is more concerned about the man in the yellow hat, as she believes he means to harm her.
An anonymous letter dated November 15 says the letters have been going to the wrong address; therefore, the writer is willing to accept that Mira didn’t ignore them on purpose. However, the writer knows she’s going home for Christmas and plans to give her a surprise.
Chapter 21 Summary
Everyone piles into the parking lot. Joyce leaves right away, but Smitty waits until he’s sure Mira and her group will be okay. The man in the yellow hat seems to have disappeared. Brecken begins scraping the ice off the car, and Harper and Kayla move to the back to get something out of their bags. Josh pulls Mira aside and suggests they leave Brecken behind. Josh argues that Brecken is dangerous and could hurt one of them. Harper overhears their conversation and becomes angry, defending Brecken. Harper says that Brecken overheard a phone call Harper received from her distraught mother, telling her that Harper’s father was arrested for something to do with his work at a financial firm. Brecken helped Harper rent the car, and he stole the gas for her. Because of his kindness, Harper refuses to leave Brecken behind.
The man in the yellow hat suddenly appears. He asks Mira and her group for a ride, but they politely decline. When the man persists, Brecken urges everyone to get into the car. Brecken drives them away from the bar and the man in the yellow hat.
Chapter 22 Summary
Mira begins to feel ill as they drive, the sensation made worse by anxiety and thoughts of her mother. Mira thinks about each of the strangers in the car, trying to sift through the clues to figure out which one is the thief. She can make a strong case for both Brecken and Kayla. Mira argues that they should pull over and find a place to contact the police or go to the police station. Brecken and Harper both explain that the police didn’t know when they could get to the bar and likely wouldn’t want them to sit in a dark bar parking lot all night. Harper assures Mira that the police gave her numbers to call when they arrive home. As Mira thinks things through, she becomes more and more convinced that Brecken is behind everything that has happened. Then she remembers that she can charge their phones with her laptop. Mira convinces Brecken to pull over so she can get her laptop. Brecken follows her to the back of the car and stops her from opening the door so that he can ask if she’s afraid of him.
Chapter 23 Summary
Brecken once again insists that Josh was the one who caused them to hit Corey. He says that Josh pulled the wheel and that he’s framing everyone for the stuff that has been happening. He even claims that Josh encouraged him to steal the gas. Mira brushes him off and insists on getting out her laptop. Harper comes to see what is taking so long, and Brecken tells her that he thinks Josh is behind everything. Brecken even claims Josh wanted them to go the I-80 route. Brecken says they have to leave Josh behind for their own safety. Harper tells Brecken that Josh said the same thing about him. Mira dismisses them both, hanging her laptop bag over her shoulder and pushing past them to go back to the car. As she walks away, her bag snags on something and pulls Harper down onto the ground.
An anonymous letter dated December 24 describes seeing Mira at the airport. The writer imagined walking up to her and giving her the letters. However, Mira looked right at the letter writer and didn’t see them, so the letter writer wants to make Mira pay.
Chapter 24 Summary
Mira’s laptop is damaged by the fall and won’t turn on. The group tries to charge Harper’s phone, but it won’t work. Harper promises to buy Mira a new laptop, but Mira is suspicious that Harper broke the laptop on purpose. Brecken seems to think Mira is responsible. Josh blames Brecken. Harper suggests there might be electrical outlets somewhere in the SUV, or maybe another map. They decide to search the SUV again. Harper finds a knife hidden in the cushion of the seat where Mira sat most of the ride. Brecken and Harper accuse Mira of hiding it, but Kayla confesses to stealing it from the gas station for protection and a potential Christmas gift for her dad.
Kayla then accuses Brecken of hiding something, claiming to have overheard him on the phone. She says he told the person on the call that someone would never see him the same. Brecken is clearly embarrassed and annoyed by her comments. Before he can argue, however, a tree falls in the road ahead of them.
Chapters 19-24 Analysis
The cryptic conversation between Mira and Kayla implies that Kayla has information that Mira does not, foreshadowing the revelation that Kayla knew who the thief/stalker was all along. At the same time, Mira overhears Harper crying in the bathroom for a third time, implying that there is something Harper is hiding, which further erodes Mira’s trust in her.
With everyone pointing fingers for the theft and the hit-and-run, it is hard for Mira to figure out who she can trust, increasing her sense of isolation. The thematic use of opaque and confusing motives is further developed when Josh and Brecken voice reluctance to speak to the police while Harper is pushing the issue and Kayla doesn’t seem to care either way. The moral ambiguity of her companions leaves Mira struggling with her sense of safety and ability to trust, but she turns to Josh more often than the others. This gives the reader reason to suspect Josh, as Richards has established that Mira has trouble seeing situations clearly.
Harper’s confession that her father has been arrested and Brecken is the only one who knows changes how Mira looks at the intimacy between Brecken and Harper. This is a reasonable explanation that allows Mira to stop being suspicious of Harper, but she continues to question Brecken’s actions. When Brecken tries to convince Mira that Josh is behind everything, Mira disbelieves him because Josh is the only person she feels she can trust. When her laptop is broken and she weighs all the information she has up to this point, Mira focuses on Brecken’s guilt because he is the only one who has clearly committed criminal acts, such as stealing the tank of gas and hitting Corey with the SUV. This is a logical way to decide who may be dangerous, but Richards has introduced enough uncertainty—not least into Mira’s reliability as a narrator—that the reader cannot be sure Mira has the right person pegged as the thief. Furthermore, that Brecken is the most obvious candidate hints that he is not actually the thief (or Mira’s stalker), as the thriller genre relies heavily on plot twists.
The anonymous letters continue to increase in obsession and anger. These letters reveal that Mira never received any of the letters, explaining Mira’s insistence she has never received a personal letter. More importantly, this information reveals that Mira is unaware she has a stalker, making her more vulnerable to that person’s manipulations.
Literary conventions surrounding the thriller genre dictate that whoever is behind the thefts and the manipulation of the SUV occupants is also the stalker; besides being economical in terms of plotting, this reflects the calculating nature of thriller villains. Given their brilliance and amorality, the stalker is most likely a threat not only to Mira but to all the others as well, enhancing the dangerous tone. Mira’s continued run-ins with the man in the yellow hat, as well as his attempt to get a ride in the SUV, suggest that the stalker may not be one of the SUV occupants but this apparent hitchhiker. His presence is another red herring, but it keeps the circle of suspects small enough to focus the reader’s attention on specific characters—another thriller trope.
