At what point in the book did you begin to suspect Theon was more than he initially appeared? What do you think he represents?

Though Theon initially appears as a rich man trying to buy land, he is slowly revealed to be a shape-changing monster, driven by his hunger to consume everything in his path. At what point in the book did you begin to suspect Theon was more than he initially appeared? What do you think he represents?

I don't really know exactly when I realized he was more than what he appeared to be but I remember thinking he was evil and creep when I first encountered him in the story.

I thought there was something weird about him from the beginning.

I always thought Theon was odd and evil. Always showing up and especially when he seemed to know so much about Sasha and trying to start trouble between the twins. I did believe Jason was a Jason until after the house fire when he mysteriously disappeared!

The authors were quite heavy handed in pointing out that Theon was not as he seemed. The biggest tell was that he could not physically go on their property.

I knew there was something wrong with him and I thought he represented evil. I just didn’t know how his story would play out.

Wow..it wasn't until the towards the end of the book. I thought he simply was a person buying up property for some big development group.

He was not a pleasant surprise being the monster he really was preying on children and others.

It took me a long time to figure out that Theon wasn't just a creepy sales guy. Even when Lil kept him off the property, I thought it was her power or the power of the orchard, not necessarily that there was something different about Theon.

I think he represents progress/modernization/urbanization, and the way it overwhelms and wipes out the old.

I agree with the other posters about thinking Theon was just a developer’s agent, but then he was never in the same place as Jason. The scene at the gate with Lil when she discovers who he really is (and isn’t)is one of the best in the book.

Did anyone else think the monster piece was a little too obvious? He was a creep and then he was an actual monster? I think it lacked a little subtlety but maybe that was not what the author was going for with his character.

Lil's dislike of him in particular made me wonder about him. Hers wasn't the only property in town that he was interested in, but the fact that he couldn't enter hers without her consent nagged at me. When he went as far as accosting Sasha and tried to convince her that she didn't belong there seemed another tactic to get to Lil. It was Lil's relationship with Jason that didn't seem quite right. After a day helping with the festival plans, they return to Honeysuckle House, and she says the" difference is palpable "because it looks long neglected. At what point Jason disappears and where he goes or what happens to him is never clear. When they begin to have sex, she describes him as "glowing in a flickering phantom light, orange catching highlights in his hair, on his skin." The flickering phantom light made me suspicious. It seemed out of place. And when it was revealed that the monster Theron could take human shape, everything seemed to fall into place.

I was suspicious of the way Theon appeared and disappeared without warning. When his identities were fully revealed I found him to be a "type" of a devil, kept ambiguous by the author. He didn't seem fully realized as evil or as a monster.

I was suspicious of the way Theon appeared and disappeared without warning. When his identities were fully revealed I found him to be a "type" of a devil, kept ambiguous by the author. He didn't seem fully realized as evil or as a monster.