49 pages • 1 hour read
Adrienne BrodeurLittle Monsters
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “May”
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary: “Adam”
Adam stops at The Plover, a coffee shop. He discusses yeast with Betty, a younger woman with whom he flirts. Adam feels freed from his medication and believes that he has unchecked mental power. He listens to whale songs nonstop, reflecting on his lack of sleep. He catalogues the whale songs, imagining he’s close to understanding what the whales convey with their sounds. Looking around his house in the Wellfleet Woods, he recalls how he and Emily bought the house from an older scientist before Emily built a studio in the dunes named the Arcadia, where Abby now lives.
After a nap, Adam sees his children’s former pet, Charon, a snapping turtle. He recalls that Ken discovered the turtle as a child and makes a list of his life’s accomplishments for Ken and Abby’s toasts.
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary: “Abby”
On her way to have dinner at Adam’s house, Abby forages for mushrooms to cook for dinner. She considers the growing distance she feels between herself and her father and brother. She sees her father and suggests that he take a shower. Ken and his wife, Jenny, arrive for dinner a bit later, and Abby asks Jenny to help her with a work in progress. Ken and Jenny suggest that they host Adam’s birthday party at their home in Chatham. Abby tells Ken that she worries Adam is experiencing mania, which he dismisses.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “Adam”
Adam hears his children discuss his mental state while he’s in the shower. He quotes King Lear’s line about Regan and Goneril, comparing Lear’s ungrateful children to his own. As he watches them, he briefly remembers how Ken molested Abby behind the canoe when they were adolescents. He acknowledges that his daughter will recognize that he is having symptoms of unmedicated bipolar disorder. Adam plans to pit Ken against Abby to avoid her criticisms.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “Ken”
Ken meets with his therapist, George. He dismisses George and traces his childhood and relationships reluctantly. George asks about his activities in an online chat room. Frustrated by a seeming lack of progress, Ken announces that he’s leaving therapy. Ken asks about the Indigenous masks that decorate George’s office. George promises to explain the masks if Ken explains his desire to quit therapy.
Ken jogs his memory and discusses Jenny and Abby. George explains how he will heal. Disassociating, Ken returns to his memories of his mother before he screams like an animal.
Ken drives home from therapy, taking a scenic route. He thinks about his planned run for the House of Representatives as a Republican in deep-blue Massachusetts. He describes his house in Chatham, built on land gifted by his wealthy father-in-law. Ken bemoans the near constant battle with the shore. He catalogues his efforts to combat the erosion of his land.
Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary: “Steph”
Steph and her wife, Toni, struggle to name their newborn son. Although a lapsed Catholic, Toni prefers a traditional name, worrying that her son will be bullied. Steph has been searching for pictures and information about her newly discovered father and siblings. She examines photos of Ken’s children, Tessa and Francesca, seeing the promise of great charm and rebellion in the adolescents. Abby is harder to find. She appears less attractive than Ken, and neither favors Adam as Steph does.
Toni appears with tequila, determined to name their son. They test out biblical names and land on Jonah. In the Bible, Jonah is swallowed by a whale for disobeying God and refusing to prophesy Ninevah’s doom to the city. God saves both Ninevah and Jonah.
Part 2, Chapter 10 Summary: “Abby”
Abby attends a party at Ken and Jenny’s house on Memorial Day, turning down Jenny’s offer for an alcoholic drink. Abby and Jenny make plans to discuss the distance in their relationship. They joke about Jenny’s future as a politician’s wife. Abby sees David, a childhood friend, her current lover, and a married man who is covering Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Abby notices that David’s daughter, Peony, has matured and developed breasts. Abby recalls her long history with David as she asks about Hillary’s emails. As David takes a call from his wife, Rebecca, Abby joins a group of men including Ken. Ken calls Peony “jailbait” as she stands on his pier, and Abby takes offense. Jenny arrives just as Ken grabs Abby, angry and embarrassed that she called him out.
Part 2 Analysis
These chapters flesh out the dynamics among the Gardners and Steph’s family with Toni. They further discuss the election and its intersections with gender and the patriarchy, framing the Gardners’ family drama around discussions of the Clinton campaign. They focus on Toxic Patriarchy and tie Ken to his father, who dismissed Ken’s molestation of Abby when they were teenagers.
George Kunar is Ken’s therapist and foil, or a character who illuminates another character through contrasting qualities. Ken, like Adam, represents Toxic Patriarchy. He feels that his privilege as a white straight man is threatened by “woke culture.” Later in the novel, George will emphasize how this is not the case. Rather, Ken is haunted by his own shame.
Through Adam, the novel portrays Ambition as a Key Character Trait and the consequences of such ambition. Adam puts his desire for discovery over his mental health. Though he sees his mania as a gift, Abby’s concern points to its problematic nature. Adam sees himself as above his family and catalogues his children’s faults. His symptoms of mania will subside, leaving only an indecipherable mass of notes and sounds, but in May, he remains certain of his cetacean breakthrough.
The novel shows how appearances can be misleading. As Steph considers the Gardners, she sees only a polished veneer created by magazine profiles and pieced together through Googling. She feels a chasm between the Gardners and her own working-class background: Her “new relatives ha[ve] professions, not jobs—a scientist, an artist, and a real estate mogul with political aspirations. These [are] people who follow[] their dreams” (80). The Gardners’ view of each other diverges considerably from this outside perspective.
The Gardners struggle with Family Dynamics and Secrets. Unlike Steph, Ken views Abby more negatively, alleging that she’s “never done anything remarkable, and yet everyone seems to think she walks on water” (73). Ken views Abby as inferior and less accomplished than himself. The novel shows how his thinking is flawed. George questions Ken’s judgment and points toward Ken’s part in his sister’s behavior and how he abused her and transferred his love from his deceased mother to Abby. Ken chooses to ignore George’s line of questioning. His dismissive attitude toward Abby echoes his father’s. Adam acknowledges her skill and artistic gifts but diminishes her work.
Abby shrinks from the spotlight due to childhood trauma. In contrast, Ken’s responsibility for her abuse propels him to take up more space and become a fortress untouched by pain. Abby remembers, “Her brother hadn’t always been the alpha male he was today. The older and more powerful he became, the more often Abby thought back to the plump, pimply boy Ken had once been” (60). The novel points to Ken’s vulnerability, such as when he screams, “a wail so loud and long it sound[s] like an animal [is] being murdered inside him” (75).
Steph’s commentary about the Gardners subverts the traditional outsider’s perspective, moving the gaze from a male observer to a woman, whom Adam later defines as a feminist. Adam complains that “[h]e’d heard all he ever needed to hear about the male gaze” (54), diminishing his daughter’s commitment to equality and the defense of women. As the following chapters make clear, Steph and Abby challenge Adam and Ken’s narrative and control of the story.
