53 pages • 1 hour read
Ask for Andrea
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Themes
Agency and Victims of Violence
Content Warning: This section discusses murder and violence against women.
By structuring a plot around three women who have been murdered but who continue to narrate their experience, Ihli offers a commentary on the victims and survivors of violence, particularly regarding power imbalances because of gender and race. Further, their lack of physical agency as ghosts symbolizes the way they were unable to defend themselves when attacked. As ghosts who are victims of violence, Brecia, Skye, and Meghan experience limitations that symbolize the social factors that led to them being killed: They can’t be seen or heard or advocate for themselves.
This discussion of agency inherently incorporates issues of gender power imbalances. The novel depicts a number of cases where apparent stopgap measures fail, allowing James to get away with multiple murders for years. James is able to keep using the dating app even though women try to report their concerns about him, and some police investigations fail or stall. When Skye’s mother first suggests that the guy who ordered hot chocolate could be worth investigating, Ken rejects the suggestion because he perceives James in a positive light (even after minimal interactions). This speaks to the lack of agency that women often have in patriarchal systems such as criminal investigations. Additionally, the character of Skye incorporates the adjacent issue of race and crime. Skye says that since “[she] was a poor brown girl from a poor neighborhood” (140), she wouldn’t be given the prompt investigation that may be given to an upper-class, white woman. Overall, Ihli highlights the power imbalances caused by a white patriarchy when criminals are often given the benefit of the doubt and survivors are silenced.
The ghost element of the victims’ stories also feeds into the discussion of agency in a symbolic sense. As spirits, Brecia, Skye, and Meghan cannot move objects or make physical contact with other people; the latter means that they cannot physically harm James or obstruct his actions. Even more frustratingly, the three women cannot communicate with the living, as they cannot be seen or heard. These limitations align with the traditional depictions of ghosts; in many films and books, ghosts can only be seen or heard by certain individuals or not at all. The limitations of the three ghostly protagonists also function as a metaphor for the social limitations often imposed on women, particularly in cases where they are encountering violence or threat. Brecia’s case remains unsolved for years, and Meghan’s body is only found through a series of fateful coincidences. These plot events reflect the agency of the survivors of violence: Because of their curtailed agency and the threats that they face, it takes active intervention and social change to keep them safe.
The use of narrative and storytelling also reveals another way that the agency of victims and survivors of violence can be preserved. The novel imagines one version of what might happen after death, but since that outcome can’t be known with certainty, preserving stories and memories of individuals who have experienced violence (and especially those who die as a result) is another way to grant them some form of agency. Ihli’s book brings awareness to the social issues that often silence survivors of crimes while also offering hope for a world that grants agency back to women and Black and brown people.
The Ability to Hide One’s True Nature
As a serial killer, James is somewhat skilled at covering up his crimes, and his identity as white and male further lends to his anonymity. Still, his ability to hide his true nature allows him to kill with impunity. James’s careful, charismatic nature and awareness of leaving potential trails of evidence mean that he knows when he may be caught and how to escape undetected. Ihli uses James’s character to highlight the ease with which some people are able to manipulate the world around them, and the author suggests a need for extreme caution during new relationships—especially when one may be left in a vulnerable state with a near-stranger.
James relies on a number of factors to hide his violent tendencies. First, he has the good fortune to be handsome and charismatic; Brecia concedes that “he [i]s the kind of beautiful that dr[aws] you in before you even consider[] the fact that beautiful things can be poisonous” (32). In addition to physical allure, James is able to “liste[n] with a kind of intensity […] mistaken for generous attention” and come across as kind and affable (80); Ken ironically defends James as “a really nice guy” (55). James is able to easily impress people and secure their loyalty. As a result, no one even considers him as someone who could be a violent threat. Women who meet James on the dating app are quickly charmed by him and let their guard down, sometimes engaging in risky behavior as a result. When Meghan goes on her fatal date with James, she ironically looks at the “Ask for Andrea” sign and thinks with relief that she is “grateful [she] d[oes]n’t have to” (6). The expectations that men may be violent actually help James conceal his true nature: Meghan and others expect that someone who is dangerous will be visibly frightening or unappealing, and so James is met with relief and never suspected.
In addition to his charm and good looks, James’s status as a seemingly loving husband and father both demonstrates his ability to successfully conceal his true nature and perpetuates his ability to keep deceiving others. When Brecia first follows James home after he kills her, she is astonished to find that he has a wife and children and wonders if April “[i]s his match: rotten to the core” (28). April eventually tells the police that “she’d suspected but denied, even to herself” (258), that James was up to no good. The history of James and April’s relationship is never established, and while Brecia never witnesses James directly harm his wife or children, they are clearly all quite afraid of him. Brecia recalls how “April cringed away from him so hard that [she] knew she was bracing for the verbal blows to land on her skin” (203).
James conceals his violence just well enough that April stays with him until she can no longer deny the reality of immediate danger for herself and her children. James succeeds at concealing his true nature because individuals around him benefit from the belief that he is a good man, even when the complete opposite is true. Ihli uses James to present a cautionary tale about violent men hiding in plain sight, and the author suggests that being vigilant is the only way to potentially stay safe.
The Power of Community Among Women
The novel consistently shows the power of community and care among women; this power is not presented as universally successful, but it does function as the best recourse that women have access to. Their ability to connect with one another symbolizes how women (especially women with shared experiences) can have a powerful bond; the three protagonists can share psychic transmission when they embrace one another and instantly transmit to one another “everything words couldn’t ever have summed up no matter how hard [they]’d tried” (184). The relationship between the three protagonists shows both the strengths and limitations of collective care between women.
Brecia does her best to keep other women safe from James during the time she observes him as a ghost. She has mixed results in doing so; some women do get a bad sense about James and avoid him, but Meghan and Skye both fall victim to him. Once the three women encounter one another in their ghostly form, they form a community and learn from one another. For example, Meghan tells the others that they are able to cross over into the spirit world, and Meghan and Brecia strive to alleviate Skye’s fears about leaving the world of the living behind. The connection between the three women is particularly powerful because of the isolation they have all been experiencing: As ghosts, they cannot be seen or heard by the living.
As ghosts, Brecia, Skye, and Meghan experience agency through collaboration, community, and being able to work together. As individuals, they are relatively powerless: Brecia has to endure watching Meghan be murdered because she cannot stop James. Once the three women begin collaborating, they are able to pool their collective knowledge and experiences, and they also embolden and encourage one another. It seems that, together, the three women are able to transmit enough of a warning to April to persuade her to take action, and they also encourage James to believe that he is looking in the wrong place, even though he is only a few feet away from where his wife and children are hiding. Brecia, Skye, and Meghan work together and also influence other characters, including April, Skye’s parents, and Officer Domanska; as living individuals, these characters can still actively intervene and are able to prevent James from taking more lives, connect the murders back to him, and ensure that he meets justice.
Likewise, April becomes much more assertive when it comes to her daughters; as Brecia remarks, “she’s all bite when it comes to them” (197). April and the girls are eventually saved due to both indirect (from the ghosts) and direct assistance from networks of care composed of other women; the latter is represented by the “Ask for Andrea” sign. This program exists because of recognition that women may find themselves in situations where they need assistance from one another, and April is able to signal to another woman that she needs help. The power of community and care between women is further represented by interventions from female characters like Domanska and Skye’s mother, who diligently fight to find out what happened to Skye. Even at the end of the novel, when the three protagonists cross over to the spirit world, each one is oriented toward a female relative to reunite with: Meghan will connect with her grandmother, Meghan with her aunt, and Skye with her great-aunt. This connection to female ancestors further develops the centrality of networks between women, even across generations.
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