59 pages • 1 hour read
City of Ghosts
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Symbols & Motifs
Ghosts
Adults often assume children cannot handle spooky stories or books about monsters and ghosts. However, children are the ideal audience for the subject matter, as their unfettered imaginations are the perfect place for these fantastical stories to proliferate. Author Victoria Schwab steeps the novel in plenty of ghostly thrills but also injects it with a dose of humor, allowing her readers to release their gasps of horror through a chuckle. Ghosts in the novel reflect the adventurous spirit of children and their desire to explore what lies in the in-between and what is not easily quantifiable or explainable.
Cassidy’s compulsion to respond to the tapping mimics every child’s fascination with what lies under their bed or in their closet and the indisputably sublime feeling of both terror and excitement flowing through the body at the same time. Cassidy also uses her trips through the Veil to overturn the misconceptions about the spirit world, saying, “In the movies, poltergeists can lift televisions and slide beds across the floor. But the truth is, it takes a lot of spirit power for a ghost to reach across the Veil—the curtain between their world and ours” (4). Jacob, the most prominent ghost in the story, is neither gruesome nor diabolical but instead goofy, self-effacing, and, ironically, terrified of ghosts. Schwab uses her offbeat and distinctive depictions of ghosts to symbolize the nuanced and fantastical realm of those mysterious phantasms who are dead but also no longer living and the childlike fascination with the supernatural.
Though Schwab’s ghosts are mostly innocuous, she does provide enough moments of suspense and horror to keep readers turning the pages. Kids love to be afraid in a way adults cannot handle. Fear in children often leads to adventure instead of existential dread. As Cassidy is chased by malevolent ghosts in the underground tunnels of Mary King’s Close or Greyfriars graveyard, readers experience a thrill of excitement, not a horrifying image that will haunt their dreams. As they mature, children grapple with the understanding that for all the good in the world, there are nefarious and destructive forces at work. In the novel, ghosts symbolize the ultimate struggle of good against evil, one with which children will have to contend as they learn to interpret the world around them. The Raven in Red’s intoxicating song lures children towards destruction. Cassidy must fight bravely to resist the bewitching ballad and preserve the life she loves. Though most children will not have to face a shapeshifting, child-stealing ghost, they will need to learn like Cassidy to courageously battle against corruption, hatred, and injustice; watching a brave young person to whom they can relate face these difficult circumstances helps them identify with her and feel empowered to face their own struggles and personal battles.
Cassidy’s Camera
Cassidy’s beloved birthday gift quickly becomes the inciting incident for her life-changing accident. Anxious to test out the vintage camera, she sets out on the fateful bike ride that will forever alter her life. Cassidy survives the bike accident, along with her camera, and it transforms from a device for exploring her photography hobby to an integral part of her identity. She carries the camera everywhere like a lucky talisman, taking it with her into her explorations of the Veil in hopes that the photographs she captures will reveal something more about the mysterious realm and the spectral beings that inhabit it. For Cassidy, taking photographs symbolizes a way of seeing the world and herself. She explains, “There’s a kind of magic to exposing film. It’s right there in the word expose—to reveal” (39). Using her camera, Cassidy hopes to see in the exposed film something that will help her understand the Veil and who Jacob is, as well as the reality of who she is. Though the photos are black and white, the depth of the shadows adds texture and perspective, piquing her curiosity just enough to spur on the next adventure.
As the narrative shifts to Edinburgh, Cassidy’s camera becomes a way to document the trip but later becomes an unexpected secret weapon in fighting off the evil forces of the ghost world. Using the flash of her camera, she scares away the plague ghosts in Mary King’s Close, and her trusty camera buys her and Jacob enough time to escape the wraiths. However, when Lara shows her how mirrors are used to expose ghosts to their truth, allowing them to escape the Veil, she understands her camera also can be a ghost-hunting tool. Cassidy glimpses the power of mirrors over ghosts when she sees Jacob’s corpselike face in his reflection, and she wonders if this explains why he never looks into the lens of her camera. Lara explains, “Mirrors are honest, […] ‘The show you as you are. For a ghost, a mirror forces them to face the truth” (165). When she reaps her first ghost, she uses her newly learned photography skills to release the poor soul into peaceful rest.
After the Raven steals her cord and her vision in the Veil blurs, she uses the camera lens to focus her line of sight, helping her find her way through the murky loop. In the climactic battle with the Raven in Red, the villain shatters the lens. Cassidy feels equally fractured as she looks at the remains of her beloved antique, her only defense against the evil pursuing her. Using a shard of the lens, she courageously defends herself and freezes the Raven, proving a broken lens is still useful. The camera now symbolizes her bravery in the face of insurmountable circumstances and her sure-footed thinking in a tense situation. When the shopkeeper restores Cassidy’s lens, she symbolically restores Cassidy’s ability to see. The camera captures not only the sights and sounds of her Edinburgh adventure but also the shadowy outlines of the ghosts she valiantly stood against. As the novel ends, the camera reveals one last truth: As Jacob’s unmistakable profile appears in the last photo, his presence on this side of the Veil is strengthening, just as Lara predicted. Cassidy must now face the certainty the photo displays and decide the future of her fated friendship.
Edinburgh
The city of Edinburgh is not only the setting for most of the novel but also becomes the symbol of Cassidy’s inner journey toward acceptance of her gift. Schwab attended graduate school in Edinburgh, and she currently owns a home there, calling the city the home of her heart. She establishes the physical landscape of the narrative as an important motif by including a map of the haunted locations in the front matter of the novel. By specifically calling it “Cassidy’s Map,” the author personalizes Edinburgh’s geography as an important symbol of the protagonist’s journey toward an understanding of her gift. As she experiences each location, her encounters become more intense and more revealing, and her eyes are opened to the truth of the Veil that not all ghosts are harmless. The history and mythology of the city serve as a plot device for her parents’ television show, but the city’s intense lore also weighs on Cassidy like a heavy blanket, forcing her to face the reality of her gift. Findley remarks, “Edinburgh’s got an awful lot of history, not all of it is cheery. The kind of things my city’s seen, well, it’s bound to leave a mark” (107). Through her physical journey through the city’s most haunted locations, Cassidy learns more about her inextricable connection to the spirit world as the city leaves a mark on her hand and her heart.
The castle of Edinburgh sits on layers of volcanic rock, anchoring the city upon millions of years of history before the town was even built. With its overlapping Old and New Towns entombing hundreds of years of history, Edinburgh symbolizes the truth that one cannot always trust what is on the surface. As Cassidy strolls the cobblestone streets of the city, she sees the overwhelming impact of the tourist industry: shops full of kilts and signs advertising campy ghost tours. However, she learns quickly that the tacky shops and zany street performances give way to a darkly sinister underbelly where history meets the spiritual and terror abounds. The stratum of Edinburgh symbolizes the mystery of what lies below in circumstances and human nature. Just as there is more to Cassidy than her messy hair and disheveled clothing, there is more to the city than its superficial edifices. Cassidy can feel the discarnate souls before she can see them, and the complexities of the city’s hidden realms teach her to trust her instincts when her vision fails. As a love letter to the city—with plenty of nods to her beloved Harry Potter—as well as a symbol of the complexities of the world and human nature, Schwab’s City of Ghosts takes the reader on a spooky adventure through one of the most beautiful and mysterious towns in the world.
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By V. E. Schwab
