The Last House Guest

Setting refers to both a story’s geographic location and the time period in which it takes place. The events of The Last House Guest chronologically occur between 2017 and 2019, but the narration recalls older memories from before the plot’s inciting incident. The story takes place in Littleport, Maine, a fictional town surrounded by woods, mountains, and the sea. Avery calls the landscape a “drowned coast” due to “fingers of land rising from the ocean” and “islands appearing and vanishing in the distance with the tide” (4). The town’s location is rife with natural dangers, from the bluffs overlooking the coast to the winding mountain road that provides the only access to the outside world. Littleport is isolated by its environment, and its appeal as a vacation spot is that nothing bad is supposed to happen there unless it is a tragic accident. The abundance of natural dangers creates a false sense of security in many interpersonal relationships—people expect threats from the climate, not from their neighbors. The revelation of a crime then disrupts the façade and reveals something troubling beneath the surface. When Sadie takes in the view, however, she does not see a myriad threatening forces but an unexplored world full of potential lives she wishes she could live.