Literary Devices
Flashbacks
Ana Huang makes extensive use of flashbacks within the novel to foreshadow, add tension, and help advance the plot. By withholding important details and vital memories from the narrative until the “right” time, Huang builds necessary drama and tension, both within Alex’s and Ava’s personal lives and in their relationship with each other. Flashbacks are used extensively, particularly through Alex’s point of view, to build the foundation of his and Ava’s relationship. This is evidenced when, instead of looking back on his parents’ murder as he often does, Alex chooses to remember the first time he met Ava—Thanksgiving eight years prior. Alex’s choice to recall a memory of Ava over one of his parents emphasizes that his feelings for Ava are taking priority over his obsessive desire for vengeance.
While drama and tension between the couple in a romance novel is to be expected, these elements also provide an additional layer to Alex and Ava’s respective characters. The flashbacks—such as the flashback to his parent’s murder and the figurative “noose” tightening around Alex’s neck shortly after agreeing to protect Ava—further explore the fears and motivations behind the actions and reactions of Alex and Ava. In this case, Alex’s desire to protect Ava at all costs stems from his failure to protect his family when he was a child. Thus, he puts so much pressure on himself to succeed in protecting Ava, that at any sign of potential failure, the pressure threatens to strangle him.
Anagnorisis
In Twisted Love, both Alex and Ava have moments of anagnorisis—where the protagonists uncover the true identity of either themselves or someone else. Whenever it occurs, a realization of this level of significance adds new clarity or perspective to the situation. Alex’s moment of anagnorisis comes in Chapter 31, when Alex becomes suspicious of his uncle’s need to keep tabs on him. Wondering why Ivan is finding indirect ways to surveille him, Alex snoops through Ivan’s house, uncovering a series of hidden letters in the library that give Ivan clear motivation to have ordered the murder of Alex’s parents. In that moment, Alex’s worldview is altered forever. The revenge he’s spent 16 years plotting against Michael Chen has been for nothing, and all along, the real culprit was living with him—raising him. The revelation is something that Alex “never saw coming” and yet “[t]he puzzle pieces in [his] brain clicked into place, and a strange cocktail of betrayal, fury, and relief knotted in [his] gut” (229). The revelation allows Alex to gain the upper hand on how to confront his uncle and enact his revenge on the correct target later on in the novel.
Ava’s moment of anagnorisis comes at the end of Chapter 27. Michael meets her near the lakeside the morning after Thanksgiving, when the sight of his gold signet ring triggers her memories. The uncovered memory proves that it was Michael who pushed her into the lake when she was five, and in Chapter 29, while recounting this information to Alex, she uncovers another memory of Michael attempting to suffocate her with a throw pillow when she was nine. These two memories precipitate the moment in which Ava realizes that her father is not who she has always believed him to be. Michael has resented Ava since learning of her mother’s infidelity and realizing that Ava is not his biological daughter. He has even gone so far as to manipulate and lie to Ava after the loss of her memories, to ensure that his crimes would never be discovered.
When Ava visits Michael for his birthday, prior to Thanksgiving, she catches her father staring at her in a way that gives her chills. Ava thinks, “Maybe that was why I never opened up to my dad, because sometimes I caught him staring at me like that. Like he didn’t know me. Like he hated me. Like he feared me” (177). With the revelation that Ava is not Michael’s biological daughter and that he attempted to kill her twice and manipulated her ever since, everything falls into place for Ava. The lack of connection between father and daughter, their inability to carry on a conversation without Josh in the room, and her failure to make Michael proud of her all suddenly make sense. With that final truth unlocked, all of Ava’s memories of her childhood are restored, allowing her the proof she needs to take legal action against her father.
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By Ana Huang
