A RAMBLING OF MY THEORIES!!! JUST HEAR ME OUT
SO BASICALLY IT WAS ALL A BIG METAPHOR (like all the monsters)!! Andrew being the unreliable narrator he is (<3333) personified all of these aspects of life as monsters, and blamed himself for ācreatingā them all.
BECAUSEā¦. If you read Andrewās stories at the end of the book (at least the copy I has includes Andrewās fully story of the antler king, thistle fairies, and another one that Iām assuming is the monster that tried sucking the blood and organs out of Thomas? Itās similar enough so thatās what Iām gonna relate it too for this) I feel like they can very clearly be tied to aspect of society:
For the Antler Kingās story, it ends with an explanation of what the antler king does with the faces; he tries them on and gazes into a river to image what being a human may be. I think that his symbolizes body dysmorphia, being outcast, and how society needs you to conform.
The thistle fairies kill and devour each person who tries on the forgotten crown in the woods in a pack, like how people today will often dog pile and attack an innocent person. It ends with a discarded king trying on the crown to relive his glory days, and he opens his mouth to let the thistle fairies devour him from the inside out - symbolizing how toxicity and terrible people destroy you from the inside out once you let them in.
And the third story, about the queen and the villager, very clearly symbolizes toxic love. The common man mutilates himself to prove his love for the Queen, but she continues to tell him, āitās not enoughā. At the end, she tells the man that if he gives her his liver that might be enough. Of course he does it, but when the queen gets it in her hands she eats it and says as he finally diesā¦ āitās not enoughā.
All of these monsters and stories were meant to describe in a morbid way how their relationship developed.
And at the end when Andrew cuts out Thomasās heart, it was a metaphor for Thomas confessing his love to Andrew.
This might sound a bit far-fetched but HEAR ME OUT ITS GONNA MAKE MORE SENSE LATER ON!!
Andrew killed Dove in the forest out of jealousy.
Yes, he recalls being in his room and trying to rest during thatā¦ but itās very clear heās an unreliable narrator. He very well could have gone into the forest to rest instead of his room and met Dove there later, or the story of his walking off could have been completely fabricated. It was Thomas retelling the story, so maybe that was the alibi and Thomas didnāt want Andrew to know the truth and cause him more anguish. Maybe after the argument and Dove and Thomas had separated, Andrew led her into the forest and convinced her to climb the tree since itās known she had never been the one to be the first to do that. Andrew pushed her out of the tree and fled when he realized wha the had done.
Thomas did kill his parents.
After Andrew confessed what he did, Thomas didnāt want to Loose Andrew too and maybe they even bonded somehow over the secret, knowing that now there was no more Dove to oppose their relationship (like what she had said to Thomas during the argument). Thomas killed his parents to make a sort of pact with Andrew, where now they both had blood on their hands.
The monsters were real, because of how the staff found vines coming through the destroyed part of the school when that teacher got killed (I forgot his name lol), so they had to be. The monsters manifested because of their guilt and grief they were hiding.
And the ending is still pretty ambiguous for this theory on whether they are alive or deadā¦. But Iāve narrowed it down to two paths:ā literal: Andrew cut our Thomasās heart to appease the monsters they had created, and then killed himself ā Metaphorical: the monsters, being brought to life by their suppressed guilt, would only rest once they confessed the secrets that had created them. This would include not only their love for each other, but their crimes to the authorities.
ANOTHER THEORY BUT A BRANCHED OFF THE PREVIOUS ONE:
So yes, Andrew killed Dove and Thomas killed his parents. BUT, they never told each other this. Andrew let Thomas believe that dove had died on her own by accident, and Thomas told Andrew that he didnāt kill his parents. Both of these lies combined created the monsters, and they began to believe it until it all came crashing down in the woods at the final chapters.
The ācutting out the princeās heartā symbolized Andrew confessing his crime. Andrew cutting out Thomasās heart symbolizes Thomas confessing his crime. Them ādyingā is not them, but the delusion they had self-induced dying.
AND ANOTHER ONE SIMILAR TO THESE:
so maybe they didnāt kill Dove and Thomasās Parents. The monsters and the accident was real.
the monsters manifested through Andrewās denial of his love and how Thomas loves him because of his stories being so inspired by his repressed emotion.
ācutting out the Princeās heartā was their confession of love, and their ādeathā was the death of their old life and beginning of a new one. Andrew āpositioning Thomasās headā on his lap, was him accepting Thomasās love finally.
what do yall think and thanks for reading this far lols
