I picture Blue’s neighborhood in Stockton being similar to the one we are introduced to in the opening scenes of Virgin Suicides. It is clean, green and leafy. People tend to their yards and wave pleasantly to each other. Kids ride their bikes down tree lined streets. At night it is peaceful and quite. Like in Virgin Suicides, the atmosphere of the neighborhood would contrast with the turmoil the residents are experiencing.

I was thinking about how the interior of Gareth and Blue’s house in Stockton should look. How can their home communicate visually the crucial details that Pessl provides the reader in the text? I think that the van Meer’s house should not only reflect their intellectual interests, but intimate bond between Gareth and Blue as well. Like their relationship, the house should feel warm and inviting. I picture dark wood furniture and upholstered leather chairs and couches. I see rooms cluttered with books, periodicals, movies and other random things they have picked up along the way. (Maybe a globe, telescope, model ship built in a bottle, mounted moose head, fishing equipment, small sculptures, trophies, objects that look historically significant, gadgets, etc.) Diplomas, awards, ribbons, maps, paintings, portraits of historic looking people, and old photographs can adorn the walls. There defiantly needs to be a fire place. People always read and contemplate life while a fire is blazing in the fireplace. Yellow legal pads will be hanging out of Gareth’s desk drawer. Objects that are typically given to professors as gifts can be littered everywhere. (mugs, paperweights, picture frames) I envision it being the type of home where even if its inhabitants aren’t present, you can totally picture them there.

-Keegan