LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in Cabin 10, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Entrapment and Isolation
Perception vs. Reality
Trauma, Mental Illness, and Resilience
Ambition and Compassion
Wealth and Power
Summary
Analysis
Lo Blacklock dreams of the dead body of a girl floating far beneath the surface of the North Sea. When she wakes up, she hears a roaring sound and realizes it’s not part of her dream. She gets out of bed and walks to the bathroom. Inside, the shower’s running full blast, and written in the steam on the mirror are the words STOP DIGGING.
This dark prologue—which previews a scene to come in Chapter 16—hints that the story will involve a death, that protagonist Lo will be involved in some way, and that someone wants her to keep quiet about what she knows.