59 pages • 1 hour read
Credence
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Themes
The Role of Challenges in Self-Discovery
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide, pedophilia, incest, sexual exploitation and assault, emotional and physical abuse, and violence.
Although billed as a dark, spicy romance, Credence is also a coming-of-age novel that explores self-discovery. Given the novel’s genre, the journey of self-growth and discovery is presented through the lens of romantic and sexual dynamics, but it essentially involves a protagonist facing her fears, going through varied experiences, and conquering obstacles. Tiernan finds comfort precisely by pushing herself out into an unfamiliar situation, but this arc also holds true for Noah, Jake, and Kaleb. By the end of the novel, each of the characters finds themselves having undertaken radical journeys and decisions, and they are changed from who they were at the onset.
At the beginning of the novel, Tiernan often describes herself as isolated and numb to her own feelings. Other characters, too, view her in a similar light. Jake notes that Tiernan is “quiet, rigid, afraid” (64), while Mirai tells Jake on the phone Tiernan “doesn’t talk about things […] [but] everything building inside of her will eventually spill over” (70). Tiernan’s childhood has been marked by extreme neglect, since her parents acted as if she did not exist. The fact that they did not leave her a suicide note makes Tiernan feel even more stonewalled by their silence. Bleak as Tiernan’s situation has been, she subconsciously decides to step out in the world to bring about a change. Travelling to Colorado signifies the beginning of Tiernan’s self-growth. In Colorado, she is challenged by the Van der Berg men, the sexual threat of Terrance Holcomb and the men of town, and the frigid, inhospitable winter landscape. Early on, Tiernan decides to embrace the landscape. She goes out for a hike by herself and immerses herself in a pool. Although she is completely alone, she is “not lonely for once” (110). Tiernan remembers that losing herself in nature and the larger world has always helped her come closer to herself. While Jake and Noah later admonish Tiernan for navigating the elements and the threat of Holcomb by herself, this event marks an important milestone in her journey of self-discovery.
While the sexual and power politics of Tiernan’s relationship with the Van der Bergs, especially Kaleb, are abusive and misogynistic, narratively, they serve as challenges that test Tiernan’s character. Tiernan does not back down against Jake’s control or Kaleb’s violence, and in one intense sequence, she taunts Kaleb for being a baby for throwing oatmeal at her. Later, when Kaleb destroys her work, she takes an axe to her bookcase, her violence signifying that “[n]o one gets that power anymore” (375). The violence represents a purging of her fears and her old self. After this sequence, Kaleb walks off but Tiernan does not follow him. Though she misses him, she also enjoys her life working with Noah and Jake. Later, when Tiernan goes to LA, she notes that her refusal to go back to Kaleb may not make her happy, but “I respect myself, at least” (454). This realization is in stark contrast to Tiernan’s previous need for validation and approval by Jake, Noah, and Kaleb. Thus, by negotiating the challenge that the men represent, Tiernan comes of age.
Isolation and Its Impact on Interpersonal Dynamics
All key characters in the novels feel trapped and isolated at some point in the narrative. Loneliness and its impact therefore constitutes a major theme. Even the exterior landscape mirrors this loneliness, whether it is the sterile, flat grandeur of Tiernan’s LA home or the snow-blanketed isolation of the Van der Berg homestead. The isolation is not just physical but also emotional and spiritual. Tiernan feels isolated even in her boarding school, while Jake, Kaleb, and Noah feel cut-off from humanity despite constantly dating women. Furthermore, Kaleb is shrouded in silence, making him isolated within his family unit. Jake feels isolated from his sons, while Noah feels that his father’s disapproval and control is isolating him from the larger world. Mirai’s loneliness is reflected in the absence of a dating life.
Jake and Noah often refer to the coming winter as a menace and a warning. Noah ruminates that “I need another presence in the house if I’m going to make it through another winter here” (151). The winter becomes the dominant symbol of isolation. The isolation works in other ways as well. Tiernan’s past trauma and the parental neglect she has faced have isolated her from a social network. When a bachelorette party seeks her out on her birthday dinner, she notes that “I have always been awkward with other women” (224). Emotional and social isolation have cut Tiernan off from ties of sisterhood. The extreme isolation of Tiernan and the Van der Bergs manifests in their boundary-crossing behavior with each other. When Tiernan moves in with the Van der Bergs, they immediately cast her in the role of the family’s feminine presence, noting again and again that it is nice to have her around. However, they also immediately sexualize and objectify her, assigning her either to the kitchen or the bedroom. Even the relatively easygoing Noah says at one point that Tiernan is supposed to sexually serve the men of the house after she serves them breakfast.
The transgressions in relationships are pushed to the point that Jake forms a sexual relationship with Tiernan, his ward who is at least two decades younger than him. Noah and Kaleb have sex with Tiernan together, and Tiernan is intimate with a father and his sons. This is boundary-crossing, provocative, and presented as symptomatic of the characters’ deep isolation. Tiernan is also sexually attracted to Jake as soon as he meets him, and then Noah and Kaleb, despite the fact that they are her step-uncle and step-cousins, respectively. Tiernan acknowledges to herself that she craves to belong to the Van der Berg clan so much that her longing transmutes into desire. Jake, Noah, and Kaleb tempt her desire to belong by referring to the ranch as her home, calling her a Van der Berg or “baby Van der Berg” (323). They also call her “ours” (153). Tiernan’s response to these statements is a rush of warmth and love.
Because Tiernan is lonely, she empathizes with deeply troubled and isolated characters like the Van der Bergs. She understands Noah because “Noah doesn’t have a place he belongs […] just like my parents’ house wasn’t a home, neither is the peak for him” (289). The characters’ boundary-crossing sexual behavior becomes a metaphor for the way loneliness warps interpersonal relationships. Significantly, once the characters find a meaningful connection with each other or someone else, their isolation begins to wane. The transgressive relationships begin to resolve into coupled pairings, whether it be Kaleb and Tiernan, Jake or Mirai, or Noah and his passion for racing. Douglas suggests that a true feeling of belonging is the antidote to troubled relationships. Once characters belong to themselves and to others, they begin to heal.
Female Sexuality and Patriarchal Control
If the main plot of Credence centers on Tiernan’s growth as a person, an important feature of this growth is Tiernan’s sexual expression and her pleasure in her body. When Tiernan enters the Van der Berg household, she has not yet dated much or had a sexual relationship. This is not for want of options, as she clarifies to Noah later in the plot. Men and boys have propositioned her in the past, but she did not date them because she did not want to. She had sex with Jake consciously because she “chose” (306). She tells Noah, “I know how to say no” (306). Despite the sexual assault and other exploitative situations that Douglas portrays, Tiernan always asserts her desire, choice, and agency. A key instance of this choice is her rejection of Terrance Holcomb. Though Terrance is attractive and glib, Tiernan does not date him because of her own volition. Later, once she feels partnered with Kaleb, she draws a line against sexual intimacy with Jake and Noah. However, her growing sexual expression occurs in the context of a sexual double standard and patriarchal control. The tension between Tiernan’s assertion of sexual autonomy and the Van der Berg men’s desire to own her sexuality drives much of the plot and is not resolved even by the novel’s happy conclusion.
As Tiernan becomes aware of her physicality and beauty, she expresses herself more freely. For their part, even the Van der Berg men, including Jake, flaunt their sexuality as well, walking bare-chested around the house. Yet, it is Tiernan who is policed for her appearance, and Jake blames his inappropriate desire for Tiernan on her body. While the men have meaningless and derogatory sex with women from town, Tiernan is constantly cautioned to stay chaste, ostensibly for her own safety. Tiernan is well aware of this double standard and inwardly calls Jake a “neanderthal” for his attitude. After Jake walks in on Tiernan getting intimate with Noah and Kaleb, he spanks her as punishment, letting the boys go off scot-free. In the very next chapter, he has sex with Tiernan, suggesting that patriarchal standards censure female sexuality unless the woman’s body is desired for sex.
Kaleb, too, exerts patriarchal control over Tiernan in increasingly abusive ways. He humiliates her and subjects her to degrading behavior, and late in the novel, dumps Tiernan’s birth control. In fact, Noah jokingly suggests that the Van der Bergs can keep Tiernan with them indefinitely by making her pregnant. Tiernan instinctively senses this threat to her bodily autonomy, which is why she renews her prescription in secret. Tiernan takes an acute reading of the patriarchal gender dynamics around her. When Noah and Jake try to link Kaleb’s treatment of her to his silence, Tiernan notes, “it’s his choice how he communicates. Nobody is stopping him from saying what he needs to say” (378).
In keeping with genre conventions, Tiernan gets her happily ever after. By the end, Kaleb apologizes to Tiernan and breaks his silence. Tiernan is shown as in control over her body and sexuality. However, the resolution is not neat, since the novel ends in a heteronormative, monogamous partnership with Tiernan a mother of a toddler at 23. Kaleb gets exactly what he wants, which is for Tiernan to be monogamous with him. The subversive strand of the “why choose” genre—a woman having multiple sexual partners—is neutralized. Tiernan has asserted her choice, but she had to choose between the Van der Berg men. These fissures in the narrative show the difficulty of resolving the tension between female sexual expression and patriarchal control.
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