This book contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Trina and Kyle's stepfather Chris is strict and violent, to the point where Trina kills him in self-defense.
- Bilingual Backfire: Jeremy and Anthony talk about Trina in sign language, upon which she reveals she also knows sign language.
- Dead All Along: Miranda died before the events of the book, and the other characters were only talking to her ghost.
- Deadly Book: The book given to Trina by the preacher. Reading the words aloud can ward off monsters, but it also negatively affects the reader. Reading from the book too much ends up killing Trina.
- Demonic Possession: Dahut has been possessing Lucy Callow for decades. She then possesses Sara, who fights Dahut enough that Dahut moves to Becca, erasing Sara's memories of the event. She's eventually exorcised with Ashford's help.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Mel angrily ends a date with Sophia when Sophia mocks Vanessa's stutter.
- Dwindling Party: As the group of nine travels the road, many are killed by its dangers. By the end, only four survive: Mel, Sara, Kyle, and Becca.
- Enchanted Forest: Every year, a mysterious road appears in the Briar Glen woods. On it are various supernatural dangers.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Eldritch Abomination that Dahut is trying to free from the gate at Ys. The main characters stop her from releasing it, keeping it imprisoned at the end of the road.
- Horror Hates a Rulebreaker: Breaking the rules of the road attracts monsters. However, some of the main characters are able to survive breaking a rule.
- I Will Find You: Sara ventures onto the road in an attempt to find her sister Becca, who disappeared there a year ago.
- Kill and Replace: Creatures called 'Echoes' lead people off the road in the darkness and then impersonate them. This happens to Vanessa.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- Vanessa is killed and replaced by an imposter, or 'Echo'. When the group finds out, the Echo kills Nick, then erases the others' memories of this event and Nick's existence.
- Lucy/Dahut erases Sara's memories of Miranda telling her not to trust Lucy.
- Oblivious to Love: Mel and Sara both have crushes on each other which they think are unrequited.
- Once More, with Clarity: Sara's memories are tampered with by Vanessa's Echo and Dahut, and the untrue memories are shown in her written testimony. The book then describes video footage of the events, showing what actually happened.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Sara gets suspicious when she notices that Vanessa has stopped stuttering, indicating that she has been replaced by an Echo.
- Revealing Continuity Lapse: Nine people enter the road to find Becca. In chapter 8 of Sara's written testimony, she describes the group hearing a scream and investigating to find only a bird. Nothing else happens in the chapter, but at the end it mentions eight people continuing the journey. It turns out that one of them was killed, and the others' memories of his existence were erased.
- Scrapbook Story: The book is presented as a case file, with written testimony, interviews, descriptions of video evidence, and various other documents relating to the events.
- Shout-Out: Upon seeing the road, Anthony remarks "Even larks and katydids".
- By the end Sarah says more recognizable quote from the same book: 'Whatever walked there, walked alone.'
- Stay on the Path: One of the rules of the road is not to leave it while traveling. When Sara briefly runs off the road, a monster is attracted to the group's location.
- Unreliable Narrator: Many examples in Sara's written testimony:
- Her memories of Nick Dessen have been erased entirely, so her testimony doesn't include him at all. He only appears on the road in video evidence.
- Dahut attempts to erase Sara's memory of a conversation with Miranda, leading to Sara destroying portions of her testimony, believing them to be incorrect. However, she is eventually able to recover the memory.
- The testimony describes Anthony choosing to stay on the road so Sara and Becca can escape. This turns out to be a fake memory given to Sara by Dahut. Video evidence shows that Dahut possessed Becca and killed Anthony.
- Word-Salad Horror: Both the words in Becca's notebook and the ones written by the well are cryptic and disturbing.
the gate of sin lies shut until the wicked are bled they bleed the wicked they take them they are given the toll is blood DAHUT OPENS THE GATES THE SEA RUSHES IN
