49 pages • 1 hour read
Ugly Love
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Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Miles, Six Years Ago”
Rachel and Miles are happily living together. Rachel has some strange pain as she nears her due date, and Miles takes her to the hospital. She gives birth to a baby boy, and Miles names him Clayton after their English teacher’s surname; Miles and Rachel first met when he was supposed to lead her to Mr. Clayton’s class. Miles is in awe of the baby and loves Rachel even more now that she is the mother of his child. He has his own family now.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Tate”
After her shift, Tate has pizza with Cap and chats about Miles and her brother. Cap tells her he thinks Miles has more feelings for her than he’ll say but that she shouldn’t expect more than what they agreed. Tate realizes Cap is her best friend.
In the middle of the night, Corbin’s house phone rings, which is unusual. Tate answers, and her mom asks if she’s heard from Corbin. There’s been a plane crash on his airline. Tate calls Miles, and he comes to her apartment. He makes a call to find out who the crew was on the flight that crashed. Miles tells her Corbin is okay and talks to her mom to reassure her. Soon, Tate gets a text from Corbin, confirming he’s okay. Tate is really grateful for Miles. They have sex on the couch and in her bed, and they fall asleep together. When Miles’s dad calls to check on Miles, Tate realizes how little she knows about her lover. She pretends to be asleep, and Miles discreetly leaves.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Miles, Six Years Ago”
Rachel asks Miles about how he’ll handle parenting their son if he’s gay, doesn’t believe in God, or ends up a murderer. Miles asserts that he’ll always be there for their child. Rachel smiles and notes it’s time for their son’s circumcision. Miles has a heart-to-heart with Clayton about the circumcision before the baby is taken away for the procedure. Miles and Rachel kiss, and Miles thinks about how real their relationship is now.
Later, once Rachel and Clayton are asleep in the hospital room, Miles’s dad comes to visit and tells Miles he’s proud of him. Miles’s dad also wants to tell him something about Lisa and his mom. Miles doesn’t want to think about anything but his perfect family of Rachel and Clayton, but he will listen to his dad anyway.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Tate”
Miles invites Tate to the rooftop pool. Tate asks him questions about himself, but Miles puts up walls again. He wants to know if they should stop seeing each other. He tells her he isn’t capable of loving anyone, but if he could, he would love her. Once again, Tate lies and says she’s okay with their arrangement as it is.
Cap comes up and sees them, referring to them as a cute couple. Miles bristles, and Tate confronts Miles about how rude he is to Cap. Miles is amused that Tate likes Cap. He explains that he doesn’t like answering questions but won’t be impolite to Cap in the future. Miles changes the subject by gently biting Tate’s bottom lip. He wants to leave the pool and have wet, post-shower sex in his bed. Tate agrees because she’ll take whatever he gives her.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Miles, Six Years Ago”
Miles and his dad sit in the waiting room. His dad explains that he and Miles’s mom planned to get divorced before they found out about her illness. After, he couldn’t leave her. He didn’t start dating Lisa until they had already agreed to split up, which was some time before the diagnosis. He tells Miles his mom would be proud of how he’s managed the situation with Rachel. Miles and his dad embrace.
Chapters 26-30 Analysis
In the flashback chapters, events have a harmonious progression: Miles and Rachel have baby Clayton, and Miles makes amends with his father. This section would almost be anticlimactic without any other context, but Hoover has made it clear through consistent foreshadowing and Miles’s characterization that something tragic is about to happen to ruin his relationship with Rachel. The tension between the beautiful normalcy Miles is experiencing in the past and the knowledge of an imminent event to follow creates a foreboding mood. Through this juxtaposition, Hoover thematically develops The Duality of Pleasure and Pain. In tandem, Hoover develops the narrative tension by contrasting the comfortable, fragile peace of Miles’s past with his emotionally dysfunctional present. In the past, things aren’t perfect, but Miles achieves a sense of acceptance and ease; he gets the reassurance from his father that his mom would be proud of him.
In the present, Miles uses sex to control his relationship with Tate. The theme of Fear and Control as Roadblocks to love emerges as a recourse to Miles’s unknown trauma. Meanwhile, Tate becomes more unsatisfied with their arrangement as she continually sacrifices her emotional needs for physical intimacy: “And once again, what should have been an eye-opening conversation for me is shoved aside to make room for the only thing he’s willing to give me” (257). Tate wants so much more with Miles than just sex, no matter how much she tries to suppress her feelings. Ultimately, she wants to feel a reciprocal emotional vulnerability with “real Miles,” underscoring the theme of Relationship Boundaries Versus Emotional Walls.
Hoover juxtaposes Tate’s self-loathing and dissatisfaction with Miles’s unknown, painful past to create dramatic tension and suspense. The resolution between Miles and his father signifies that the lingering trauma Miles experiences is not directly related to the loss of his mother. Hoover offers this clarity during the novel’s rising action to build toward the climactic circumstances surrounding baby Clayton’s death.
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By Colleen Hoover
