Outer Maroo is literally off the map of Western Queensland. Of course, the literal stench of Outer Maroo is meant to represent its moral decay, and in this respect Hospital's description of her setting is well done. With its putrescent heat, eccentric townsfolk, and unhealthy isolation, Outer Maroo evokes an eeriness reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, the kind in which we know that everyone is implicated in a terrible evil but not what this evil might be. We almost never see the novel's antihero or his cult, just those rough townsfolk skulking around on its periphery. And the novel's many temporal shifts add to the confusion.
Mercy is an interesting character, though also a bit opaque.
She seems wimpy and determined by turns. Mainly, she wants to leave Outer Maroo, and in the course of the novel's events, endeavors to find the strength to do so. In these instances and elsewhere, abstractions are personified to nearly laughable effect. Then there's the false dialogue. Nearly everyone in this novel stutters with anxiety, as if people withholding evil truths, or suspicious of them, must speak in ellipses.