The trope about characters in a story coming to life is something that I've seen in other horror fiction--and in plays such as Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author." It was impossible trying to decide if the fictional character here was merely a figment of the imagination or real--obviously, she outlives the writer. And, she murders him, but it is mostly out of desperation and fear for her own life. I don't think that the writer intended for her to be a sympathetic character, but I did have a modicum of sympathy for her. And the jealousy of the author when the idea of the ghost writer falling in love with Clarissa and her having his baby is priceless!