New York City

New York City is where Felix lives and goes to school, and where almost the entirety of the novel takes place. Callender writes from their own experience living in New York City, and explicitly refers to the names of streets, neighborhoods, subway lines, and subway stops. Felix lives in Harlem with his father, and goes to school in Brooklyn where he used to live before having to leave due to rising rent prices. The novel takes place in the summer time, mostly in June, which is Pride month. Therefore, in the novel, New York has many Pride decorations and banners everywhere, and the novel’s climax is the Pride Parade. While the year is not explicitly mentioned in the novel, it is presumed to a recent year before COVID-19, based on the references to modern pop culture and technology, and no reference to the virus.

St. Catherine’s (St. Cats)