Grief/closure

Loss and grief are the two principal themes. How the characters——especially Caitlin Smith and her father——respond to these losses and carry on with their lives provides the narrative and dramatic tension. For Caitlin's father, the primary issue becomes survival itself: how, and why, must he go on living after losing both his wife and son to premature death? He is so hammered by the random shooting of his son Devon at school that his powers of concentration and even rational thought become severely impaired. When Caitlin most needs her father for support, he is simply unavailable at first. Caitlin is fortunate to have a teacher and school counselor who are both compassionate and dedicated to her survival, which is complicated by the fact she suffers from Asperger's Syndrome that isolates her from others. In the initial days after the death of...