In Jalil, Applegate presents an extraordinary figure whose contradictions motivate him and can destroy him. Jalil suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, a disorder that he recognizes and is educated about, that compels him to wash his hands seven times in a row. It is part of what makes him miserable while on Earth, but it does not afflict him in Everworld: Over there, in Everworld, in that mad place, that lunatic asylum, that universe where gods feed on human hearts, where wolves could grow to the size of city buses, that universe of dragons where Senna Wales had drawn me, over there I could lie asleep, aware of the itching of fleas, aware of the dirt under my fingernails, aware of the filth all around me, and still sleep.

Yet, Everworld makes Jalil miserable because it defies his desire for logic and order in life...