We didn’t need to reveal why we’d been playing in the first place. It didn’t have to be spoken aloud that our association with them diminished us and compromised our personal integrity.
-- Evie (Narration) (chapter 1)

Importance: This excerpt of narration defines some of the integral dynamics between the teens and the adults. The teens have developed a game that involves keeping the identities of their parents’ secret. This game allows the teens to create further metaphorical distance between themselves and their parents. Throughout the novel, the teens continually attempt to assert their independence.

I was coming to grips with the end of the world. The familiar world, anyway. Many of us were. Scientists said it was ending now.
-- Evie (Narration) (chapter 2)

Importance: A major plot point of the novel involves the potential beginning of ecological collapse. This plot point is based in the fact that human-made climate change is gradually destabilizing the environment. As the...